“Your Honor” Is Disgraced

For the first time in 15 years, a state judge has been charged in federal court. His name is David A. Gross and he sits on the bench in Nassau County, New York. Gross was recently arraigned on federal money-laundering charges along with three men described by prosecutors as mob figures.

Apparently, the FBI secretly taped Gross offering to use his campaign accounts to wash dirty money. A recently unsealed affidavit outlining the sting operation, also charges that Judge Gross, a Democrat, helped launder $130,000 through a Freeport, N.Y. restaurant called Café-by-the-Sea.

The judge also took thousands of dollars worth of checks from an undercover agent as part of the laundering scheme and he even gave the agent a copy of his book. Inside the book the judge inscribed “Thanks for being my friend.”