Judge Admonished For Threats Of Contempt, Mistrial

The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished a judge who

without basis in law, threatened to:

( 1) hold an assistant district attorney in contempt of court if the defendant was arrested for threatening a witness in the case, (2) declare a mistrial with prejudice if the defendant was arrested, and (3) impose financial sanctions upon the District Attorney’s Office if a mistrial was declared because of the arrest. Respondent also yelled and acted in a discourteous manner toward the assistant district attorney.

The misconduct took place during the trial of a man accused of raping his daughter.

After testifying, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend alleged

Ms. Joseph completed her testimony before court was recessed for lunch. Toward the end of the luncheon recess, and before trial resumed, there was an off-the- record conference during which ADA Nugent informed respondent that the defendant, who was free on bail, had allegedly approached Ms. Joseph as she was leaving the courthouse during the lunch break and said to her, “You’re dead.” ADA Nugent also informed respondent that Ms. Joseph had been taken to the g4th Precinct stationhouse to make a complaint against the defendant.

The judge threatened the ADA over the possibility of a mid-trial arrest of the defendant

Let’s make something crystal clear, People. Today is Friday. We are going to finish the People’s case now with this last witness. The defense case is supposed to start on Monday. If you were to have .. . Mr. Bartholomew arrested any time between now and Monday … Mr. Bartholomew … would not be in a position to prepare his defense.

If there is a mistrial, if this case has to be delayed because you have unnecessarily and unjustifiably prevented the defendant from seeing his attorney and preparing his defense and this matter has to be adjourned, I will consider, one, financial sanctions against your office. And number two, I will certainly consider a mistrial with prejudice.

As a result

Although the police intended and were prepared to arrest the defendant promptly for threatening Ms. Joseph’s life, they delayed doing so because of respondent’s statements. Respondent sentenced the defendant to 15 years in prison and 20 years of post-release supervision. After sentence was imposed, the police arrested and charged the defendant with menacing, a B misdemeanor, having a maximum possible sentence of 90 days in jail. However, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office chose not to prosecute the defendant on the menacing charge and it was dismissed for failure to prosecute. Notably, the prosecution had never requested an Order of Protection on behalf of Joleane Joseph in the three years this case had been pending trial, nor did they do so at the time they represented she had been allegedly threatened by the defendant Mr. Bartholomew.

The commission

regardless of whether [the judge]  intended to follow through on the threats he made, the threats were inappropriate since he had no lawful basis to act on them. Such statements to a prosecutor – especially by a judge who “yelled” and spoke in “a raised voice” – are highly intimidating and could only be perceived as a serious warning of very significant consequences, including a mistrial with prejudice in a case involving a serious crime. As respondent has acknowledged, his discourteous conduct was inconsistent with the required standards of judicial behavior.

The agreed statement of facts is linked here. (Mike Frisch)