|
|
 |
|
July 29, 2010 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| October 01, 2008 |
By: Michael Booth |
|
ssex County Judge F. Michael Giles judge has been reprimanded, but not suspended, for directing profanity-laced invective at lawyers and litigants on multiple occasions.
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday followed the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct's recommendation that Giles not be suspended, based on findings that he was suffering from health problems and personal family tragedies at the time his outbursts occurred.
Giles did not contest the ACJC's presentment, issued July 30, and waived his right to a hearing before the court, which issued its order without opinion.
The ACJC found that Giles, 64, a judge since 1991, used expletives, vulgarity and disrespectful language in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct; that his intemperate conduct was prejudicial to the administration of justice; and that his sarcastic and disrespectful comments about a pending ethics grievance impugned the integrity of and demonstrated disrespect for the judiciary.
"Moreover, the Committee cannot consider Respondent's conduct to have been aberrational," the ACJC said. "Similar prior incidents involving intemperate, insulting and offensive behavior demonstrate that the recent misconduct was not isolated or exceptional."
The ACJC focused mainly on three recent instances of vitriolic behavior:
• On April 10, 2006, Giles erupted at Sebastian Bio, of Bio & Laracca in Orange, N.J., who was representing Altereek Dunne on a bench warrant. Before the case was heard, Bio escorted Dunne to the Essex County Sheriff's Department for processing. Bio later learned from the public defender's office that Dunne had been remanded to the sheriff's custody for outstanding municipal warrants.
When Bio appeared in Giles' courtroom, the judge said he could do nothing about the incarceration on the municipal warrants. Bio asked Giles to address only the Superior Court warrant. Giles, after making sure he was off the record, said: "I said get the [expletive] out of my courtroom. What the [expletive] don't you understand? Shut the [expletive] up and get the [expletive] out of here. I have a meeting this afternoon."
• On Dec. 12, 2007, at a settlement conference in a suit against Spencer Savings Bank, Giles railed at bank lawyer Diane Bettino, of Reed Smith in Princeton, "Did you wake up on the wrong ... [expletive] ... side of the bed?"
• On Feb. 5, 2008, after the ACJC's initial ethics complaint was filed, Giles heard arguments on pretrial motions in the bank suit. Off the record, he asked the lawyers whether they had read news articles about the complaint, which had prompted Assignment Judge Patricia Costello to transfer him from the Criminal Part to the Civil Part. When they said they had, Giles said he had told Costello he could just as easily curse at lawyers in civil cases as in criminal ones. Bettino reminded him he had cursed at her in the Dec. 12 incident, and Giles replied that he would call her as a witness at his ethics hearing since she seemed to have survived the incident and was faring well before him.
The ACJC also recounted a prior disciplinary action. In 1998, the ACJC sent Giles a warning letter based on two complaints about his discourteous conduct toward litigants in landlord-tenant cases. Giles acknowledged that he had been discourteous and assured the panel he would not repeat the conduct.
In its July presentment, the ACJC found that Giles' prior transgressions and the more recent ones "demonstrate a pattern of improper conduct that calls into question his judgment and his ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of the Code of Judicial Conduct."
However, the ACJC noted that Giles had been under considerable stress for a period of time. His 40-year-old daughter died in late 2004, leaving him and his wife in charge of their 5- and 10-year-old grandchildren. His mother-in-law died at about the same time. In January 2006, he lost sight in his left eye due to glaucoma. Doctors performed a brain angiogram in 2007 due to concerns that the glaucoma was due to a growth in the brain.
Asked about the state of his health at a ACJC hearing in June, Giles said he was feeling better and undergoing counseling but had rejected a suggestion by his wife that he go on disability. He apologized for his behavior.
In urging a reprimand, the ACJC followed in Matter of Sadofsky, 98 N.J. 434 (1985), which imposed that discipline on a judge for intemperate, offensive language. Like Giles, Joseph Sadofsky blamed his outbursts on stress -- specifically, dealing with a heavy case load.
The court accepted the ACJC's findings that Giles violated Canon 1, requiring high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary is preserved; Canon 2A, which requires judges to respect and comply with the law and act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary; Canon 3A(2), requiring judges to maintain order and decorum in judicial proceedings; and Canon 3A(3), requiring judges to be patient, dignified and courteous. He also violated Rule 2:15-8(a)(4), barring conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and that brings the judicial office in disrepute.
Giles' lawyer, Thomas Ashley, was away from his Newark office and could not be reached for comment.
Michael Booth reports for the New Jersey Law Journal, an affiliate of the Daily Business Review.
|
Search the archive for more stories.
|
|
|
 |
|
lawjobs Featured Ad
Associate
Dynamic, multi-practice law firm seeks associate with 1-2 years exp. for litigation in workers' comp. department; excellent salary and benefits.
Please fax resume to
(954) 938-7902 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
