Fall From Grace

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct determined that a city court judge elected in 2014 should be removed from office.

The commission summarized its conclusions.

Judge Astacio was convicted of DWI in August 2016, in an episode that commenced when she was found in her seriously damaged car on the side of the road. She aggravated the situation by her profane and angry reaction to the investigating trooper, and by invoking her judicial office in an attempt to evade the consequences of her arrest. The judge was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge.

In the next months, she was found to have violated the terms of her conditional sentence on two occasions. In November 2016 she pled guilty to attempting to start and operate her vehicle while testing positive for alcohol on the ignition interlock device in her car.

In May 2017 she failed to provide a court-ordered alcohol test and failed to appear in court as ordered, having departed for a lengthy trip to Thailand. Her conditional sentence for Driving While Intoxicated was revoked and she was sentenced to 60  days in jail and three years’ probation.

The Commission also found that Judge Astacio engaged in misconduct on the bench by failing to disqualify herself from conducting the arraignment of a former client and by making discourteous, insensitive and undignified comments from the bench while presiding over three cases. For example, (1) she told a sheriff’s deputy that he should “tase” or “shoot” or “punch” an allegedly obstreperous  defendant “in the face” and (2) in a sexual abuse case, she laughed when the defendant’s attorney said that the alleged victim had “buyer’s remorse” and later said she thought the comment was “freakin hilarious” even while acknowledging that the prosecutor was “offended.”

 The relevant documents are linked here.

A  lengthy and thought provoking report from the Democrat & Chronicle. (Mike Frisch)