A Queens judge facing possible sanctions for misconduct from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct tried unsuccessfully last week to derail the proceedings by charging racial bias on the part of its chairman, celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder.
Justice Duane Hart, who is black, specifically pointed to “Schmucks,” co-written by Felder and comedian Jackie Mason. The book declares that – among other ethnically charged assertions – “there is nothing more insidious than affirmative action.”
We don’t know if there’s any merit to the allegation, which Felder called “ridiculous,” or whether, as we suspect, Hart is simply playing the race card.
But the book itself – which prompted Felder’s fellow commissioners to unanimously vote “no confidence” in his leadership – leaves him continually vulnerable to such charges.
After all, “Schmucks” contains the kind of often-insulting statements that, if uttered by a sitting judge, could be cause for action by Felder’s own commission.
Unfortunately, the problems with Felder go deeper than his writings.
Last month, when the commission heard the case of an upstate judge who ordered 46 people into custody merely because they’d been in his courtroom when a cellphone began ringing, it didn’t hesitate to recommend his removal from the bench.
Well, one member hesitated – Chairman Felder.
Even though he conceded that Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino exhibited “two hours of inexplicable madness,” Felder said he didn’t want to “destroy a man’s life because he snapped.”
Madness?
We’d say so.
When a cellphone rang while he was hearing a case, Restaino went berserk.
He ordered the courtroom doors shut and had bailiffs start searching for the offender, warning that “every single person” in the room “is going to jail” if the phone wasn’t turned over.
He then ordered everybody locked up – relenting only after the local news media got wind of the story and started asking questions.
None of this seemed worthy of significant punishment to Felder, who voted instead to merely censure the judge. This from a guy who once insisted he was “really bothered” about judges who are “arrogant and nasty.”
From the start, we’ve expressed our astonishment at Felder’s elevation to the chairmanship – wondering why he was even named to the panel in the first place. (Thank ex-Gov. George Pataki.)
His continued presence on the panel doesn’t exactly enhance its credibility. He would be doing judicial credibilty in New York a service by stepping aside.