By Mark Scheer
City Court Judge Robert Restaino’s attorney said Wednesday his client “deeply regrets” and “profoundly apologizes” for the actions that led to a recommendation for his removal from the bench and added that his client intends to seek a second opinion on the matter from a higher court.
The recommendation, issued Nov. 13 and made public late Tuesday afternoon, said Restaino engaged in “an egregious and unprecedented abuse of judicial power” on March 11, 2005, when he sent 46 people to jail following an incident in his courtroom in which the judge attempted unsuccessfully to find the source of what was believed to be a cell phone ringing.
The eight page decision, supported by nine of the commission’s 10 members, was unrelenting in its criticism of Restaino. Commissioner’s wrote that Restaino behaved like “a petty tyrant” whose behavior constituted “a gross deviation from the proper role of a judge.”
Restaino’s attorney, Terrence M. Connors, said his client intends to file a notice of appeal in the case with the state Court of Appeals which has the power to reduce Restaino’s punishment from outright removal to a less serious censure.
“It is our hope that the Court of Appeals will measure those few hours against a decade of exemplary conduct on the bench and years of extraordinary service to the Niagara Falls community,” Connors said in a statement released Wednesday.
New York’s Court of Appeals is presided over by seven judges who have the power to suspend Restaino pending a review of his case. Court of Appeals’ spokesman Gary Spencer could not say Wednesday whether Restaino would be suspended, noting that the court had not yet received a formal notice of appeal from the judge.
By law, Connors has 30 days from notification of the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s decision to file such an appeal.
Should the court determine that the commission’s findings in the Restaino case were appropriate, Office of Court Administration spokesman David Bookstaver said the choice of the judge’s temporary replacement would fall to Niagara Falls Mayor-elect Paul Dyster. Restaino secured a 10-year term as judge in 2001. His temporary replacement, if needed, would serve until a new judge could be elected in November of 2008.
“The mayor has the authority to make an interim appointment until the next election,” Bookstaver said.
