Panel Calls for Removing N.Y. Judge

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A state commission has recommended removing a judge who sought donations to his defense fund from lawyers who were trying cases before him. In the opinion released Friday, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct also scolded Justice Thomas Spargo for giving out $5 gift coupons for gas and coffee and buying drinks for potential voters in a local campaign in 1999.

Spargo will accept the removal rather than appeal to the state's highest court, said his lawyer, E. Stewart Jones Jr.
The watchdog commission said Spargo ``conveyed an appearance of exploiting his judicial office for personal benefit'' when he and friends pressured the lawyers to contribute to a fund created to help pay for his battle against the commission over complaints filed since January 2002.

The commission also cited the handouts Spargo used when he campaigned for Berne town justice in 1999, as well as his decision to accept Albany County's district attorney-elect as a law client even though as town justice Spargo presided over cases brought by the District Attorney's office. And, the commission said, Spargo should not have been a featured speaker at a Conservative Party fundraising event in 2001.

Spargo had defended his actions as protected by the U.S. and state constitutions. ``I think it's a dark day for the civil justice system,'' Jones said. ``We've lost a good judge.'' The commission dismissed a complaint about Spargo's work in Florida for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election recount, which included participation in a nationally televised demonstration.

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At the same time he was stumping for George W. Bush and chanting with other Republican supporters at what amounted to a boisterous sit-in, Spargo was serving as a part-time judge in the rural Albany County town of Berne. Judges are not supposed to get involved in politics.