A complaint has been filed against Judges Kevin M. Dowd of Chenango County Supreme Court and against Joseph F. Cawley of Broome County Court

A defense counsel receives evidence from plaintiffs' counsel, on the eve of a jury trial, that the judge and his personnel are witnesses in the case.

The defense counsel subpoenas the judge and his personnel as witnesses at the trial.

The judge (Judge Dowd) refuses to recuse and continues to control evidence and interfere with subpoening witnesses to prevent impeachment of credibility of Plaintiffs' evidence.

In order to do that, Judge Dowd accepts filings of letters instead of affidavits from politically connected attorneys directly into his chambers, while the court may not review any submissions in the nature of motions unless they are first filed in the county clerk's office of the county where the case is litigated.

I have evidence showing that nothing has been filed in the county, yet Judge Dowd accepted letters-in-lieu-of-pleadings by fax and mail directly into his chambers and relied upon such papers, even though, once again, Judge Dowd had no authority to review any pleadings or papers filed in substitution of pleadings that were not filed first with the county clerk's office.

Judge Dowd also involved another judge, Judge Joseph F. Cawley of the Broome County Court, in his wrongdoing.

Apparently, communicating with a judge who has been called as a witness in a proceeding, tainted Judge Cawley and made him a witness in the same proceedings.

Moreover, transfer of files to Judge Cawley in support of the "Order to Show Cause" that Judge Cawley signed while Judge Dowd remained on the case and while there is no order of assignment of Judge Cawley to the case, was done "chambers-to-chambers", without initial filing with the Delaware County Clerk's office, and without return of the files by Judge Dowd back to the court clerk to be transferred to another judge.

Apparently, no procedural constraints exist when judges want to protect somebody's misconduct, including their own.

Well, hopefully, the NYS Commission of Judicial Conduct must investigate now.  If they do not, I will simply include Judge Dowd's and Judge Cawley's misconduct into the case study of judicial misconduct in my upcoming book on the subject.

Litigants and attorneys appearing in front of Judge Dowd! Be on the alert as to how the judge accepts filings from your opponents, especially if your attorneys are well-connected attorneys who the judge appears to favor.   I would suggest always checking with the County Clerk of the county where your case is litigated (if you are in the Supreme Court).  This judge has a pattern of bypassing the law on filing with attorneys he favors.

Voters, when Judge Cawley comes up for re-election, note that he is only luring you with promises of how good and law-abiding he is up until he gets on that bench.  Then, apparently, what another judge (witness in the proceedings) directs him to do, controls.