Correction: This story has been updated to include an additional judge who was banned from the bench by the state Supreme Court.
Each year, about 400 misconduct complaints are filed against judges in New Jersey. It is rare, however, for a complaint to result in a judge being publicly disciplined.
After Monmouth County Superior Court Judge James Troiano resigned last week amid a fury of public scrutiny for his remarks regarding a teenager accused of recording himself sexually assaulting a classmate, NJ Advance Media reviewed how many judges have faced disciplined since 2004.
According to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct (ACJC), an 11-member team of law professionals, the state Supreme Court has suspended eight judges without pay and banned five permanently from the bench in the last 15 years.
One New Jersey judge presided over a court hearing under the influence of alcohol and later had to be driven home. He was banned from the bench. Another made unwanted advances on a young law clerk in his chambers and kissed her. He was suspended two months without pay. A judge was recently suspended for two months after she secretly recorded meetings with another judge.
The discipline is handed down by the Supreme Court, but the ACJC is tasked with reviewing the hundreds of complaints and deciding if they should file a formal complaint and launch an investigation or dismiss the complaint against the judge.
If an investigation is warranted, the committee then makes a recommendation to the high court — based on a majority vote — of what the discipline should be and whether it should be public.
Judges can be censured, reprimanded, admonished, cautioned or offered guidance privately, but any charge resulting in a suspension or ban from the bench is required to be public.
Since April 2004, the state Supreme Court has ruled on 65 formal complaints filed by the ACJC against judges, according to public records. The majority of those complaints resulted in judges being publicly censured or reprimanded for their misconduct.
However, 13 judges were either suspended, or banned from the bench.
Judges who have been barred from the bench
Richard Sasso, municipal judge
As a former municipal judge in various towns in Somerset County, Richard Sasso presided over hearings under the influence of alcohol, gave a woman a 10-day jail sentence for cursing at him and asked a bartender at a go-go club, “Do you know who I am? I’m the Bound Brook Judge” before being escorted out of the establishment, according to an ACJC presentment to the Supreme Court.
“(Sasso’s) misconduct was repetitive, egregious and pronounced,” the ACJC wrote to the court.
His misconduct while working as a municipal judge led to Sasso resigning from his position in 2008 before the Supreme Court later ruled he was permanently barred from sitting on the bench in New Jersey.
He is currently a private attorney. Sasso did not immediately return a message left at his law firm.
Lawson McElroy, municipal judge
As a full-time municipal judge in Trenton, Lawson McElroy engaged in several unethical practices in 2007, according to the ACJC.
The committee found evidence that McElroy was practicing law while serving full-time as a judge, including representing two court employees in real estate transactions. McElroy had previously been reprimanded for trying to influence a municipal prosecutor.
The Supreme Court said they would have recommended discipline, but since McElroy was no longer sitting on the bench in 2008, the court ruled to ban him from a future judgeship in the state.
McElroy died in 2013.
Harold Cook, municipal judge
In July 2014, the state Supreme Court ruled that Harold Cook was barred from ever serving as a judge again in New Jersey after it was determined that he allowed his position to be “severely compromised” by his interests in his dozens of limited liability companies, which became the subject of at least 43 lawsuits.
In some of the lawsuits, the complainants accused Cook of fraud and a pattern of uncooperativeness with opposing counsel, like failing to file answers, failing to return phone calls and not showing up for depositions, among other misconduct, the ACJC wrote to the Supreme Court.
Cook was a municipal judge in North Haledon, Haledon, Ringwood and Wanaque. He resigned in 2013.
Cook did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Thomas Scattergood, municipal judge
After two grievances were filed against then-Burlington City municipal judge Thomas Scattergood outlining a pattern of unethical behavior, the state Supreme Court banned Scattergood in 2016 from the bench.
The ACJC found that Scattergood presided over numerous cases involving people he had professional relationships with, including the headmaster of local private school and the daughter of an employee in the mayor’s office.
In another case, when a defendant told Scattergood he did not pay a fine because he expected his ex-fiancé to pay it, Scattergood replied, "Well, when you trust a woman that’s what you get.”
Scattergood now runs a law firm in South Jersey with his daughter. He did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
G. Dolph Corradino, municipal judge
Former Little Falls Municipal Court Judge G. Dolph Corradino was recently banned from serving as a judge in New Jersey after admitting he stole money that was meant to help litigate backlogged DWI cases.
A report by the advisory committee said Little Falls received about $15,000 from the state between 2009 and 2015. Corradino eventually said he pocketed $12,000 of it.
After it came to light, Corradino was suspended before he ultimately resigned in 2017.
The state ordered him to pay $15,000 in restitution. Corrdadino could not be reached for comment.
Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, Superior Court Judge
The Supreme Court banned former Passaic County Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi from the bench in 2018 after the ACJC presented evidence that she misused her position “to advance the private interests” of a former judicial intern in a child custody case.
According to the ACJC, DeAvila-Silebi called Fort Lee police in May 2015 to tell them Vivianne Chermont had a court order to have custody of her 5-year-old son for Mother's Day weekend. However, an investigation later found that the court order did not exist.
When questioned, DeAvila-Silebi stood by her story and denied knowing Chermont, ACJC said. After a subpoena from the Attorney General’s office, she turned over heavily redacted phone records to conceal that she and Chermont were in communication before DeAvila-Silebi called the police to intervene in the custody battle.
