Court Opinion

ID: 9752775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:34:00.28337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:22.185249
License: Public Domain

POLLOCK, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Respondent pled guilty to the charges of driving under the influence, N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, and speeding, N.J.S.A. 39:4-98. The majority concludes that respondent’s misconduct “must seriously shake public confidence in the judiciary,” ante at 476, 599 A.2d 1275, and that a two-month suspension is necessary to prevent further damage to public confidence. It bases its conclusion on the facts that this is respondent’s second conviction for driving while under the influence of alcohol, ibid., and that respondent falsely stated to the arresting officer that he was on an emergency trip to the Sussex County Courthouse, ante at 473, 599 A.2d 1275. I agree with the majority that respondent’s misconduct requires discipline stronger than the censure recommended by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct. I write separately not because the Court fails to find a tolerable accommodation of the relevant interests, but because I believe it could find a more serviceable one. The Court would better serve the public interest by staying the suspension if Judge Collester would agree to continue to serve as a judge without salary for two months. Foregoing approximately $16,-500 in pay is more than a slap on the wrist. All that is gained by a suspension is condemnation of a judge because of his alcoholism and his conduct while under its influence.
-I-
With one exception, I agree with substantially all of the majority’s opinion. Although the exception is narrow, it highlights a difference of opinion about alcoholism and the appropriate response to a judge who violates the . Code of Judicial *478Conduct because of that disease. That respondent has violated the Code is beyond doubt. Equally clear is that his alcoholism directly caused the violation. The majority acknowledges that alcoholism is “a dreadful and ruinous disease.” To this extent, the majority treats alcoholism as a mitigating factor. The majority also states that the “failure to confront and neutralize the effects of such a condition, when evidenced in part by repeat offenses, in a judge comes perilously close to demonstrating unfitness to hold judicial office.” Id. at 476, 599 A.2d 1275. Missing from the majority’s description is the recognition that one characteristic symptom of alcoholism is the alcoholic’s denial of the existence of the disease. In denying to themselves and to others that they are so afflicted, alcoholic judges are no different from other alcoholics.
Respondent is not an alcoholic because he wants to be one. A member of a family with a history of alcoholism, he testified before the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct how he had hidden from his alcoholism before this incident:
I thought I could control my drinking previously, sir. And one of the insidious things about this disease is that sometimes you feel you can. I was able to control it from the standpoint of I never — 4 never drank, you know, during the weeks that would affect my work, so I was able to feel, "Well, I don’t do that therefore I’m not alcoholic. I can control the drinking.”
I rarely drank in public so I felt, “Well, if I don’t have to do that, you know, I’m obviously not an alcoholic. I could control it.” I didn’t get intoxicated every time I drank and I felt, “Well, if that’s the case, I can control it. I’m not an alcoholic.”
It’s an insidious disease. I was wrong. I am an alcoholic.
By recognizing his problem and seeking treatment for it, respondent has taken the first step in his recovery.
Respondent’s testimony that his alcoholism never affected the discharge of his judicial duties is corroborated by uncontradicted letters from attorneys, law clerks, other court personnel, and members of the public. The Morris, Passaic, and Sussex County Bar Associations and the Criminal Practice Committee of the Morris County Bar Association adopted resolutions confirming that respondent “has never been under the influence of any intoxicant or in any way unable to perform his judicial *479duties during regular court hours or after hours when called upon to act in a judicial capacity.” Joseph Miele, chairman of the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, wrote:
I respectfully suggest that no useful purpose would be served at this time by suspending or dismissing Judge Collester who has already paid a very dear price for his indiscretions. On the contrary, I respectfully suggest that it would be more useful not only for Judge Collester, but for the public at large, to receive the continuing benefit of his services as a Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
James O’Brien, chairman of the Coalition of Crime Victims’ Rights Organizations of New Jersey, who observed respondent preside over four capital cases, including one in which Mr. O’Brien’s daughter was the victim, wrote:
I believe that one of the greatest compliments that can be given to a Jurist can be bestowed without reservation on Judge Collester. It is the fact that after all 4 trials had been concluded the victims and the survivors in each case told me that Judge Collester had restored their faith in the criminal, and judicial system, and had recognized that there was both a victim and a survivor who were human beings who had suffered. I believe that it was best stated when the mother of a murdered young man said to me, “Without compromising the rights of the defendant he gave back to me the dignity I had taken away through the criminal justice system.”
These resolutions and letters comport with this Court’s independent determination that respondent’s alcoholism has never affected his judicial performance. Indeed, in the seven months since he completed in-patient treatment, respondent has been ably discharging his duties as a Superior Court judge. This is not a case in which suspension is required because of a judge’s inability to perform.
