Judge Leticia Astacio stripped of judgeship two years after DWI arrest

Within months after she assumed the bench in 2015, City Court Judge Leticia Astacio was making statements and decisions that, three years later, a state watchdog agency would determine were less than judicial.

She decided to arraign a defendant whom she knew — she had represented him when she was a defense lawyer — instead of recusing herself. Astacio was worried his case could go to a judge she thought might be tougher than she.

She told a jaywalker that, if there were no laws, she would "run (jaywalkers) over because it's disrespectful."

She laughed when a defense lawyer, representing a young man accused of sexual misconduct, said the alleged victim had "buyer's remorse." When Astacio saw the prosecutor was upset by the defense lawyer's comment, Astacio said, "You didn't think that was funny?"

She told a deputy to "tase" or "shoot" or "punch ... in the face" a 16-year-old girl who was fighting efforts to bring her into court. Astacio said the comments were private jokes with the deputy, but a court reporter did put them into the record.

By themselves, these lapses in judgment may have earned Astacio a mild public rebuke. But they are instead part of the case the Commission on Judicial Conduct built against Astacio when it decided to strip her of her judgeship.

Andreatta: Judge Leticia Astacio was her own worst enemy

Read: Commission's full report, hearing transcripts and other documents

Astacio's more egregious errors are well known — her drunken driving conviction, her failure to abide by post-conviction terms, her odd trip to Thailand that caused her to miss court-ordered monitoring.

"There are no external factors creating this," Commission Deputy Commissioner John Postel told commission members when recommending that Astacio be stripped of her judgeship. "There is no one else to blame here.

"This is the result of what she did, and the choices she made and what this says to the public is this judge is unfit and you should have no confidence in her," said Postel, who heads the Rochester commission office and was the lead commission prosecutor in the Astacio case.

(The commission Tuesday also released voluminous records from the Astacio investigation, including hearing transcripts.)

Astacio, 36, can appeal the decision to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, which recently suspended her, with pay, after an arrest earlier this month on allegations that she illegally tried to buy a shotgun.

"I will be reviewing the decision with my client and we will be making a judgment as to whether or not to appeal in the near future," said Astacio's Syracuse-based attorney, Robert Julian.

Unanimous decision to remove

At a news conference Tuesday, the Commission on Judicial Conduct announced the decision to remove Astacio from the bench. The news conference in itself spoke to the intense media attention around Astacio's troubles. Commission decisions are usually announced with a press release.

“Nobody — including a judge — is above the law,” commission Chairman Joseph Belluck said in a statement.

“This unanimous decision from the Commission sends a strong message that driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious offense, and that the penalties for judges who drink and drive will be severe. It also sends a strong message that the Commission views the improper assertion of a judicial office for private gain as a strong aggravating factor and that we expect judges involved in the legal system to behave in a manner consistent with court orders."

Public attention, ridicule

Over the past two years Astacio has been in the news more than most persistent felons. She has complained that she has been unfairly targeted and the butt of public ridicule, and the latter, at least, cannot be denied. There is a Twitter hashtag — "#drunkjudge" — that some social media users apply to discussions of her.

But the commission investigation and the rare decision to jettison a judge show the breadth of the allegations of misconduct. The commission has never before stripped the judgeship away from a judge convicted of drunken driving. But Astacio's troubles went well beyond her 2016 misdemeanor conviction for drunken driving.

“Faith in the courts requires all judges to respect and comply with the law, to preside fairly and without even the appearance of bias, and to obey court orders when they themselves are litigants," said commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian. "Regrettably, Judge Astacio failed to uphold each of these principles."

The commission, for example, determined that Astacio tried to use her position to influence decisions of the State Police who arrested her. She made clear she was a judge and was actually en route to City Court for Saturday morning arraignments.

The commission investigation, in fact, did not even consider the most recent allegations against Astacio: She faces a felony charge for an alleged attempt to buy a shotgun this month, a violation of her probation terms. She also faces probation violation charges for the alleged purchase and also for allegedly failing to comply with mental health treatment.

Still, were it not for her arrest Feb. 13, 2016, when a state trooper found her Hyundai alongside Interstate 490 with front-end damage and two flat tires, there may well never have been a commission investigation.

The 2016 arrest

Judge Astacio case timeline: From 2014 election to events following DWI arrest

In the aftermath of her drunken driving arrest, Astacio gave varying stories to authorities and commission investigators about her alcohol usage the night before: She said she had nothing to drink, then the amount of alcohol consumed ranged upward to about half a bottle of wine before 11 p.m.

Astacio said she was upset because she had just gone through a divorce and it was an anniversary of the murder of a cousin.

