New York State supreme judge faces removal from the bench after she went on a offensive rant threatening Black teenagers during a high school graduation party.
The Commission on Judicial Conduct called the judge’s actions racially offensive, saying Justice Erin Gall can no longer serve as a fair and impartial judge.
Via cbs6albany.com
| The judge was at a high school graduation party at her friend’s house when authorities said there was an argument between invited and uninvited guests. A group of Black teenagers who received a text invite to the party with the address then arrived and a fight broke out shortly after.
During the scuffle, the teens lost the keys to their car and couldn’t leave the neighborhood, appearing to upset Gall, who wanted the children to leave but refused to turn over their car keys if she found them. “If the key turns up, we’re absolutely going to throw them in the toilet. You’re welcome. Put them in the back of the cop car and let them wait there,” Gall said in the footage. Five law enforcement agencies arrived on the scene during the more than hour-long ordeal, during which the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said the judge repeatedly invoked her judicial office. “Get off the property, and that’s from Judge Gall, I’m a freaking judge and I’m telling you get off the freaking property. Listen, I’m a supreme court judge,” Gall said in the footage. They also say she threatened gun violence and both criticized and pledged favored treatment for the police. “I’ll shoot them on the property. If I have to clean it out I will,” Gall said in the footage. “Listen but guess what? The part is, the good part is, I’m always on your side. You know I’d take anyone down for you guys. You know that, you know that, you know that I am on your side,” Gall said when speaking with responding law enforcement officers. The video also captures the judge made comments about the Black teens’ intelligence levels. “They don’t look like they’re that smart. They’re not going to business school that’s for sure,” Gall said in the footage. The video also captured her praising her son for beating up partygoers, among other comments. “Smackdown once he got hit. Put a smackdown,” Gall said in the footage. The commission is now calling for the judge to be removed from the bench. Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian released a statement saying, “It is utterly unacceptable for a judge to threaten gun violence, exhibit racial prejudice, promise favorable treatment for the police, or disparage a law intended to keep guns away from dangerous people. Any one of these things would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice. That all this and more was committed by one judge disqualifies her from further service on the bench.” Gall’s attorney did provide a statement in a brief released by the commission, saying the judge was in shock at the time and the incident triggered a trauma response to her own assault in the ’90s. Gall said in part, “I was acting as a mom who just witnessed something awful. I wasn’t acting appropriately or thinking the right way” She also said she attended counseling following the incident. |
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