Opinion 24-199

February 6, 2025

Digest:   A part-time judge may not accept employment with the county sheriff's office, even as a private contractor, where the court’s calendar includes a substantial number of tickets issued by deputy sheriffs.

Rules:    22 NYCRR 100.2(A); 100.3(A); 100.3(E)(1); 100.4(C)(2)(b); 100.6(B)(4); Opinions 22-136; 21-173; 18-11; 16-32; 08-145; 07-01; 98-116.

Opinion:

          The inquiring town justice retired from his/her prior employment as chief civil clerk at the county sheriff’s office over a decade ago.  Due to recent personnel changes, none of the remaining civil clerks know how to perform the requisite accounting functions.  The judge asks if he/she may work at the sheriff’s office as a private contractor to teach the civil clerks the basic, required accounting job duties.  Roughly half of the traffic and criminal matters in the town court involve the county sheriff's office, but the judge would work directly with the civil clerks and not with any of the deputy sheriffs. 

         A judge’s judicial duties “take precedence” over all the judge’s other activities (see 22 NYCRR 100.3[A]).  A judge thus must always act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the judiciary’s integrity and impartiality (see 22 NYCRR 100.2[A]) and must disqualify in any proceeding where the judge’s impartiality “might reasonably be questioned” (22 NYCRR 100.3[E][1]).  A part-time judge may nonetheless accept public employment in a municipal department or agency, provided such employment is not incompatible with judicial office and does not conflict or interfere with the proper performance of the judge’s duties (see 22 NYCRR 100.6[B][4]).

          When the non-judicial employment may appear to align the judge with law enforcement, increased scrutiny is necessary (see Opinion 22-136).  A judge’s outside employment must not involve peace officer status or quasi-law enforcement responsibilities or otherwise create a public perception of partiality toward law enforcement (see Opinion 16-32; 22 NYCRR 100.4[C][2][b]).  Thus, for example, a part-time judge may not serve in civilian positions as a 911 dispatcher (see Opinion 98-116) or as in-house counsel for the county sheriff (see Opinion 16-32).  As explained in Opinion 22-136 (citation omitted):

At least two conditions must be met for a part-time judge to maintain employment with a law enforcement agency.  First, the employment must not involve, or appear to involve, a peace officer or quasi-law enforcement role.  Second, the agency must not appear so frequently in the judge’s court as to interfere with the judge’s duties.

         While the role of a civilian accounting clerk may be acceptable, the proposed employment clearly fails on the second condition.  Given that the sheriff’s office is involved in about half of the court’s traffic and criminal matters, the requisite disqualification would interfere with judicial duties (see e.g. Opinions 21-173 [“the sheriff’s office issues a substantial number of tickets before the court”]; 07-01 [town court’s calendar consisted “almost entirely of traffic cases and criminal complaints filed by New York State Troopers”]; see also Opinions 18-11 [part-time judge may not accept “seasonal employment with a company owned by two [local] deputy sheriffs,” as “it would interfere with [the judge’s] ability to preside in matters involving the sheriff’s office]; 08-145 [judge must disqualify from the “rare[]” matters involving his/her outside employer, and must choose between the positions if disqualification becomes “too frequent”]).

          Accordingly, we conclude this part-time town justice may not accept employment with the county sheriff's office, even as a private contractor, as the town court’s calendar includes a substantial number of tickets issued by that office.