Judicial Misconduct Could Free Murderer

The improper, not to mention unethical, conduct of a New York State Supreme Court Justice could help set free the twice convicted felon whose trial he presided over.

An ABC Television News affiliate in New York reports that Justice Jaime Rios was having a torrid affair with a Queens assistant District Attorney when he presided over the murder trial of Tyrone Johnson, who was found guilty of fatally shooting a bar owner and sentenced by Rios to 20 year in prison.

To impress his prosecutor girlfriend, Meryl Lutsky, the judge helped her colleagues working on the case win a second conviction by coaching them in his chambers rather than play the role of neutral arbitrator (New York Daily News).

A lot of the information on the judge’s secret affair came from his former legal assistant, Judith Memblatt, who was fired by the judge for exposing his misconduct. Judge Rios works in civil court now and his former mistress, Lutsky, works for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.