Nassau judge moved after allegations involving ex-clerk

State Supreme Court Justice George Peck has been reassigned to preside over civil cases after years of handling Nassau criminal cases following an investigation into what sources say were sexual harassment allegations against his former principal law clerk.

Peck's reassignment will take effect after he finishes the trial currently before him, state courts spokesman David Bookstaver said Tuesday.

Bookstaver declined to comment on the reason behind Peck's move, saying, "The court system does not discuss judicial assignment."

Peck was initially reassigned to the civil side in a Sept. 12 letter from Judge Michael Coccoma, the state's deputy chief administrative judge for courts outside New York City, the spokesman previously said.

But he said the reassignment was temporarily thrown into question after the subsequent resignation of attorney John J. Marshall Jr., who had been Peck's principal law clerk.

Sources said the state courts' inspector general began investigating Marshall after a complaint from Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice's office that Marshall had made sexually inappropriate comments to female prosecutors.

Sources also had said the court system couldn't fire Marshall because he was the judge's personal appointee and that Peck's transfer would have removed Marshall from the place where the alleged conduct took place.

Marshall has said he denies the allegations.

Peck declined to comment Tuesday on his reassignment, but confirmed he has hired attorney Kathleen Forman as his new principal law clerk.

Defense lawyer Joseph Lo Piccolo said it will be a "terrible loss" for Nassau's criminal court system to lose Peck's vast experience, which includes being a former prosecutor.

Attorney Dennis O'Brien, a Nassau Criminal Courts Bar Association board member, said the organization hoped "that this transfer was made after a thorough investigation, giving all sides a chance to be heard."

A Rice spokesman declined to comment on Peck's reassignment.