New York’s judicial watchdog has voted to censure Westchester County Supreme Courtroom Justice Linda S. Jamieson for failing to reveal a money mortgage she had made to an affiliate, a uncommon rebuke for a sitting decide.
In recommending her censure, the Fee on Judicial Conduct additionally discovered that Jamieson pressured an legal professional representing the affiliate to make it simpler to gather on the mortgage.
“Decide Jamieson’s intentional failure to report a $50,000 money mortgage, for 13 years, was staggering, and her explanations had been unsatisfactory,” stated CJC Administrator Robert Tembeckjian in a press release. “She critically compounded her preliminary misconduct by attempting to stress the debtor’s legal professional to omit the mortgage from his chapter submitting.”
The fee’s vote, which occurred in February however was publicly launched on Monday, was not unanimous. 4 members voted as a substitute to take away Jamieson from workplace.
Joshua Reuven Katz, a matrimonial legal professional who serves on the state bar’ associatiion’s Committee on Procedures for Judicial Self-discipline, notes that censure usually consists of “a letter of admonishment to the decide.”
“It’s public and it goes on their file,” he defined.
Extra:Rockland jail officer pleads responsible to falsifying data, nonetheless faces intercourse expenses
Fines: Structured had 100 violations in Spring Valley the place fireplace broke out
Jamieson is a longtime decide in Westchester County. She grew to become a Household Courtroom decide in 1998 and later gained a seat on the state Supreme Courtroom, the place she has served since 2003. Her present tenure is about to run out in 2030.
Jamieson might enchantment the fee’s dedication inside 30 days to the Courtroom of Appeals. If she doesn’t, the choice turns into ultimate.
In an emailed assertion, an legal professional for Jamieson expressed remorse for her conduct however affirmed the decide’s dedication to persevering with her service on the bench.
“Justice Jamieson is sorry for any errors that she made,” stated Richard Maltz. “Nonetheless, she needs to proceed in public service as an completed and lively Justice of the New York State Supreme Courtroom as she has been for a few years.”
In 2005, based on the fee, Jamieson lent $50,000 in money to Nicholas Natrella to be used in a enterprise enterprise.
Nonetheless, over subsequent years, the total stability of the mortgage was not repaid.
New York state judges are required to file annual monetary disclosure statements with the court docket system’s ethics fee. The shape prescribed by the fee requires judges to reveal money owed price greater than $1,000.
The fee says that solely in October 2019, three months after receiving a proper grievance concerning the omissions, did Jamieson determine to amend years’ price of economic reviews to incorporate the mortgage.
Throughout Jamieson’s disciplinary proceedings, she acknowledged that her conduct “was silly as a result of I actually by no means took these kinds that critically. Now I do.”
Monday’s report additionally discovered that Jamieson enlisted shut associates to persuade Natrella to formally acknowledge the mortgage was in default earlier than calling up Natrella’s legal professional herself.
The report says that Jamieson requested each her important different and a good friend to contact Natrella on her behalf. Jamieson needed Natrella to signal a judgement that might make it simpler to gather on the mortgage with out having to go to court docket.
In 2014, Jamieson phoned Natrella’s legal professional, Anne Penachio, who was conscious of Jamieson’s standing as a public official as a result of Penachio had been concerned in a case earlier than Jamieson the yr prior.
The fee discovered that Penachio “felt pressured to acquire a confession of judgment” from Natrella. Throughout the name, Jamieson additionally instructed that Penachio omit the $50,000 mortgage from Natrella’s chapter case, the fee stated.
In return, Penachio knowledgeable her that “the regulation required all collectors to be listed.”
New York state’s guidelines governing judicial conduct dictate that judges “shall not lend the status of judicial workplace to advance the personal pursuits of the decide.”
Since 2000, the fee has solely really helpful self-discipline in opposition to 21 Westchester County judges, based on official statistics.
Katz, of the bar affiliation’s judicial self-discipline committee, stated that in New York, public self-discipline of judges is a comparatively uncommon incidence.
“The fee has a whole lot of complaints to comb via statewide,” he noticed. “Out of these they examine, it’s totally uncommon to really subject self-discipline.”
Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal Information. You will discover him on Twitter at @quasiasher or ship him an e-mail at astockler@lohud.com. Attain him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.