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Judge Hit With Ethics Charges Over Steamy E-Mails With Former Clerk
New Jersey Law Journal
March 10, 2009
A New Jersey Superior Court judge has been charged with violating ethics rules and the judiciary's Internet policy by sending romantic e-mails to a former law clerk and trying to get her a job with the Public Defender's Office.
In a complaint made public March 6, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct alleges Lawrence DeBello kept sending intimate e-mails even after his assignment judge confronted him about them in December 2007.
The unnamed clerk worked for DeBello in the Hudson County Family Part from September 2006 through August 2007. Soon after she left, DeBello started corresponding with her on his judiciary e-mail account.
After court authorities obtained two e-mail exchanges -- which discussed "personal matters" and used "offensive language" -- DeBello was summoned to a December 2007 meeting with Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli and Trial Court Administrator Joseph Davis.
DeBello admitted to the exchanges and that they were inappropriate, but the correspondence continued and even heated up. "Respondent not only continued to communicate inappropriately with his former law clerk over Judiciary e-mail about personal and intimate matters, but between December 2007 and mid-January 2008, participated in the escalation of the intimate tone and nature of those e-mail exchanges, which concerned their respective romantic feelings for one another," the complaint says.
In January 2008, DeBello was transferred to Mercer County, N.J., where the e-mails continued. From February through July 2008, they concerned DeBello's efforts to help the clerk with her career. The judge also made an unsolicited telephone call to Deputy Public Defender Edward Marable -- head of the Office of Law Guardian for the Northwest Region, who had appeared before DeBello in court -- indicating the former clerk was interested in a law guardian job, the ACJC says.
Last Oct. 20, DeBello was interviewed under oath by ACJC Executive Director John Tonelli and investigator Jennifer Endrzajewski about his interaction with the clerk and gave "misleading answers," the ACJC says.
The complaint charges DeBello with conduct that impugned the integrity of the judiciary and demonstrated disrespect for it and an inability to conform his conduct to its high standards by using his official e-mail to continue to communicate with the former clerk even after being advised it was inappropriate and testifying under oath in a misleading fashion.
He also allegedly ran afoul of the judiciary's information technology security policy, which prohibits personal use of e-mail. The policy, articulated in a Feb. 15, 2006, Directive, No. 3-06, also provides notice that people using court electronic communication systems have no reasonable expectation of privacy and are subject to monitoring and interception by management.
The call to Marable also contravened the Annotated Guidelines for Extrajudicial Activities regarding recommendations. Judges should avoid making them by telephone where possible and those in written and oral form should only be provided when solicited, under the guidelines. It was also poor judgment to act as a reference, given DeBello's romantic feelings, the ACJC says.
DeBello allegedly violated Canons 1, 2A and 2B of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which require judges to observe high standards of conduct to preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary; respect and comply with the law and act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary; and avoid lending the prestige of their office to advance the private interests of others. He also allegedly violated R. 2:15-8(a)(6), by conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judiciary into disrepute.
The 51-year-old DeBello, a Democrat, was appointed to the bench by New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in 1997, and given full tenure in 2004. Before he became a judge, he was an assistant Jersey City corporation counsel and was also in private practice.
In the New Jersey Law Journal's most recent Judicial Survey, published in January 2005, DeBello was ranked 302 of the state's 366 judges and 22nd of Hudson County's 26. His 7.08 overall score compares with the average of 7.85 statewide and 7.38 for the county. He scored highest in the categories of freedom from race or ethnic bias, 7.83, and from gender bias, 7.75, but below the vicinage averages of 8.41 and 8.36, respectively.
DeBello did not return a call for comment. His lawyer, Arnold Lakind, of Szaferman, Lakind, Blumstein, Blader & Lehmann in Lawrenceville, N.J.
The case is In the Matter of Lawrence P. DeBello, Judge of the Superior Court, ACJC 2008-116.
