Opinion ID: 1972099
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the sayreville matter count ii

Text: Count II also arose from a remark made by Clerk Butewicz five days after respondent had filed the complaint against her and Clerk Taylor. Nonetheless, the record does establish that during the latter part of 1989, Robert J. McGowan, Jr., Judge of the Sayreville Municipal Court, received an unsigned fax transmission from respondent's law office. On this point, all parties agreed at the hearing before the ACJC, although they sharply disagreed about the subject matter of the fax. Neither Judge McGowan nor respondent was able to produce a copy of the fax in question. Judge McGowan testified that he had no independent recollection of the incident, but was testifying from the report he had made in 1991 to the state-police investigator. In that report, Judge McGowan stated that the fax had contained a request by respondent for an adjournment of a scheduled case involving Mark Fallon, who had been charged with multiple disorderly persons offenses returnable in the Sayreville Municipal Court. Fallon is the son of Joan Fallon, who was respondent's court clerk at the time. The charges against him were filed on July 24, 1989. The first scheduled trial date, August 17, 1989, was adjourned, and the matters were resolved by a plea agreement on October 3, 1989. The ACJC presentment presents both views of the incident: According to Judge McGowan, he telephoned Respondent after receiving the fax, which bore markings indicating it had come from Respondent's law office. During the ensuing telephone conversation, Respondent told Judge McGowan that he was just trying to help the kid out, the kid needed to contact your court to request an adjournment quickly. Respondent told Judge McGowan that he had not personally sent the fax transmission but had permitted Mark Fallon to send it from Respondent's law office. Judge McGowan replied that Respondent could not represent Mark Fallon and that it was improper for him to intercede on Fallon's behalf. McGowan said that Respondent should not be involved in the matter at all, and Respondent replied that McGowan was blowing the incident out of proportion because Respondent was not asking him to do anything.         For his part, Respondent maintained before this Committee that Judge McGowan was mistaken in testifying that the contact concerned any case involving Mark Fallon. According to Respondent, Joyce Wetstein, one of the employees of the Old Bridge Municipal Court, called him at his law office on Friday, October 13, 1989, because her son, Brian Wetstein, had been found guilty of an offense in the Sayreville Municipal Court and the appeal period was going to expire the following Monday. Respondent told Ms. Wetstein to have Brian call him and Brian did so shortly thereafter. When Brian Wetstein called Respondent, Respondent was in a hurry to go somewhere, and he told Brian to write out a summary about the case and, if all else failed, Respondent would help Brian draft a letter applying for a new trial to deliver to the judge in Sayreville that Monday. When Respondent found out that Robert McGowan was the Judge of the Sayreville Municipal Court, he called McGowan's law office, identifying himself only as Larry Carton, and asked to speak to McGowan. Respondent's intention was simply to ask him whether he would accept a letter from a lawyer  from a fellow who was no longer represented as an indication of a new trial. Respondent spoke to McGowan's secretary, and she said that she would have him return the call. He did not return the call. The following Monday, October 16, Respondent had to be out of the office once again. He called his office and asked one of his secretaries to call Judge McGowan's law office and ask if McGowan would be able to speak to him that morning. Later on, he called back and spoke to the secretary once again. She told him that she had called McGowan's law office and that McGowan's secretary had suggested she fax a request for adjournment to the office. Respondent said that without checking with him, the secretary went ahead and drafted and faxed such a request. Respondent told the Committee that he was upset at what his secretary had done, and he apologized profusely to Judge McGowan when they both attended a conference some months later. Respondent denied, however, that he had any telephone conversation about the matter with Judge McGowan at any time. Respondent presented testimony from both Joyce Wetstein and Brian Wetstein in support of his contention that the fax transmission sent to Judge McGowan concerned Brian Wetstein and was sent by a secretary who acted without authorization. Respondent did not present testimony from that secretary; instead, he represented to the Committee that she had no memory of the event. The ACJC properly concluded that irrespective of whether the fax was on behalf of Mark Fallon or Brian Wetstein, respondent's office undoubtedly sent a fax to Judge McGowan concerning a matter pending before him in court. Although determining that Brian Wetstein's account lacked credibility, the ACJC found that the evidence indicated that respondent had given him legal advice in a pending criminal matter. Giving respondent the benefit of any doubt, the ACJC found that respondent is charged with the running of his office and his failure to do so properly in this instance gives rise to conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute. Our independent review of the record leads us to agree with the findings of the ACJC.