What were the other 300+ complaints for and how were they resolved by the NYS Commission for Judicial Conduct

On January 15, 2015 I received two dismissals of my two meritorious complaints of judicial misconduct, described here and here.

Here they are:

The only differences between these letters are:

(1) dates of filing of the complaints - April 2, 2014 (complaint against Judge Cahill) in the 1st complaint and November 17, 2014 as to the 2nd complaint (complaint against Judges Coccoma, Mulvey, Cahill), and

(2) file numbers.

Otherwise the letters are identical and constitute form letters that the Commission uses to toss citizens' complaints of judicial misconduct, no matter how meritorious.

What caught my attention were these file numbers.

I filed complaints in 2014 against several judges, but my complaints were surely in the single digits.

The file numbers of the complaint filed in November of 2014 were 327-329 (Judges Coccoma, Mulvey, Becker).

Where did the remaining 320 complaints come from and for what?

If a person is sued in civil court for any perceived wrongdoing, or if a person is charged with a crime and is still covered with presumption of innocence, the news is still all over the Internet and are not withdrawn even if criminal charges/civil lawsuits are dismissed.

What we are talking about here is a matter of grave public concern, of 329 complaints filed with the New York State Commission for Judicial Conduct by November 17, 2014 - and only 12 decisions of discipline rendered in the whole year of 2014, a whopping 3.6% prosecution rate.

Apparently, all other complaints were frivolous?

If those complaints were like mine - which were supported by documentary evidence and affidavits of witnesses - it is high time for the feds to turn their eyes to what is going on in the NYS Commission for Judicial Conduct.

Do not expect the Legislature to act and introduce legislation making such proceedings transparent, efficient and allowing members of the public (instead of attorneys and judges) to be the judge of what constitutes judicial misconduct.

There are several senators on the Legislature (such as Senator Breslin and Senator Nozzolio) who are employed (same as Sheldon Silver was) by law firms whose partners are hearing officers in the Commission for Judicial Conduct - which creates a huge appearance that the Commission tosses complaints in order to gain favors from judges by members or potential hearing officers of the Commission who decided not to prosecute certain judges after all.

I already described in this blog the controversy when Attorney Stephen R. Coffey of O'Connell and Aronowitz, PC was the Vice-Chair of the Commission for Judicial Conduct and reviewed, as part of the Commission, my complaint against Judge Becker for conduct where Stephen R. Coffey himself ws involved as an attorney.  By the way, the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department Karen Peters was on the Commission at the time of the complaint against Judge Becker and against her own court, too.

Neither one of them resigned from reviewing the complaint against Becker, even though:

(1) Stephen R. Coffey was disqualified as a participant in the events complained about; and.
(2) Karen Peters was the Chief Judge of the court that was to hear my appeal from sanctions imposed by Becker that were subject of the complaint, and
(3) Karen Peters was the Chief Judge of the Court that was subject of my other complaint filed in the fall of 2009 when the Appellate Division 3rd Department resolved a case based on the opposing counsel's testimony during oral argument outside of the Record on Appeal, a clear judicial and attorney misconduct that the 3rd Department had the audacity to document in a separate footnote as the basis for its decision.

The complaints were dismissed by the Commission where members were clearly disqualified by conflicts of interest, both Karen Peters and Stephen Coffey disappeared from the Commission after that, but (1) I was sanctioned by Judge Becker for raising these issues in a motion to recuse and am now in the middle of a disciplinary proceedings BECAUSE I raised this potential corruption as an issue; and (2) sanctions against me imposed by Becker were affirmed by Karen Peters' court while Karen Peters' court ignored a whole transcript showing an ex parte communication between Judge Becker and then Delaware County Attorney, Becker's former boss of 27 years (not to mention that the Plaintiff was Becker's undisclosed personal friend) and refused to punish attorney Stephen R. Coffey for disclosing without permission of the sentencing court sealed pre-sentencing report of a party.

To any impartial and reasonable observer the "appearance of impropriety", to put it mildly, was staggering, but, since there is no accountability and since large law firms, judges complained about to the Commission for Judicial Conduct and the Commission itself are joined through employment and fraternity ties, the only result is that all complaints against judges are quietly and "confidentially" tossed and critics of judicial misconduct (like me) are persecuted and their livelihood is threatened or eliminated.

I return to my question - who were the judges against whom complaints were filed, what were the complaints and why such a low percentage of filed complaints are prosecuted and brought to discipline by the Commission of Judicial Conduct in New York?

Here is a summary table of dispositions imposing discipline by the Commission of Judicial Conduct in 2014.

