Riding In Cars With Defendants

A town court justice was censured by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct for, among other things, his involvement with a DUI defendant

In sum, respondent’s handling of the Matus case was inconsistent with numerous fundamental ethical principles. Viewed objectively, the totality of his conduct chatting with a defendant about his case during a ride in a police car, recommending that the defendant retain a lawyer with whom the judge had a business relationship, and granting the relief requested by the defendant even after respondent had indicated he could not handle the case breached the appropriate boundaries between a judge and a litigant and thereby created “a very public appearance of impropriety” (Referee’s report 13), which adversely affects public confidence in the judiciary as a whole.

He also imposed fines in excess of the allowable maximum and made improper political contributions. (Mike Frisch)