Robert G. Dunlop is the local yokel town justice in Chazy, New York. A former State Trooper, he found a seat where he could dispense justice as he saw it, and apparently with the approval of the Chazy residents. Having never known that there was place in New York named Chazy, and still somewhat incredulous that anyone would name a town Chazy, I was unaware of Justice Dunlop’s existence until now.
Thanks to the North Country Gazette, we learn that Justice Dunlop of Chazy is yet another shining example of why the whole non-lawyer local justice system, as profiled by the New York Times in the “Tiny Courts” expose as being perhaps the most disgraceful example of political cowardice in the State of New York.
The state disciplinary panel for judges has determined that Chazy town justice Robert G. Dunlop should be censured for accepting a guilty plea from a defendant whom he sentenced to serve 90 days in jail when the defendant was not represented by an attorney and was incapable of understanding the proceedings.
It seems our former State Trooper wasn’t overly concerned with the fact that the defendant brought before him by his fellow brothers in blue was intoxicated and cognitively impaired. But who cares if the defendant understands what’s happening, when we have a judge like Dunlop present to protect his rights?
And what did this miscreant do to deserve a sentence of 90 days on his immediate plea?
The police told Judge Dunlop that the defendant had been discovered at 4:20 a.m. lying in the middle of the road and intoxicated and that he had a marijuana pipe in his backpack.
Hey, you don’t do that sort of thing in Chazy and get away with it. Off with his head!
The good news is that it caught the attention of Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator of the Commission on Judicial Conduct. The bad news is that it only resulted in the imposition of censure. Bad judge. Now get back to work.
Dunlop wasn’t new to the job. He had been the Beekmantown Town Court Justice from 1992 to 2000, and Chazy Justice since January, 2005. He should have gotten it by now. He should have gotten it long ago. If he hadn’t, he never would. And clearly he hadn’t.
Tembeckjian recommended Dunlop’s removal from the bench. Three commissioners agreed. The rest did not. Richard Emory wrote a dissent, arguing that censure was too lenient for Dunlop. In the meantime, the defendant did 60 days in Clinton County Jail, which is the full sentence with time off.
This non-lawyer local justice system isn’t going to get any better. When will the nice folks in Albany get the political will to put an end to this blight on the New York legal system?
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I noticed that you didn’t talk about the Court of Claims Judge that was centured also on the same day.
Its amazing how a NYC lawyer who has probably never been in an upstate court can find fault with the system.
If I didn’t have someone making comments as thoughtful as yours, I would have to pay someone. If you can keep a secret, I’ll let you in on the covert conspiracy of NYC lawyers to make fun of upstate justice courts with non-lawyer judges to make ourselves feel important. We’re just lucky that they keep doing such incredibly stupid and damaging things or we would be stymied in our conspiratorial efforts.
I have practiced in courts upstate. The actions of the judge were stupid. Feel better now?
Thanks, BG, though I try my darndest not to placate people who offer paranoid non-arguments in the hope that they either think harder or go away. They add nothing to the discussion.