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Can hear me now, bitch?

I mentioned this story in a Daily Memo last week, but it really deserves a full-blown entry. So last Tuesday, Judge Robert Restaino was removed from the bench because of a bit of an outburst. Back in 2005, Judge Restaino was hearing a domestic violence case when someone’s cell phone went off. And the judge simply went off the rails:

Everyone is going to jail. Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.

And sure enough, when nobody fessed up, the judge had all 46 people taken into custody and tossed into the city jail. Most posted bail, but the fourteen who couldn’t were shackled and bussed off to the county jail. It didn’t take long for word of this story to get out, and after the press started calling later in the afternoon, Judge Restaino ordered everyone released.

So as I mentioned, he was removed from the bench last Tuesday, with the chairman of the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct writing that Restaino had “engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness.”

Unsurprisingly, Restaino isn’t taking this lightly, now saying that he’s planning to appeal the decision to the state Court of Appeals. His lawyer says that Restaino “deeply regrets and sincerely apologizes” for his little outburst. He says that the snap was because of stress going on in his personal life and, apparently, that means all should be forgiven.

Sorry dude, I ain’t buying it. As the Commission said, your conduct brought irreparable harm to the public perception of the bench and the public’s confidence in you. “Sorry — home life has been rough” doesn’t really cut it. We’ve all got problems. We’ve all got stress. But you’re the only asshat who threw 46 people in the clink for no good reason. Please do us all a favor and bow out graciously.

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