Riding In Cars With Judges

The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct has censured a family court judge who made "an ex parte, out-of-court excursion with a Treatment Court participant, in which he took the defendant for a ride in his personal car over a lunch recess and spoke privately with him about personal issues, including the defendant's drug use and his mother's death."

The censure concluded that "[s]uch behavior, no matter how well-intentioned, was inappropriate and showed extremely poor judgment, as [the judge] has conceded." (Mike Frisch)