Caseload, Marital Problems Raised as Factors in Judge’s Tirade Over Courtroom Cell Phone
The New York Law Journal reports:
Marital problems and a heavy caseload helped create the “perfect psychological storm” for a city court judge who began jailing defendants for not taking responsibility for a ringing cell phone in his courtroom one day in 2005, his attorney told New York state’s highest court Tuesday.
Overwork does not excuse Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert M. Restaino’s tirade, but it helps explain why it happened and should mitigate against his removal from the bench as recommended by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, Terrence M. Connors argued before the Court of Appeals.
“If there is no venal intent, there is no dishonesty or fraud or efforts to try to improve your own personal gain, then, where you have an aberration — in this case, an hour and a half — you don’t impose the judicial death penalty on a judge,” Connors argued. “He has so much more to give. He is regarded so highly.”