Should a single, aberrational act of misconduct that reflects woefully poor judgment but no venality subject an otherwise respected judge to expulsion from the judiciary?
That is apparently the central question as the New York Court of Appeals weighs whether to remove Queens Supreme Court Justice Laura D. Blackburne for helping a robbery suspect evade police.
During oral argument Tuesday in Matter of Blackburne v. State Commission on Judicial Conduct, 70, the judges returned repeatedly to the core theme of David M. Godosky's argument: that the court has never before removed a contrite judge for a single error when the judge received no benefit for his or her misconduct.
Godosky, of Godosky & Gentile in Manhattan, told a seemingly receptive court that if it upholds the Commission on Judicial Conduct and orders Blackburne removed from the bench, it would mark an unprecedented and unduly harsh application of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
The commission's attorney, Robert H. Tembeckjian, agreed that Blackburne's record was previously unblemished, that she in no way profited from her mistake and that shortly after helping the suspect escape she owned up to the error and apologized. But, he said, some judicial misconduct cases are so egregious and so negatively impact the public perception of the judiciary that nothing less than removal will do. This is such a case, he said.
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