A former Family Court judge who took a 20-year-old defendant in drug treatment court for an excursion to a park 16 miles from the courthouse without telling anyone else involved in the case should be censured, the Commission on Judicial Conduct has concluded.
Judge Andrew G. Tarantino Jr. admitted that he made a “serious error of judgment” when he drove “J.” to a public wildlife observation deck at Robert Moses State Park, where the pair discussed personal issues, including J.’s substance abuse and his mother’s recent death, the commission said in a report released yesterday.
