Opinion ID: 1972099
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sea bright count i

Text: In determining the nature and extent of discipline, we carefully scrutinize the substantive offenses that constitute the core of respondent's misconduct, the underlying facts and the surrounding circumstances. In re Collester, 126 N.J. 468, 472, 599 A. 2d 1275 (1992) (citing In re Connor, 124 N.J. 18, 22, 589 A. 2d 1347 (1991) (other citations omitted)). Our review of the surrounding circumstances leads us to conclude that the record does not contain clear-and-convincing evidence that respondent violated the Code of Judicial Conduct with respect to the Sea Bright matter. As previously observed, the allegations against the respondent in the presentment all arose out of the State's investigation of the Old Bridge Municipal Court Clerk's Office. Most of the testimony at the ACJC hearing focused on the allegations made in Count III  whether respondent's remarks to court clerks had been intended to impede the State's investigation. In August 1990, several deputy clerks of the Old Bridge Municipal Court, led by First Assistant Deputy Clerk Carol Butewicz (Clerk Butewicz), compiled what they felt to be incriminating evidence against the Chief Clerk of that court, a close friend of respondent. Those clerks gave that evidence to the Old Bridge Police Department and to Judge Foley who also was a municipal judge in Old Bridge. Judge Foley turned that evidence over to the Attorney General's Office. Judge Foley also advised the deputy clerks to keep from respondent his and their involvement in the Attorney General's investigation. During the course of that two-year investigation, Clerk Butewicz and Gail Taylor, another deputy clerk (Clerk Taylor), received a preliminary notice of charges and proposed disciplinary action on November 8, 1991. Both women were charged with neglect of duty, insubordination, and conduct unbecoming of a public/judicial employee. According to the notices that were signed by respondent, he alleged that Clerks Butewicz and Taylor participated in the filing of two false reports concerning him. The clerks were suspended with pay. Five days after her suspension, during the state-police investigation on November 13, 1991, Clerk Butewicz reported to an Attorney General investigator that she had heard from another source that respondent had once tried to influence the municipal judge in Sayreville. That allegation formed the basis of Count II, the Sayreville incident. Clerks Butewicz and Taylor then filed suit in 1991 against respondent and Old Bridge Township in the Chancery Division, alleging, among other things, wrongful discharge from employment because they had assisted in the Attorney General's investigation. The Assignment Judge appointed a special prosecutor who conducted an investigation, prepared the matter for trial, and took the position that the suspension of the clerks was proper. On May 18, 1992, the matter was settled. The plaintiffs dismissed their claims, and as part of that settlement, they were transferred to other positions within the township, and letters of public reprimand were permanently placed in their personnel files. During the time they were suspended by respondent, Judge Foley requested that Clerks Butewicz and Taylor work in the Sea Bright Municipal Court. Judge Foley also was prepared to testify on behalf of Clerks Butewicz and Taylor in their civil action against respondent. On September 23, 1992, after the conclusion of the wrongful-discharge case, Judge Foley was interviewed by the State Police with respect to allegations made by Clerk Butewicz that respondent had interfered with the Attorney General's investigation. When asked at the conclusion of the interview if he had anything else to add, he volunteered that respondent, seven months previously, during the pendency of the civil action, had had a conversation with him concerning two garbage summonses pending in Sea Bright. Although he could not recall the exact circumstances of the incident, he did recall that Clerks Butewicz and Taylor had been present at the Sea Bright Municipal Court when the alleged incident had taken place. That comment from Judge Foley was the genesis of Count I. Respondent first learned that Judge Foley claimed respondent called him about the $50 garbage summonses when he received the ACJC's complaint in December 1993. The record indicates that two summonses were issued against a business establishment called Squash Court of Sea Bright and its manager, Ms. Glisson, charging illegal dumping of trash in violation of the governing sanitary code of Sea Bright. Initially, the matter was to be heard in the Sea Bright Municipal Court, but it was transferred to another court. Respondent owned the Squash Court. He testified that he had had no interest in the tickets and that Ms. Glisson had been going to take care of them and had done so. The record also indicates that sometime in February 1992, Judge Foley, the municipal judge in Sea Bright as well as a municipal judge in Old Bridge, and respondent, the presiding judge in Old Bridge, had a telephone conversation. The initial call was made by Judge Foley to respondent, concerning the cancellation of some of Foley's Old Bridge Court sessions. Respondent returned Judge Foley's call, concerning the cancelled sessions. Understandably, because the conversation had occurred at least seven months before Judge Foley had mentioned it to the State Police, and because no written record of the conversation nor any report had been made, Judge Foley couldn't recall the exact circumstances surrounding this incident. When Judge Foley testified before the ACJC, he still did not recall respondent's exact words. He testified, however, that respondent had asked me about two tickets involving illegal dumping of [sic] garbage problem in the township. He also testified