It was almost exactly two years ago when I noted in a Morning Warm-Up that District Court Judge Robert Cicale of Suffolk County New York was arrested for breaking into the home of his 23-year-old former intern on multiple occasions and stealing panties from her laundry hamper. His Honor was arrested in March 2018 as he was leaving the woman’s house with with his pockets filled with her awaiting-to-be-laundered delicates. The 49-year-old married father of three was charged with burglary in the second degree.
Calling the case “highly disturbing,” the prosecutor said at the time, “This is an individual who swore to uphold the law and violated it in a very serious way.The message here, both from the Suffolk County Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, is that no one is above the law.”
You mean judges can’t break into the homes of former female interns to steal their panties and do god knows what with them? Who knew? Damn those obscure ethics rules…
Cicale pleaded guilty in September of last year and was sentenced to probation in November. The judge was also required to register as a sex offender. Why didn’t I just write “The ex-judge,” you ask? Good question! Although Cicale was suspended without pay following his arrest, he was not removed from office—nobody has explained why—and didn’t resign. This prevented local officials from holding an election to replace him. The New York Court of Appeals could have ordered his removal prior to the expiration of his term at the end of 2020. It never did.
To be fair, it’s not like he was a bad judge or anything like that.
Cicale finally agreed to resign effective March 31 “The public cannot respect and the electorate cannot replace a judge who pleads guilty to a felony but holds on to office, despite being suspended without pay,” Judicial Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said in a news release. Yes, and the public also cannot respect a judicial system that allows a pervert who can’t restrain himself to hold on to a judgeship for two full years after being arrested for burglary and panty raids.
Cicale was also disbarred last week.
Good.
Ethics Alarms 
He wasn’t removed from office and was allowed to resign later?
KABOOM!
Kaboom.
Was the later resignation (vs. earlier removal) an intentional ploy (by his New York District Court pals) to pave the way to maintain his judicial pension ??
They do take care of each other, right ?
[Ka]Boom Shakalaka !!
The “Snakes and Ladders” game is going to need a bunch of really weird updates for the 2020’s.
Well, at least it was a heterosexual crime. Every cloud has a lace lining.
When I was a young deputy, the county where I served had a judge in the Court of General Sessions (the court of first appearance) who was a disbarred attorney. While practicing as an attorney he was charged (administratively, not criminally) of violating a fiduciary responsibility of some sort, and subsequently permanently disbarred from the practice of law. At that time, state law did not require General Sessions judges to be attorneys, so he ran for and was elected to the judgeship. The law was changed later that same year, but he was “grandfathered” and served as judge for over twenty years until his death. Politically, the county Democratic Party machine kept him unbeatable.