Nassau judge censured over tenure in Queens

ALBANY — A Nassau County judge has been censured by a statewide oversight panel for repeatedly “acting in a rude and discourteous manner” to attorneys and court staff.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct said Diccia T. Pineda-Kirwan, a justice of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, should be censured because of a series of “yelling” and “screaming” incidents going back a decade and all linked to her tenure in Queens County.

The commission noted it had warned Pineda-Kirwan about similar complaints in 2006. But the panel also pointed out Pineda-Kirwan was transferred to Nassau in January 2019 and it hasn’t received any complaints about her since.

“A judge is obliged to be patient, dignified and courteous toward all with whom she interacts in an official capacity. Had she heeded the commission’s prior confidential warning to behave temperately, Judge Pineda-Kirwan would have avoided this subsequent public censure for excessively disagreeable demeanor,” Robert Tembeckjian, the administrator of the judicial commission, said.

Censure is the second-to-most severe penalty it can administer, short of removal.

Pineda-Kirwan has the right to appeal the penalty but the commission’s report noted her attorney in July “entered into an agreed statement of facts, stipulating to the facts and sanction and waiving further submissions and oral argument.”