North Country Gazette

Dog Shooter’s Judge-Attorney In Prohibited Dual Role

Posted on Tuesday, 10 of July , 2007 at 4:59 pm

GLENS FALLS—Gary C. Hobbs, a part-time judge in Glens Falls City Court and a partner in the private law firm of Poklemba & Hobbs, seems to have a problem with ethics.

First he tried to be a prosecutor in Warren County courts at the same time that he was sitting on the bench and was forcibly removed by court order.

Now, according to an article in Newsday, he’s trying to be a defense attorney too in the same county where he’s a judge.

The thing is though, it’s prohibited and unethical.

According to an article published Tuesday in Newsday, Hobbs is continuing his long standing practice of representing police officers who run afoul of the law.

Newsday reported that Hobbs is representing John J. Sheehan, 36, of Hauppauge, Long Island, the Suffolk County police officer who has been accused of shooting a young dog in the head with a .38 caliber handgun in the Town of Hague, claiming that the dog came after him while he was jogging. It’s unknown why he was carrying a gun while jogging. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2007/06/14/cop_shooter/ 

Sheehan is facing three misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, illegally discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling and across a highway.  He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to reappear in Hague Justice Court on Aug. 2.

The Newsday article said that the police department is reviewing the charges against Sheehan.  The weapon used was not his service revolver and is registered to him in Suffolk County. http://www.newsday.com/local/longisland/ny-lidog0710,0,499125.story?coll=ny-top-headlines 

The article also stated that Gary Hobbs is representing the cop.

The Rules Governing Judicial Conduct prohibit a part-time judge from practicing law in any court within the county before a judge who is also permitted to practice law.  There is only one town justice in Hague—Heather Knott—and she is a currently registered attorney.

The court did not immediately respond to a request by The North Country Gazette for the name of the attorney of record in the case.

The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics has issued opinions which have concluded that to the extent an associate is acting as an employee of a part-time judge, handling cases for that part-time judge, his/her appearance in any court is equivalent to an appearance by the part-time judge himself and accordingly should be subject to the same restrictions as the judge. Therefore, such an associate-employee of Hobbs may not practice in his court or in any other court in the same county which is presided over by a judge who is permitted to practice law, such as the Hague Town Court. http://www.nycourts.gov/search/ethics_opinions.asp

http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/judicialethics/opinions/90-23_.pdf

An article appearing June 15 in The Post-Star listed Laura Hoffman of Poklemba & Hobbs as representing Sheehan.  This is contrary to Tuesday’s Newsday article.  Hoffman is not listed as an associate on the law firm’s website. 

The matter has been presented to both the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Committee on Professional Standards.

Hobbs has a history of representing police officers who encounter criminal charges.  In 2003, Hobbs represented Whitehall resident Jacob Sabo who had been charged with the felony filing of a false written instrument with intent to defraud for lying on his job application in seeking to become the police chief in Delaware County.

Hobbs in essence told the court that his client wouldn’t have lied on the application if he’d known he was going to be caught.  He claimed that Sabo didn’t know the lies were going to become part of his permanent record in the county’s personnel file.

Sabo had been employed as the part-time police chief n the village of Fleicschmann’s for about 16 months prior to his arrest.  The village board had hired him in 2002 without a background check but after he began his duties, the mayor received an anonymous tip that Sabo had lied on his civil service application.

Unbelieveably the village board refused to investigate the matter.  The mayor resigned and asked the district attorney’s office to investigate which led to Sabo being indicted.

Sabo had falsely claimed to have worked for the state attorney general’s office and that he worked with NY State Police.  Representatives from both agencies testified otherwise, denying any involvement with Sabo and leading to his conviction.

Sabo had also falsely claimed to have been the police chief in the village of Lake George.  He also said he had never been convicted of a crime but a former Vermont assistant attorney general testified that Sabo had been convicted a solid waste facility without a license, a misdemeanor, and fined $25,000.  Although he was sentenced to six months in jail, the sentence was suspended and reduced to probation. © North Country Gazette   7-10-07