Legal Ethics
N.J. Judge: Public Humiliation Already Punished Me for Bad Jokes on Bench
A New Jersey family court judge admittedly used bad judgment when he joked about the disabilities of two individuals appearing before him and implied in another comment apparently intended to be humorous that a former president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey might be an illegal immigrant.
However, his prompt apologies and embarrassment over the incidents should be punishment enough, says Essex Superior Court Judge James Convery in a response (PDF) filed last week to a complaint (PDF) filed early last month by the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.
Convery said his off-the-cuff comments weren’t intended to be offensive.
Hat tip: Star-Ledger.
