NEW YORK (AP) — A New York state judge who engaged in a lengthy, abusive tirade after an argument broke out at a high school graduation party must be removed from office, a judicial watchdog panel ruled.
State Supreme Court Justice Erin Gall, 53, invoked her authority as a judge in an attempt to have uninvited guests arrested, threatened to shoot black teenagers and bragged that her 18-year-old son had killed another partygoer, the state , ‘had given the blow’. The Commission on Judicial Conduct wrote this in its report released on Monday.
The commission found that Gall, a white Republican who has served as an elected judge in Oneida County since 2012, “gave at least the appearance that she harbored racial biases,” which could undermine public confidence in her integrity.
The judicial conduct panel said Gall’s conduct was “inappropriate” after the July 1, 2022, graduation party at a friend’s home went out of control. “Her wide range of misconduct has seriously undermined public confidence in the judiciary and in her ability to serve as a fair and impartial judge,” the committee said in its removal recommendation.
Gall, who served the two years it took for the Judiciary Committee to complete its investigation, is now suspended with pay — her salary is $232,600 a year — while New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, Profession, her decides fate. Meanwhile, her attorney, Robert Julian, said Tuesday that she will appeal the panel’s decision.
Gall testified at the inquiry, saying the violent clashes at the graduation party brought back memories of a 1990 attack she suffered as a college student. Julian did not dispute his client’s comments, but said she was in a “state of fear, dismay, frustration and exhaustion” when she made them.
According to the report, Gall attended the party at a friend’s home in New Hartford, New York with her husband and three teenage children. The hosts of the party hired a bartender and provided a keg of beer from which the guests could serve themselves.
A large number of apparent party crashers showed up after 11:30 p.m., the panel said. Four black teenagers arrived after learning of the party from a live video feed, and the driver subsequently lost his car keys, the report said.
Arguments and fights broke out between invited and uninvited guests, and officers from several law enforcement agencies responded.
Police body camera footage showed Gall telling the black teens, “You have to leave! You’re not going to find your keys. You need to call an Uber and leave the building.”
Then she said, “Well, you either get in an Uber, buddy, or you get a police escort home. That’s how it happens. That’s what I’m telling you now. That’s how I roll. That’s how I roll. That’s how Mrs. G rolls. That’s how Judge Gall rolls. We are cleaning this place up.”
Gall tried to get police to arrest the black teens for trespassing, saying, “I’ve done this for a million years. I’m a lawyer. I am a judge. I know this.”
She also yelled at the teens, “Get off the property! And that’s from Judge Gall! I am a judge!”, with a profanity.
Both Gall’s husband and her 18-year-old son were involved in the fighting, and Gall told officers that her son “threw a punch when he was hit.”
She also said: ‘My husband and son were hit first. . . but they are done. As I taught them.”
The body camera footage shows Gall alternately complaining that the officers weren’t arresting anyone and assuring officers that she was on their side.
“Listen, but guess what, the good thing is I’m always on your side,” she said. “You know, I’d take anyone down for you. You know that.”
Gall told police that the black teens “don’t look that smart. They’re not going to business school, that’s for sure.”
She also said that if the teens came back looking for their keys, “you can shoot them on the property. I will shoot them on the premises.’
Gall’s conduct was “as shocking as anything I have seen in my 40 years of upholding legal ethics,” said Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commission’s administrator and counsel.