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Lifetime Ban on Judicial Service Sought for Judge Allegedly Drunk on the Bench
New Jersey Law Journal
November 12, 2008
A prosecutor asked the New Jersey Supreme Court's judicial ethics tribunal on Monday to censure former municipal judge Richard Sasso, and to bar him from the bench, for allegedly being drunk in court, unruly in public and overly harsh to litigants and lawyers.
"Sasso abused his office and showed a severe lack of judgment in his actions on the bench and off the bench," Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct counsel Candace Moody said at a disciplinary hearing in New Brunswick. "This office cannot tolerate this behavior and it erodes public confidence."
A formal complaint charges Sasso with presiding over court sessions while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, abusing his authority by imposing sanctions on attorneys and litigants for being late or argumentative, acting disorderly in public and imposing discounted fines on underage students.
Last January, while an ACJC investigation was pending, Sasso resigned his judgeships in Warren, Bridgewater, Bound Brook and Watchung, citing health problems.
In testimony before the committee on Monday, Sasso testified that during the alleged drunken appearances, he was taking the painkiller Vicodin for back and knee injuries from a car accident; an anti-inflammatory medicine; Ambien for sleep apnea; and medication for diabetes and high blood pressure.
He admitted that he went on the bench on two occasions after taking Vicodin and consuming alcohol.
On Dec. 6, 2006, he took three or four Vicodins before a 9 a.m. session in Bridgewater, and at lunch that day had two to three glasses of Chardonnay.
He appeared a half hour later for a second session in Bridgewater, which was scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
"I shouldn't have been on the bench. I should have canceled the hearing. I had only 16 cases, but my speech was not right," Sasso testified.
His speech was so slurred that Bridgewater court staff canceled his Bound Brook session that evening and called his wife to pick him up.
On the second occasion, in Warren Township on April 17, 2007, Sasso said he took four Vicodin tablets and had two or three glasses of Chardonnay at a restaurant before a 22-case evening session, he said. His speech again was slurred, leading municipal prosecutor Michelle D'Onofrio to lodge an ethics grievance.
Sasso said he came to realize that he was taking painkillers too frequently. The day after the Warren session, he said, he sought counseling through the township employee assistance program and at St. Barnabas Hospital.
"This was a very bad time for me," he said. "I was in a lot of pain."
Committee Chair Alan Handler, a former state Supreme Court justice, questioned Sasso about mixing drugs and alcohol.
Sasso said he knew he should not take his daily Vicodin dosage all at once but added that he generally needs a large dose because he is 6'3" and weighs 290 pounds.
Most of Moody's questions related to sanctions imposed for lateness to court. At least eight times, Sasso sanctioned lawyers or litigants for being late and sent one defendant to jail for swearing at him, Moody said.
The ACJC charges that Sasso issued an arrest warrant on July 12, 2007, after defendant Lisa Brown arrived at Watchung Municipal Court about eight minutes late and missed the trial call. When Brown tried to explain that she was delayed because of child-care problems, Sasso imposed a $500 sanction, with a threat of jail if she did not pay.
Moody criticized Sasso's invocation of Rule 1:2-4 as a basis for sanctions, which in fact applies only to failures to appear and does not mention jail at all.
"How does 1:2-4 give you the authority to put someone in jail or sanction them?" Moody asked. "On what authority can you threaten someone with jail for being late?"
Sasso contended in his written response to the charges that the sanction was warranted because Brown was actually one hour and 46 minutes late, but on Monday he told the ACJC he should have handled the matter differently.
Similarly, he told the ACJC that he was wrong to have sanctioned New Brunswick attorney Patricia Bombelyn $500 on Aug. 8, 2007, in Bound Brook Municipal Court for refusing to answer direct questions, making offending remarks to court staff and interrupting him. She successfully appealed.
Moody also brought up the matter of Tina Sears, whom Sasso had found in contempt of court for saying fuck you to him as she the courtroom at a Warren session on May 9, 2006. He sentenced her immediately to 10 days in jail despite the requirement of Rule 1:10-1 that jail time be stayed for at least five days -- or longer if an appeal is taken.
Sasso admitted Monday that he misapplied the rule and explained that he didn't understand it.
"Am I to understand that while you were applying the contempt rule, you didn't understand it?" Moody asked.
"I never had to impose contempt and this was the first time something like this happened," replied Sasso.
Sasso also responded to the charge that he gave preferential treatment to high school students by lowering the fine, if they, not their parents, paid it.
ACJC member Theodore Davis, a retired Camden County Superior Court judge, questioned why Sasso never asked students whether they could pay the fines.
Sasso responded that most students do not have a lot of money.
Handler interjected, "What troubles me is the overriding notion that this student discount is imposed in the same way, without looking at individual circumstances."
Sasso said he was proud of the program and surprised by the criticism.
The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday, when the committee will hear testimony concerning an incident in Bound Brook in which Sasso was allegedly kicked out of a bar for acting in a disorderly manner. The bar manager and bartender are expected to testify.
Also scheduled to testify are Yolanda Ciccone and Robert Schaul, who are, respectively, the assignment judge and presiding municipal judge for Somerset Hunterdon and Warren counties.
