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A
Jefferson County town justice who had already been censured and had
received two cautionary letters for judicial misconduct is the subject
of a removal proceeding by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.
However, Charles A. Pennington of the Alexandria Bay Village Court has
already resigned. He is not an attorney.
The
judicial watchdog panel says that Pennington improperly took home a
17-year-old female defendant from his courtroom when she
didn’t have any place to go following her arraignment on a
harassment charge.
Although
there was no evidence that Pennington made any improper advances to
her, the commission said that Pennington exhibited extraordinarily poor
judgment in bringing her to her home where she made telephone calls and
remained for about an hour. The panel said that his conduct compromised
his impartiality and conveyed an appearance of impropriety.
He
later adjourned her case in contemplation of dismissal.
In
another case, the panel said that Pennington made gratuitous comments
about a defendant’s race that were “manifestly
inappropriate”. In ruling on a defendant’s
objection to a witness’ use of the word
“colored” to describe him, the judge then made a
speech about his own views on racially-charged language and
unnecessarily and repeatedly used racial language that was
“inappropriate and far exceeded the witness’
single, objectionable term”.
The
commission said that regardless of whether the judge’s
remarks were knowingly racist or simply ill-considered, the use of such
language by a judicial officer serves to undermine public confidence in
the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
The
commission determination noted that in light of Pennington’s
resignation, the sanction of removal is necessary to ensure that he is
ineligible for judicial office in the future. 9-21-05
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