-II-
The Legislature has responded to the medical and social characterization of alcoholism as a disease and not a vice. The declared public policy of this State is to afford alcoholics treatment that will enable them to “lead normal lives as productive members of society.” N.J.S.A. 26:2B-7. Health insurance policies in New Jersey must provide coverage for the treatment of alcoholism “to the same extent as for any other sickness.” See N.J.S.A. 17:48-6a; N.J.S.A. 17:48A-7a; N.J.S.A. 17:48E-34; *480N.J.S.A. 17B:26-2.1; N.J.S.A. 17B:27-46.1. In fact, health insurance benefits for State employees specifically include coverage for the treatment of alcoholism. N.J.S.A. 52:14-17.29(B). Persons treated for alcoholism may not be deprived of their civil rights and privileges based on being alcoholics. N.J.S.A. 26:2B-21. Our Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -38, considers alcoholism to be a disability, see Clowes v. Terminix Int’l, Inc., 109 N.J. 575, 593-95, 538 A.2d 794 (1988), as does section 3 of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C.A. § 12102, see H.R.Rep. No. 101-485(11), 101st Cong., 2d Sess. 51, reprinted in 1990 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, 303, 333. Medical records relating to treatment for substance abuse are protected by strict federal rules of confidentiality, backed by criminal penalties for violation, to ensure that a patient in an alcohol or drug abuse program “is not made more vulnerable by reason of the availability of his or her patient record than an individual who has an alcohol or drug problem and who does not seek treatment.” 42 C.F.R. § 2.3(b)(2).
For other employees, this Court has recognized that alcoholism is a disease. In Clowes v. Terminix International, we observed that the medical community has so characterized alcoholism for thirty-five years. 109 N.J. at 592-93, 538 A.2d 794. In the attorney-disciplinary context, we have considered alcoholism as a mitigating factor in cases of ethical violations not involving dishonesty or prejudice to the administration of justice. See In re Barbour, 109 N.J. 143, 161-62, 536 A.2d 214 (1988). In another judicial-disciplinary case involving drunk-driving and alcoholism, we recognized as mitigating factors a respondent’s confrontation of his alcoholism and his commitment to rehabilitation. In re Connor, 124 N.J. 18, 26, 589 A.2d 1347 (1991). Through the Judicial Advisory Service, a partnership between the judiciary and the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine, judges may receive confidential counseling on alcohol abuse.
*481In its capacity as an employer, the State, like other enlightened employers, treats alcoholism as a disease. The standard health insurance policy that covers judges provides for payment of the cost of in-patient treatment, such as that received by respondent. To the extent that it ignores the implications of treating alcoholism as a disease, the Court adopts a position that conflicts with the established judicial response in other settings.
-Ill-
Respondent pled guilty to the charges of driving while intoxicated and speeding. These offenses, particularly the DWI offense, respondent’s second, are serious. They called for stiff penalties, which the municipal court imposed: fines totaling $580, thirty days of community service, a two-year suspension of driving privileges, forty-eight hours of confinement, and $182 in assessments and costs. He will also be subject to insurance surcharges of $1000 per year for three years when his driving privileges have been restored. N.J.S.A. 17:29A-35(b)(2).
Respondent satisfied the community service component of his sentence by helping with a major landscaping project at a home for senior citizens. As described by the director of that home, the work “involved a lot of back-breaking labor, filth, mud, sweat, and rain,” working alongside “people he had sentenced.”
These substantial penalties and fees reflect the seriousness of drunk driving and the need to punish offenders. Their imposition vindicates society’s interest in enforcement of the motor vehicle laws. Respondent, who has been treated no differently from any other citizen convicted of motor vehicle violations, has paid the price for his offenses.
The purpose of this disciplinary proceeding is not to increase the punitive force of the sentence on respondent’s motor vehicle violations or to humiliate him further. Rather, this Court’s function is to evaluate respondent’s fitness as a judge and to *482preserve the integrity of, and public confidence in, the judicial system. Respondent’s reputation as an “industrious, capable jurist,” ante at 474, 599 A.2d 1275, is beyond dispute. Nothing indicates that respondent’s alcoholism impaired the discharge of his judicial duties. Id. at 475, 599 A.2d 1275.
Permitting respondent to serve without pay would vindicate the integrity of the judiciary as effectively as a suspension. Months have elapsed since respondent’s offense. In the interim, he has received both in-patient and out-patient treatment and has resumed his judicial duties. In this context, a two-month suspension is more punitive than rehabilitative. Forfeiting respondent’s pay for two months without suspending him from the performance of his duties would, in my opinion, satisfy the public’s legitimate expectation that we will deal firmly with judges who violate the Code of Judicial Conduct, without depriving the public of the services of a judge whose qualifications have never been in doubt, who has capably discharged his responsibilities, and whom the judiciary can ill afford to lose for even two months.
For suspension without pay — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices HANDLER, O’HERN, GARIBALDI, and STEIN — 5.
Concurring in part; dissenting in part — Justice POLLOCK — 1.