One blood alcohol test administered at the scene was not allowed in court, but showed a level about two times the legal limit.

Astacio maintained that a tire blew on her car on the snowy and frigid morning, and she likely hit something as the Hyundai veered off the highway. She then called a friend and, with the windows wide open, went to sleep.

The State Police found her and the vehicle shortly after the crash, and Astacio became verbally abusive with the trooper. The commission determined that she also wrongly used her position as a judge to try to convince him not to arrest her.

She was taken to State Police barracks. There, a 30-year veteran of the State Police also saw Astacio, and, according to commission records, reported that she had glassy eyes and her speech was slurred.

Astacio maintained her innocence and was convicted in a trial before a judge in August 2016. In 2016, she was given what are known as "conditional discharge" terms by the court; she did not abide by them and also told the commission she had not read them thoroughly.

One was that she not drink. However, at least twice after her conviction, she did so, triggering an alcohol monitor on her car. Astacio said she drank because of the pressure from her conviction and the public attention.

A single mother from a troubled home, Astacio put herself through law school and got a job as a prosecutor before opening her own defense firm. She was the first Hispanic woman elected to City Court.

"Everything I had been so proud of had been destroyed," Astacio told the commission about her arrest and conviction.

One night when her aunt was visiting, she said, she had four glasses of wine and three shots of Patrón tequila. That time the car monitor showed an alcohol content that could have been a charge of driving while criminally impaired. The sensor prevented the car from starting because of the alcohol she'd imbibed.

In 2017 Astacio admitted that she had violated her conditions by drinking. Then, she went to Thailand.

"You needed a period of isolation?" she was asked at a commission hearing last year.

"I still do," she answered.

However, while there, she was ordered to provide a hair or urine test to check whether she had been drinking. The commission decided that she did not try to get back to the United States in time for the test. She was jailed after that violation.

A precipitous fall

Astacio pulled off a surprise victory in a three-way Democratic primary in 2014, then won the judgeship in the general election. But after her arrest and conviction for drunken driving, her fall from grace has been staggering.

Astacio occasionally turned to Facebook with postings that, while sometimes serving as her answer to allegations against her, amplified questions about her judicial temperament. After her April arrest for the alleged attempted shotgun purchase, for instance, she claimed on Facebook that it was her sister who wanted to buy the firearm, prompting one of her sisters to have to refute that allegation with her own Facebook posting.

More: Judge Astacio suspended by state Court of Appeals

Deputies: Dick's refuses to sell shotgun to Judge Astacio

In court, judges and prosecutors maintained that Astacio stubbornly refused to abide by terms placed upon her after her arrest and conviction.

"The defendant has never acknowledged responsibility for her behaviors," Ontario County Court Judge Stephen Aronson wrote in December when refusing to overturn her drunken driving conviction. "She has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for any and all authorities, as evidenced by her multiple violations."

Apparently the commission discovered her other ethical lapses during its investigation. The statements she made in court to the jaywalker, to the court deputy and in the sexual misconduct case showed her lack of judicial temperament, the commission decided.

The commission voted unanimously to oust Astacio. That was also the decision of a referee who first heard the case against Astacio, before it was presented to the full commission.

The referee determined that was "overwhelming evidence of removable conduct," records show.

Astacio and her attorney must now decide whether to appeal the commission decision. If they do, it could be as long as five months before a ruling, meaning her seat would stay vacant through the November election.

If Astacio loses an appeal, Mayor Lovely Warren would appoint her successor, who would then run in the next election cycle.

State Supreme Court Justice Craig Doran, the region's administrative judge, said in a statement Tuesday, "For more than two years, one matter has overwhelmingly dominated the public's attention, while hundreds of judges and staff in our region's courts have come to work each day (and night), quietly and diligently upholding the law, while delivering justice in thousands of cases in our neighborhoods, schools and businesses."

The case against Astacio has been "an unfortunate distraction" from that work, Doran said.

For now, Astacio is still being paid; the salary was recently increased to $187,200. Should she appeal in the next 30 days, the Court of Appeals could suspend her pay while it makes a decision.

GCRAIG@Gannett.com

COMPLETE COVERAGE

► Judge Leticia Astacio stripped of judgeship two years after DWI arrest

► Judge Astacio: 'There's nothing I can say or do that changes anyone's impression'

► Andreatta: Judge Leticia Astacio was her own worst enemy

► Judge Astacio case timeline: From 2014 election to events following DWI arrest

► April 20: Judge Leticia Astacio accused of multiple probation violations

► April 11: Judge Astacio suspended with pay by state Court of Appeals

► April 10: Judge Leticia Astacio charged with attempting to purchase weapon