Margaret Reilly, who was removed from Nassau Surrogate Court in September, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

Supreme Court Justice Margaret Reilly, who was removed from the Surrogate Court bench last September after a hostile workplace investigation, was sworn in Wednesday to a 14-year term in Nassau County Supreme Court.

The judge, who did not mention her removal during the ceremony, could not be reached for comment.

Reilly, who was cross-endorsed for her new position by the county Republican and Democratic parties, was elected to the Supreme Court in November, three months after being ousted from her seat on the probate bench, where she sat for nearly 10 years.

Lawyers and petitioners trying to resolve their cases through the Nassau County Surrogate Court describe lengthy delays and paperwork returned for minor corrections during Reilly's tenure.

The Office of Court Administration has declined to comment on Reilly’s removal and a public records request for information on the investigation has been delayed for six months.

"She effectively was simply refusing to do the job of being a judge, and her staff is supporting that effort," Leni Calas, a Manhattan businesswoman, said about Reilly’s oversight of her father’s estate.

Calas said delays in her case resulted in two tax liens on her father’s home while the case dragged on.

"The court said, ‘figure it out,’" she said. "Property taxes are still due, everyone still wants their money or they're foreclosing on your asset."

Barry and Linda Smirnoff, of Oceanside, who have a trust for their mentally disabled son, Michael, who was injured at birth due to malpractice by the hospital, said it was Reilly’s demeanor and cruelty that bothered them.

The couple said Reilly forced them to pay back more than $14,000 they had used from the trust for lawyers’ fees and gas and lunch money they had spent visiting their son in a home in Pennsylvania and upstate.

Barry Smirnoff said the judge forced them to resubmit paperwork repeatedly.

"It's a lot of effort for nothing that we didn't sign up for in the first place," he said. "We don't need to be humiliated on a constant basis of being told these horrible things because we wanted to help our son. I mean, the whole process has become a nightmare for no reason. There's no reason for any of it. The purpose of the trust was to help a handicapped person, and it ended up hurting his parents."

After her swearing-in Wednesday, Reilly spoke in the abstract about the duties of a judge serving on the court.

"The law is a profession, and it also requires us to remain mindful to the real world challenges faced by those who appear before us," she said. "We have an obligation to treat attorneys and their clients and litigants with professionalism, fairness and respect."

An investigation by the Office of Court Administration Inspector General’s Office was completed over the summer and Reilly was removed from Surrogate Court on Sept. 8.

One lawyer, Timothy McNamara, who is not related to Reilly’s husband, Vincent McNamara, but has worked with his firm, told Newsday he had seen the final report from the hostile workplace investigation. He described it as "high school [expletive]" with minor complaints from staff about Reilly raising her voice, reassigning staff parking spots and rearranging desks in the back office.

The state court denied Newsday's request for the final report, arguing the completed report is a deliberative document exempt from public records law. They also said privacy concerns required them to withhold the document. Newsday has appealed the decision.

Reilly’s former clerk, Virginia Clavin-Higgins, declined to speak about the judge’s removal from Surrogate Court, but she did speak at length about her brother, Donald X. Clavin Jr., who was also sworn in Wednesday to a seat on the Nassau County Supreme Court.

Clavin, a Republican, served as Hempstead Town supervisor until he resigned from the post in early August and was cross-endorsed by the Nassau Democratic Party to run for a seat on the state Supreme Court.