A state judicial oversight fee ordered the elimination of a Queens Civil Court docket decide after discovering he continued practising legislation after taking the bench, allowed an unlicensed twice-convicted felon to run his legislation workplace, mishandled consumer funds and repeatedly didn’t adjust to monetary disclosure guidelines.
The New York State Fee on Judicial Conduct introduced Thursday that Civil Court docket Decide Joseph Kasper must be faraway from workplace.
“A full-time decide is prohibited from practising legislation,” stated Fee Administrator Robert Tembeckjian. “That Decide Kasper continued to take action for 2 years after taking the bench was unhealthy sufficient.”
“That he additionally facilitated a felon’s masquerade as a lawyer is much more stunning,” he added. “Such contempt for the rule of legislation is inimical to the position of a decide and requires his elimination from workplace.”
Richard Emery, Kasper’s lawyer, admitted his consumer “did commit misconduct” however maintained it was nothing that ought to have led to elimination.
“He didn’t profit in any manner himself, and nothing about his misconduct pertains to his actions on the bench,” Emery instructed The Metropolis Reporter.
He acknowledged that Kasper continued some personal follow circumstances at his previous legislation workplace earlier than getting elected to the bench in 2022. Full-time judges in New York are barred from practising legislation, in keeping with Workplace of Court docket Administration rules.
In a single case, Kasper instructed a former consumer that she needed to pay him $1,000 in money earlier than he would full her divorce, in keeping with the fee’s 69-page report.
Emery stated he continued doing the work as a misguided loyalty to his shoppers.
“The irony right here is that his follow of legislation, whereas he was a full-time decide, was based mostly solely on his private dedication to his former shoppers and his loyalty to them to wind up their issues as cheaply as attainable, in order that they might not be affected by his election to the bench,” Emery contended.
The Lawyer Who Wasn’t
As for the unlicensed lawyer, Kasper let his longtime pal and paralegal, Janice Bar, to file a minimum of 22 authorized paperwork underneath his identify, in keeping with the fee.
In a single significantly egregious allegation of misconduct, Bar pretended to be an lawyer in open courtroom, examined a witness, and signed courtroom paperwork as “Janice Bar, Esq,” in keeping with the fee. When she instructed Kasper about it afterward, he reportedly simply stated, “It’s a great factor you have been there,” and did nothing, the fee report stated.
Kasper and Bar have been associates for years and within the Nineteen Nineties they served as Republican Occasion co-district leaders, the place she repeatedly supported his campaigns for the bench.
In 2016, she was convicted of two felonies: forgery and making an apparently sworn false assertion.
Emery, who beforehand served on the fee for 13 years, argued that the allegations in opposition to her didn’t straight contain Kasper.
“That was not his misconduct; that was her misconduct.,” he stated. “And if something, to the extent that he enabled it, it was as a lawyer, not as a decide.”
The fee additionally stated Kasper left roughly $17,200 sitting in his lawyer escrow accounts for over two years after taking the bench. As of 2024 he nonetheless couldn’t account for over $7,000 of it, in keeping with the fee.
Kasper spent years working for the judicial place in Queens earlier than he beat Democrat Paul Vallone, a former Metropolis Council member and a son of Peter Vallone, who served as Council speaker throughout the Nineteen Nineties. It was the primary time in practically 60 years {that a} Republican received that seat, in keeping with Metropolis Limits.
Kasper had solely about three months left on the bench.
His time period expires on Dec. 31, 2031, however as a result of he turns 70 in 2026, Kasper would not be capable to function a decide previous this yr.
Emery vowed to enchantment the fee’s determination to the state’s highest courtroom, which has last say.
“It’s past the pale that this case is ripe for elimination,” he argued. “It’s fully abhorrent. Nothing on this case entails something he did on the bench.”
