The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday reprimanded veteran municipal court Judge Henry Broome Jr. for multiple ethics violations but decided against discipline for a particular quirk of his jurisprudence: imposing DWI fines not authorized by statute.
The court agreed with its Advisory Committee on Attorney Ethics that at the time Broome assessed fines on underage drivers under the so-called “Baby DWI” law, there was genuine uncertainty about municipal court judges’ power to do so, since the statute and its legislative history could be construed as ambiguous.