No.	Name of Judge		Name of Court	Is the judge an attorney? Y/N	Judicial Discipline	Reason for discipline	Public attorney discipline? Y/N
1		Ackerson, Richard H.	Suffern Village Court, Rockland County	Yes, year of admission 1967, educated at private Rutgers Law School	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Suffering from a medical condition that interfered with his ability to perform the duties associated with his judicial office	None The question is – if Mr. Ackerson cannot discharge his judicial office, how can he work as an attorney?
2		Blaine, Robert J.	Prattsville Town Court, Greene County	No	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	An audit Of the court by NYS Comptroller found multiple  financial irregularities in the court accounts and insufficient oversight By the judge over court clerk	N/A
3		Brown, Arlene M.	Bennington Town Court, Wyoming County	No	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Allegations of lack of integrity, impartiality, conflicts of interest, failure to disqualify herself when her impartiality could reasonably be questioned, failure to afford parties opportunity to be heard as required by law	N/A
4		Burke, Edward D. Sr	Southampton Town Court, Suffolk County	Yes, 1969, private St. Hohn's Law School	Censure	Rode in a police car With a defendant after arraigning him, recommended that he hire an attorney who was the judge's business partner, gave the defendant legal advice and thereafter presided over his case;  used his judicial title to promote his law firm and business; imposed  fines that exceeded the maximum authorized by law; made improper political contributions	None, continues to practice as a partner in his own law firm Burke & Sullivan PC
5		Crandall, Philip A.	Coeymans Town Court, Ravena Village Court, Albany County	No	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Improperly intervened into and granted a lenient disposition to friend's son, friend was member of Coeymans Town Court Board;  failed to disqualify himself from his brother-in-law's case and granted a lenient disposition to b-i-l; failed to disqualify himself from the speeding ticket case of a member of Coeyman Town Board who determined the judge's salary; intervened into and invoked his judicial office in a police dispute with his daughter and son-in-law	N/A
6		Gumo, Richard L.	Delhi Town Court, Walton Village Court, Delaware County	Yes, 1967, Brooklyn Law School	Admonition	Attempted to intervene into appeal from a criminal case where he presided as an advocate, citing to evidence outside the record in a letter to appellate judge, failed to disclose that court clerk's daughter was the main witness of the prosecution	None
7		BARRY KAMINS	Supreme Court, Queens County	Yes, 1969, private Rutgers Law School	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Giving, through e-mails from official court e-mail account,  inappropriate political campaign advice to the District Attorney Hynes while being administrative judge of criminal courts	None
8		Donald G. Lustyik	Norfolk Town Court, St. Lawrence County	No	Admonition	Lent the prestige of his Office to Advance private Interests by Witnessing a Written statement Using his Judicial title In a matter unrelated to any matter pending in his court.	N/A
9		Robert P. Merino	Niagara Falls City Court, Niagara County	Yes, 1973, Cleveland State Univ. School of Law	Admonition	Compromised a Spanish-speaking tenant's right to be heard by failing to appoint an interpreter	None
10		William E. Montgomery	Colden Town Court, Erie County	Yes, 1983, California Western	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Facilitated The filing Of a designating Petition for His candidacy For elective Judicial office That was Falsely notarized And thereafter neither refused the nomination nor withdrew his candidacy; arraigned a defendant on alcohol-related charges, then drove her home and continued to preside on her case till disposition	None
11		Andrew Norman Piraino	Salina Town Court, Onondaga County	Yes, 1983, private Albany Law School	Censure	Imposed fines/surcharges which either exceeded maximum amounts or were below the minimum amounts, and failed to supervise court clerks	None
12		Domenick J. Porco	Eastchester Town Court, Westchester County	Yes, 1977	Resigned from the bench on a stipulation not to seek judicial office in the future	Did not sufficiently oversee and approve dispositions in traffic cases	None

Overview of the table shows the following:

Out of 12 judges disciplined in 2014, only 1 was a judge of a court higher than the level of the justice court - Barry Kamins of the Queens County Supreme Court who was caught in using official court e-mail in giving political campaign advice to the district attorney and discussing potential political statements of a defense attorney to members of attorney's religious congregation.

Out of 12 judges disciplined in 2014, 8 were licensed attorneys - Ackerson, Burke, Gumo, Kamins, Merino, Montgomery, Piraino, Porco.

Out of 4 non-attorney judges disciplined in 2014 (Blaine, Brown, Crandall, Lustyik), 3 were taken off the bench and one received an admonition, that is 75% rate of taking off the bench for non-attorney judges disciplined in 2014.

Out of 8 attorney-judges disciplined in 2014, 4 judges were taken off the bench, 2 were admonished and 2 was censured, that is 50% rate of taking off the bench of attorney judges disciplined in 2014.

Ackerson  -               resigned
Burke       -                censured
Gumo       -               admonished
Kamins    -                resigned
Merino     -                admonished
Montgomery  -          resigned
Piraino  -                   censured
Porco   -                    resigned

The most interesting case of discipline in the table is the case of Judge (attorney) Burke.  Judge Burke's law firm made $7,500 in political contributions that the judge (or his firm) had no right to be making, as a sitting judge may not be engaged in political activities.  Moreover, the judge rode with a criminal defendant in a car, recommended his business partner for defendant as defendant's counsel (and defendant did hire Judge Burke's business partner as counsel), advertised on the website of his law firm his virtues as a judge and thus presented to the public that he is getting business out of his public office.

For all of that - censure?  And no attorney discipline?

I guess, campaign contributions, inappropriate as they were, worked after all.