Top court removes Northport judge from bench for 'vile' language

ALBANY – New York’s top court has removed a Northport judge from the bench for using “intensely degrading and vile” slurs in a series of emails with clients.

In doing so, the state Court of Appeals upheld the determination of a judicial oversight panel that Paul Senzer should be removed as Northport village justice, a part-time post he held since 1994.

In a 7-0 decision, the court said removal was warranted because Senzer’s “conduct undermined the dignity and integrity of the judicial system.”

At issue was a series of emails Senzer sent to clients in his role as a private attorney. In them, he denigrated litigants, opposing attorneys and a court attorney-referee.

Senzer’s lawyer had argued the emails should be considered private and not sanctionable. At worst, the village justice should be warned, not removed.

But the top court disagreed.

Senzer’s “statements were manifestly vulgar and offensive, and his repeated use of such language in written communications to insult and demean others involved in the legal process showed a pervasive disrespect for the system, conveyed a perception of disdain for the legal system, and indicated that he is unable to maintain the high standard of conduct we demand of judges,” the Court of Appeals judges wrote.

Further, the judges said Senzer displayed an “unacceptable and egregious pattern” of conduct – even though he’d been warned before by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Senzer’s “misconduct cannot be explained as an isolated or spontaneous slip of the tongue, as the statements — repeated multiple times — were included in deliberative, written communications petitioner made to these clients relating to their legal representation,” the court wrote. That the emails were sent to private clients “does not excuse the wrongfulness of his conduct.”

David Besso, Senzer's lawyer, called the decision an overreaction and a "gross miscarriage of justice" because the comments were made as a private attorney, not a judge.

"There was nothing in the public realm," Besso said. "He never should have said the things he did, but he was a good judge ... He's very remorseful."

Robert Tembeckjian, administrator of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, said: “It is a sad and unpleasant duty to remove a judge from office for behavior that undermines public confidence in the integrity of the courts."