NCJ Number
196796
Date Published
2002
Length
191 pages
Annotation
This document presents the annual report of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct in the year 2001.
Abstract
The number of complaints received by the Commission in the past decade has substantially increased compared to the first 17 years of the Commission’s existence. The Commission received 1,308 new complaints in 2001. Preliminary inquiries were conducted in 340 of these, requiring the steps of interviewing attorneys involved, analyzing court files, and reviewing trial transcripts. The Commission authorized full-fledged investigations in 208 matters. The Commission disposed of the combined total of 353 investigations for outright dismissals, letters of dismissal and caution, judge resignation, judge retirement or failure to win re-election, authorization of formal charges, and pending investigations. The Commission’s investigations, hearings, and dispositions in the past year involved judges at various levels of the State unified court system. The commission rendered 26 formal disciplinary determinations: 11 censures and 15 admonitions. Thirteen of the 26 respondents disciplined were non-lawyer judges, and 13 were lawyer-judges. Sixteen of the respondents were part-time town or village justices, and 10 were judges of higher courts. Letters of Dismissal and Caution were issued for improper ex parte communications, political activity, conflict of interest, inappropriate demeanor, failure to comply with the law, and audit and control procedures. Commission staff litigated various procedural issues. One such issue resulted in an amendment of the Commission’s Operating Procedures and Rules. The amendment concerned criteria on which a motion to reconsider a disciplinary determination must be based. Others were raised in civil litigation.