Sullivan Town Court Judge Resigns Over Tirade at Teenager

By E. C. GOGOLAK

Published: June 18, 2013

On several occasions during the summer of 2011, someone stole money from a farm stand that James P. Roman operated on his property in Madison County, N.Y. Convinced he had found the culprit that August, Mr. Roman, a justice of the nearby Sullivan Town Court, decided to take action, according to a complaint filed last year by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

 

What followed was an obscenity-ridden confrontation during which, according to the complaint, Mr. Roman pushed a 15-year-old boy to the ground, took his bike, threw it in the boy’s yard and threatened him with a baseball bat.

On Tuesday, the commission, the state agency that disciplines judges, announced that Mr. Roman had agreed to resign from his post. He also agreed never to seek or accept judicial office again.

Neither Mr. Roman nor his lawyer, Alan J. Pope, returned calls for comment on Tuesday.

Mr. Roman filed a response to the complaint in October 2012 in which he admitted using “harsh words and expletives,” damaging the boy’s bicycle and telling him to stay off his property. But he denied that he had pushed the boy off the bicycle or used a baseball bat “in a menacing manner.”

Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator and counsel for the commission, said in a phone interview on Tuesday: “It is clearly improper for a judge who is obliged to uphold the law to act outside the courtroom in a manner that disrespects the law and takes disputes to such an extreme level. Mr. Roman recognized that in deciding to leave the bench.”

Mr. Roman had been a justice at the Town Court in Sullivan since 1998 and has also worked as a lawyer. Unlike judges in state and federal district courts, justices in town and village courts, who make up two-thirds of the state judiciary and try misdemeanor cases and lawsuits, do not work full time; nor are they required to have a law degree. Critics have long tried to overhaul New York’s town and village courts.

Judges in state and district courts and justices in town and village courts have been disciplined at roughly the same rates, according to Mr. Tembeckjian.

Roughly 1,800 complaints are made against judges in New York each year, and it is not uncommon for the commission to discipline or even remove members of the state judiciary for behavior off the bench. About half of the commission’s disciplinary measures resulted from conduct by a judge outside of the courtroom and not directly related to judicial duties, Mr. Tembeckjian said. He gave examples ranging from a judge using the influence of judicial office to evade a speeding ticket to the recent case of a judge in Syracuse accused of engaging in sexual activity with his 5-year-old niece.

Critics Say Bill Does Little To Make Judges More Accountable

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By Shelley Kofler

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Credit SalFalko

The Texas Senate and House have passed legislation that’s supposed to rein in judges who are abusing or misusing their authority.
It’s a problem KERA looked at last year in a special series, Texas Judges: Out of Order.

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  On the House floor last Friday it took less than five minutes to pass Senate Bill 209, legislation designed to make the State Commission on Judicial Conduct more effective.
The Commission’s job is to ensure the state’s 3,900 judges comply with standards in the Texas constitution.
The commission is responsible for investigating complaints and is supposed to issue sanctions or recommend removal when a judge’s misconduct goes too far.
But Andrew Wheat of Texans for Public Justice says the commission rarely punishes anyone.
“Our judicial conduct commission has operated as a kind of black box,” said Wheat.
“All but the worst punishments of judges for all but the worst abuses are kept secret from the public,” he said.
And Wheat isn’t sure this legislation is going to change that.
In KERA’s recent series, we reported that in 2011 the judicial commission dismissed most of the 1,100 complaints it received. A little over two dozen judges were sanctioned, but no one knew who they were because it was all done in private.  Only six were publicly scolded but they kept their jobs.
Wheat agrees this bill makes progress by allowing voters to change the state constitution and allow harsher penalties for judges.
The legislation also gives lawmakers access to information previously withheld, so they can periodically review the commission and determine whether it’s doing its job.
The bill also requires commissioners to hold public hearings and to clearly explain “why” when they dismiss a citizen’s complaint.
But Wheat says some big things are still missing. Judges still won’t have to release the kind of information other public officials must disclose under the Texas Public Information Act
“In a sense we are saying we are going to allow the judges to self-enforce what information they want to make public and I don’t see why the judiciary should be held to a different standard if in fact these are politicians who run for office in partisan campaigns and take campaign money,” said Wheat.
A Fort Worth woman KERA identified as Angela in our series told us the commission refused her open records request to see other complaints about a family court judge she thought was biased.
And Angela says she couldn’t prove to the commission that the judge was verbally abusive because there was no court record- associate judges aren’t required to record their proceedings.  Angela wishes the legislation had changed that.
“I think the next step is that they make it a law to put digital recording devices in every associate and district court in Texas”, said Angela who asked us not to use her real name because her custody case is still in the courts.
“I think it would really put these judges in a system where they would behave in a better manner, because they would know you could pull those recordings any time,” she said.
One of the bill’s authors, Sen. Robert Nichols, a Jacksonville Republican, says the legislation tries to balance the need for transparency with the need to keep the courts running smoothly.
“If you publicly chastise a sitting judge you really damage his ability to preside,” said Nichols. “It really messes up the whole court.”
Nichols says citizens can get rid of bad judges.  Just vote them out.    
Wheat and Angela say that will only happen when citizens have more information about their judges, and they believe this bill is only a modest first step.
The Commission on Judicial Conduct declined to comment on how it could be affected by the new legislation.
Executive Director Seana said previously it’s just following the Texas Constitution and the Texas Government Code when it refuses to disclose information about judges.

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Texas Legislature

Judges

Commission on Judicial Conduct

Senate Bill 209

Texans for Public Justice

Sen. Robert Nichols

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