Legal Ethics
‘Manifestly Improper’: Personal Attorney Appears Before N.Y. Judge
Posted Nov 10, 2008, 02:54 pm CST
By Martha Neil
The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended a censure for a Manhattan trial judge who acted in a "manifestly improper" manner by presiding over two criminal cases in which his personal attorney appeared.
"However, by a vote of 4-3, the commission dismissed a second charge that Acting Supreme Court Justice Michael R. Ambrecht, shortly before the 2005 Democratic primary, conducted an investigation of the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau and issued a decision that was or appeared to be politically motivated accusing the district attorney of misconduct," reports the New York Law Journal, in an article reprinted by New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
The commission's administrator, Robert Tembeckjian, had recommended that Ambrecht be removed from office.