A Superior Court judge in Passaic County has been barred from the bench after a panel said she aided a friend in a child custody dispute and lied to authorities to cover her tracks.

The state Supreme Court’s order, issued Wednesday, came three months after a three-judge panel found that Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi’s behavior violated the state's Code of Judicial Conduct and recommended her removal from office.

Silebi was the presiding judge for criminal cases in Bergen County from 2010 to 2015, before her transfer to Passaic County, where she handled civil cases.

A hearing on her removal was scheduled before the Supreme Court in early September, but she declined to offer a defense, according to the court’s order.

The court found evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Silebi misused her position to "advance the private interests of a litigant," made "false statements under oath" and "altered telephone records" to perpetuate false statements, according to the order.

Silebi and her attorney did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday.

Investigators found that Silebi had once enjoyed an "exemplary personal and professional reputation" as a longtime judge, according to court documents. This changed in 2015, when she used her status to help Vivianne Chermont, a former judicial intern, win custody of her child for Mother's Day weekend in 2015.

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On May 9, 2015, Silebi made a phone call to Fort Lee police, informing them that Chermont had a court order to have her 5-year-old son on Mother's Day weekend, but the father took custody instead.

A state investigation later revealed that the order never existed, and that Silebi fabricated the story to police so Chermont could retain custody.



When confronted with the inquiry, Silebi defended her story and denied knowing Chermont.

State investigators, however, discovered that the two had become acquainted while Chermont worked as an intern in the judge's office. They kept in regular contact through dozens of phone calls and text messages in the months before Silebi's call to the Fort Lee police.

The two shared a phone call on May 8, 2015, one day before the Fort Lee call. The next morning, cell phone records showed that the judge made four calls to Chermont.

Silebi initially refused to release her phone records to investigators. Then, she provided records that were heavily redacted to hide her calls with Chermont. She later was forced to cooperate under a state Attorney General's Office subpoena.

Silebi was nominated to the court in 2008 by Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, and nominated for tenure by Gov. Chris Christie. Silebi, of Waldwick, requested a transfer out of Superior Court in Hackensack because of an unspecified dispute with the former county prosecutor, John L. Molinelli.