Village judge bullied others, threatened contempt and erupted in 'angry diatribes,' decision says
A village court judge in New York should be booted from the bench for bullying behavior that included “angry diatribes” and repeated threats of contempt or arrest for routine personnel or administrative issues, according to the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The judge, Alan Simon, is also a lawyer. He served as a town justice in Spring Valley and Ramapo, and was recently appointed a justice in Hillburn. The Legal Profession Blog, the Journal News and New City Patch covered the March 29 determination (PDF), which was released this week. Simon has indicated he will appeal the determination, according to acquaintances who spoke with the Journal News.
One “incident that escalated in to a melee” epitomized Simon’s misconduct, the determination said. Simon was displeased because the mayor had hired, without his input, a college student to work in the court clerk’s office, and he didn’t want the student to be working with confidential documents.
Simon ordered the employee to leave the office and chastised the court clerk, who told the employee to go to the mayor’s office to avoid problems. The mayor told the employee to return to the clerk’s office.
When Simon saw the student employee there, Simon said he would issue a warrant for his arrest, called police and said he was holding the employee in contempt, and said the mayor could be next, according to findings of fact. Simon asked multiple officers to arrest the student, and when they balked, Simon asked a friend who was a court officer but off duty to come to court to make the arrest. A co-judge told the court officer not to make the arrest because Simon had issued an illegal order.
At that point, the determination said, Simon “was red in the face and enraged; his voice was loud, angry and aggressive, and his arms were flailing.” He then declared he would arrest the student himself, and when the co-judge advised Simon not to do it, Simon told the co-judge to “have a stroke and die,” according to the determination.
Simon then returned to the clerk’s office where he confronted the employee, began arraigning him, told him he was being sentenced to 15 days in jail, and grabbed his right forearm, trying to pull him out of the chair, the determination said. The co-judge told Simon he was committing a crime, spurring Simon to declare he was holding the co-judge in contempt.
Police arrived and escorted the student employee from the office. At the ethics hearing, Simon claimed he only touched the student employee on his elbow. “I probably could’ve acted better,” Simon said, “but I do believe I acted appropriately.”
Simon also said he never intended to follow through on his threats and never held anyone in contempt in his judicial career. His aim in making the threats, he testified, was to “motivate people to do what I thought was the right and proper thing.”
The student employee melee wasn’t the only instance of bullying, according to the determination. “On repeated occasions over several years,” the determination said, Simon “abused his judicial position in order to bully, harass, threaten and intimidate his court staff, his co-judge and other village officials and employees with whom he dealt in an official capacity. Without lawful basis, he repeatedly threatened such individuals with contempt or arrest over routine personnel or administrative issues in his court. On a frequent basis, he also subjected them to demeaning treatment, insults and angry diatribes.”
In a statement about the determination, Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said: “A judge is obligated to act with courtesy, patience and dignity. Judge Simon was sorely and consistently lacking in judicial temperament. There is no place on the bench for behavior so routinely bullying, threatening and demeaning as his.”
