A New Jersey lawyer facing a six-month suspension for unseemly remarks about a state court judge at a deposition is asking the state Supreme Court to spare him—saying his comments were justified.

Part of Clifford Van Syoc’s defense, in a Nov. 6 petition, is that an audiotape of the November 2009 deposition at his Cherry Hill office—which would have been the best evidence of what really went on—was destroyed by the stenographer, who worked for his adversary.