The Supreme Court ruled that DeAvila-Silebi made false statements under oath before the ACJC, and submitted altered telephone records to the panel to “perpetuate her prior false statements.”
DeAvila-Silebi also had her pension revoked.
Judges who have been suspended
Marquis Jones Jr., Superior Court judge
Former Ocean County Superior Judge Marquis Jones Jr. said he “may have had a little too much to drink” after he was accused of inappropriately touching numerous probation officers in 2010 at a local Probation Association of New Jersey happy hour, according to the ACJC.
Jones Jr. was suspended for four months by the state Supreme Court after evidence was presented that he “inappropriately touched multiple female probation officers and an employee of the establishment” without their consent and also made “several inappropriate and/or sexually suggestive remarks to these women,” according to the ACJC.
Jones Jr. was also ordered to complete an alcohol-treatment program.
He was not re-appointed to his judgeship position in 2015, and is currently a private attorney. He did not return an email seeking comment.
Randolph Subryan, Superior Court judge
A woman who said she originally viewed former Passaic County Superior Court Judge Randolph Subryan as a mentor after she was hired to be his law clerk for a year in 2002 accused him of kissing her, according to the ACJC.
When she went into his chambers to ask for advice for a job interview later that year, the woman said she soon felt like she was “trapped.” The law clerk said she let the judge hug her and then he pulled her closer and kissed her.
Subryan denied the accusations, saying the woman hugged her and then kissed him on the cheek. However, the ACJC found the woman to be “very credible,” according to its presentment to the Supreme Court.
In 2004, the high court suspended Subryan for two months without pay after the court found “clear and convincing evidence” that Subryan “made an unwanted advance to his law clerk.”
The woman filed a sexual harassment lawsuit. which was settled for $300,000, according to the New Jersey Law Journal. Subryan could not be reached for comment.
Wilbur H. Mathesius, Superior Court judge
The former Mercer County Superior Court judge was suspended for 30 days in 2006 after evidence was presented that he committed several instances of misconduct that displayed “repeated and unremorseful instances of petulance, sarcasm, anger and arrogance that have no place in the exercise of judicial duties,” according to the ACJC.
He once went into the jury room after a defendant was acquitted and asked them “what the hell” they were thinking before continuing to discuss the case and the defendant in an aggressive manner.
One juror said it brought her back to her childhood when her parents screamed at her.
Mathesius later apologized and called his behavior “grossly inappropriate,” according to the ACJC.
He is not currently a judge in New Jersey. Mathesius could not be reached for comment.
Gerald J. Council, Superior court judge
Council was suspended for one month by the state Supreme Court at the end of 2015 after the ACJC determined there was convincing evidence that the former Mercer County Superior Court presiding judge inappropriately touched a court employee.
He was accused by a woman who worked under Council as a drug court coordinator from 2008 to 2012. In her complaint, the woman outlined interactions with Council in which she felt belittled and uncomfortable.
In one instance, the judge grabbed the woman by the ear, and pulled her by her ear toward the exit of the courtroom saying “come on, come on, come on” and referred to her as "my problem child,” according to the ACJC.
“I failed the judiciary,” Council said after receiving his punishment, according to the New Jersey Law Journal.
He is currently a family division judge in Middlesex County Superior Court. He did not return a phone call to his chambers.
Deborah Gross-Quatrone, Superior Court judge
The state Supreme Court recently suspended then-Bergen County Superior Court Judge Deborah Gross-Quatrone for two months after she secretly recorded three meetings with her assignment judge.
In one December 2015 meeting, a court employee noticed a red light “beaming” from the top of Gross-Quatrone’s purse and asked the judge if she was recording the meeting, according to the ACJC.
Gross-Quatrone denied the accusation, but the ACJC later determined she secretly recorded multiple conversations.
The advisory committee said Gross-Quatrone showed a “disturbing lack of sound judgment and professional integrity."
Gross-Quatrone has been on the bench in Essex County since 2016. She could not be reached for comment.
James Curcio, surrogate judge
The state Supreme Court suspended Atlantic County Surrogate Judge James Curcio for two months in 2013 after he was arrested for driving while under the influence — his second such charge in less than a two-year stretch.
Curcio was also ordered to complete an alcohol-treatment program.
He still serves as the Atlantic County surrogate. Curcio said the incident is “all behind him now.” He declined to comment further.
Mario Batelli, municipal judge
After having issues with a local contractor, Mario Batelli, a former municipal court judge in Passaic County, authorized the search of the man’s criminal history through a confidential state database, according to the ACJC.
The ACJC found that Batelli abused his judgeship position when he requested the contractor’s Computerized Criminal History for personal use.
He was suspended for one month in 2016.
Batelli is now a private attorney. He did not return a message seeking comment.
Melanie D. Appleby, Superior Court judge
The Supreme Court suspended former Ocean County Superior Court Judge Melanie Appleby in 2014 for one month after it was determined she presided over cases in which she had a conflict of interest.
According to the ACJC, Appleby solicited the services of an attorney to help her with a child support case involving her ex-husband. But the committee found that Appleby was overseeing cases involving the attorney who she asked for help, creating a conflict of interest.
Appleby retired in 2016, according to Politics OC. She is currently a private attorney.
Appleby did not return a message left at her law firm.
Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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