Ruptured Confidence

The New York Court of Appeals approved the removal from office of a judge.

Petitioner’s misconduct in her personal activities stemmed from her conviction for a misdemeanor offense of driving while intoxicated, for which she was sentenced to a one year conditional discharge (see 22 NYCRR 100.2 [A]). She was discourteous (see 22 NYCRR 100.4 [A] [2]), sought preferred treatment from the arresting officers (see 22 NYCRR 100.2 [C]), and violated the terms of her conditional discharge by ignoring orders of the court and leaving the country for an extended vacation without notice to the court or her lawyer (see 22 NYCRR 100.2 [A]). After a hearing on her second violation of her conditional discharge, petitioner’s conditional discharge was revoked, and she was re-sentenced to 60 days incarceration and three years’ probation.

Petitioner also violated the Rules of Judicial Conduct in the course of exercising her judicial duties when she failed to disqualify herself from presiding over the arraignment of a former client and attempted to exercise her discretion to have his case transferred in a manner which she thought might benefit him (see 22 NYCRR 100.3 [E] [1] [a] [i]). On other occasions, petitioner made discourteous, insensitive, and undignified comments before counsel and litigants in court (see 22 NYCRR 100.3 [B] [3]).

Attitude was an issue

Given petitioner’s apparent lack of insight into the gravity and impact of her behavior on both public perception of her fitness to perform her duties and on the judiciary overall, we conclude that any rupture in the public’s confidence cannot be repaired.

Democrat & Chronicle reported that she was recently indicted on weapons charges. (Mike Frisch)