that respondent had told him that those tickets were a minor matter and that the Squash Court was not a good investment. Judge Foley believed that those comments had been an attempt to influence him. He further testified that he had quickly ended the conversation with respondent, telling him to speak to the local prosecutor about that matter. Respondent, never having been confronted with the allegations until two years after the alleged incident, can specifically recall having returned Foley's call, but has no recollection of any discussion of the Sea Bright matter. He insists that he never received the summonses and never would have discussed their disposition with Judge Foley. Indeed, given the hostility between the two judges, he testified he would never have asked Foley for any help. The Sea Bright Municipal Prosecutor, Mitchell Ansell, also testified that he had received a telephone call from respondent. He believes that the call referred to two summonses pending in Sea Bright. Respondent claims that the conversation concerned a letter dated February 25, 1992, from the Sea Bright Borough Clerk, advising respondent of a meeting scheduled for March 3, 1992, with the Mayor and Council and the Borough Prosecutor to discuss a general garbage problem. Respondent was unable to attend that meeting. Respondent testified that because Mr. Ansell had had no knowledge of the fact that respondent had received a letter from that borough clerk indicating that the borough prosecutor, among others, had requested respondent's presence at a meeting to discuss a general garbage problem, Mr. Ansell must have assumed that any conversation that he had had with respondent concerned garbage related to the garbage summonses, rather than to garbage generally. Alluding to the difficulty in recalling an incident that happened three years before, Mr. Ansell testified that he had not taken respondent's comments to mean anything improper. Respondent was a party; it was his company that was being charged. As the prosecutor noted, parties before the Municipal Court routinely call the prosecutor. He did not perceive respondent's telephone call as an attempt to influence him. We believe that Ansell's attempt to restate its contents falls far short of corroboration of any attempt on the part of respondent to fix the case. The Sea Bright matter is characterized by a paucity of evidence. Our review of the record before us leads us to disagree with the conclusion of the ACJC, but only on the question whether the ACJC clearly and convincingly demonstrated that respondent was guilty of such conduct. We have concluded that the proof does not rise to that level. Any attempt by a judge to influence the disposition of a case for that judge's own benefit or for another's benefit, no matter how insignificant the case, no matter when it occurs, demands removal. The ACJC finding here, that respondent attempted to influence Judge Foley to dismiss the charges against the company owned by respondent, if it were proven, would clearly demand a removal. The charge that respondent attempted to fix the case was an afterthought that followed an extensive investigation of other matters. That charge was not at all part of the original investigation. It resulted from an open-ended question near the conclusion of the investigation, a question put to Judge Foley about whether there was anything else he wanted to tell the investigators. One would assume that an attempt to fix a case would have been reported immediately by Judge Foley. However, Judge Foley did not report those comments then or anytime thereafter, but only volunteered the comments during the course of another investigation. The lateness of the charge and the circumstances under which it was made  following a long period of hostility between the two judges  is one factor in our determination today. Besides Judge Foley's version of the conversation  with which respondent's version totally differs  the only other proof is ambiguous. That corroboration is a conversation respondent had with the prosecutor at Judge Foley's request. Ultimately, however, the conversation's innocence, or at least its ambiguous quality, both in its origin and in its content, makes this proffered evidence weak in its alleged corroboration of the charge. Another critical fact that leads to our conclusion is the circumstantial incredibility of the charge. Respondent was admitted to the Bar in 1963. He first served as a municipal court judge in 1966. In 1982, he became a municipal court judge in Old Bridge Township, serving since 1987, as the Presiding Judge of the Old Bridge Municipal Court. Respondent's prior record as an attorney and as a municipal court judge is unblemished. He served with distinction, and had an absolutely clear record insofar as judicial conduct is concerned. In this matter, respondent is portrayed as attempting to fix a case that at most would lead to a $50 fine, which involves a minimal offense. Such a proposition does not comport with common sense. After the alleged illicit conversation, no complaint was filed and no report made until the information was volunteered amidst a background and history of substantial antagonism between the judges. With that background and on this record, we are unable to find that respondent is clearly and convincingly guilty. Our conclusion is no reflection on the ACJC, or on Judge Foley. We recognize that the conversation could have taken place as Judge Foley stated, but its occurrence in the form he suggests has not been demonstrated by the requisite clear-and-convincing evidence that `should produce in the mind of the trier of fact a firm belief or conviction as to the truth of the allegations sought to be established.' In re Purrazzella, 134 N.J. 228, 240, 633 A. 2d 507 (1993) (quoting Aiello v. Knoll Golf Club, 64 N.J. Super. 156, 162, 165 A. 2d 531 (App.Div. 1960)).