The head of the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct is disputing the Office of Court Administration's explanation that allowed an acting state Supreme Court justice to stay on the bench 10 months after an admonishment should have demoted him.
According to Robert Tembeckjian, the commission's administrator and counsel, a dozen top officials at the OCA including Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks and public information officials are directly emailed whenever the commission censures, admonishes or seeks removal of a judge.
The process, which has been in place for years, should have meant OCA officials were aware that former Acting Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary was admonished in October 2016 and should be sent down to municipal court.
Despite this, it wasn't until another, more recent admonishment and demotion of an acting Manhattan Supreme Court justice that Gary's admonishment resulted in a demotion under Section 120.5 of the administrative rules.
Gary is now serving in he city's Criminal Court, and the other former justice, Leticia Ramirez, is serving in Civil Court.
On Wednesday, OCA spokesman Lucian Chalfen contended that "nobody saw" Gary's admonishment.
Tembeckjian offered a different analysis.
"My guess is that this situation is one that just fell through the cracks at OCA," he said. "It happens."
Chalfen had stated that a new process is now in place for the commission to alert court administrators to decisions going forward. Tembeckjian said no discussion had occurred between the offices to his knowledge prior to Chalfen's comments being reported in the New York Law Journal.
Tembeckjian said he did reach out to Marks after seeing the news story, and the two discussed the situation. While he presented a collegial situation between the two offices, Tembeckjian said no specific changes were discussed with Marks about the situation, adding that the commission's current process for alerting the OCA to judge discipline actions "seems to me to be sufficient."
"Our relationship with OCA is professional and cooperative, and I'm willing to improving both of our operations," he said. "To the extent they might recommend ways that we can help these things from falling between the cracks, I'm open to working with them and their suggestions."
When reached out to for comment regarding Tembeckjian's statements, Chalfen on July 6 responded in an email that communications between the offices "in such matters have always been, and remain, open and highly professional."