Former judge joins traffic violations bureau

Martin J. Kerins, a former judge once convicted of leaving the scene of a car accident, has become an administrative hearing officer in Suffolk's new traffic violations bureau.

Kerins, 75, has made $3,450 working part-time in the new traffic court since May. In 1997, he was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of the accident, second-degree assault of a police officer and resisting arrest. He refused a blood-alcohol test. Kerins, then Brookhaven's deputy supervisor, pleaded guilty only to leaving the scene. Rudolph Cartier, his lawyer, said he was "wildly overcharged." Kerins, a district court judge in the 1980s, was elected county court judge in 2001 and retired five years ago. -- Rick Brand