Municipal judge who resigned after bounced bar-dues checks is now accused of client extortion
A municipal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, who resigned after she tried to pay bar dues with bounced checks is now accused of extorting fake fines from immigration clients.
Renee Lamarre-Sumners is accused of getting three clients to pay more than $17,000 in phony fines and keeping the money for herself, the New Jersey Law Journal and Trentonian report. One of the clients was a business seeking legal immigration status for an employee, and two others were employees seeking legal status.
Lamarre-Sumners told the clients the fines had to be paid for the employees to remain in the United States, prosecutors allege.
A lawyer for the former judge, Jerome Ballarotto, said he was engaged in plea negotiations on his client’s behalf with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He said his client had a long-time serious illness and had worked in the public sector for many years.
Lamarre-Sumners is ineligible to practice law; a court notice last November said she had not satisfied continuing legal education requirements, the New Jersey Law Journal says. Ineligibility “has been a recurring situation” for Lamarre-Sumners, the story says. She wrote dishonored checks in 2004, 2006 and 2008 and was on the ineligible list for 2004, 2006 and 2012, according to the Law Journal account.
She paid bar dues with a money order in 2010 after her checks bounced. She later resigned.
Updated on April 16 to add links.
