A town court judge in Tompkins County has been censured for what the Commission on Judicial Conduct called his “patently improper” intervention in a trespassing complaint the judge’s son had brought against a hunter in 2008. Not only did Newfield Town Court Justice Gary P. Allen call and ask a Department of Environmental Conservation officer to swear out the trespassing complaint against the hunter, Mr. Allen also directed that the ticket be returnable before him. The justice also accepted a guilty plea from the defendant after informing him that he was the father of the complainant, the commission said yesterday.
However, Mr. Allen declined to sentence the hunter, citing a conflict of interest. “He violated well-established ethical standards by intervening in his son’s case, engaging in an ex parte communication with the Environmental Conservation Officer handling the complaint, arranging for the case to come before himself, and taking judicial action in the matter,” the commission determined.
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