New Jersey postpones most in-person court dates as coronavirus spreads

Most in-person New Jersey Superior Court business scheduled for Monday or Tuesday have been postponed, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced Sunday.

The move was the state judiciary’s latest response to the coronavirus pandemic.The Superior Court’s trial level and tax court are affected, although there are exceptions. New hearing dates have yet to be scheduled.

“On a typical court day, hundreds if not thousands of attorneys, litigants, and inmates appear in courts throughout the state,” Rabner said in a statement. “We are limiting physical interactions in our courts and shift… Read the rest of this entry »

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N.J. municipal court sessions suspended over coronavirus concerns

Municipal court sessions in New Jersey will be suspended for two weeks to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced Saturday.

Anyone scheduled to appear in court between Monday, March 16, and Friday, March 27, to contest a traffic or parking ticket, or a minor local ordinance violation, should wait to receive a new court date.

Municipal courts will continue handling items such as temporary restraining orders, hearings in which a defendant has been detained and matters involving public safety, Rabner noted.Attorneys and others still required t… Read the rest of this entry »

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N.J.’s chief justice asks ICE to stop arresting immigrants at courthouses

TRENTON — The chief justice of New Jersey’s Supreme Court is calling on federal immigration officials to stop arresting unauthorized immigrants at state courthouses, warning the practice could undermine New Jersey’s justice system. In a letter to federal Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner raised concerns over two recent arrests by Immigration Customs… Read the rest of this entry »

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Thornton Replacing Lawson as Monmouth Assignment Judge

Assignment Judge Lawrence M. Lawson administering the Oath of Office to Freeholder Gary Rich, January 2012.

New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced yesterday that Judge Lisa P. Thornton will replace Judge Lawrence M. Lawson as the Assignment Judge of the Monmouth County Vicinage, effective September 1, 2014.

Lawson, who has served on the bench since 1987 and as Assignment Judge since 1993, is retiring three years before he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Thornton will be the first female African-American Assignment Judge in the history of the New Jersey Court. She served as Rabner’s Chief of Staff when he was New Jersey’s Attorney General under Governor Jon Corzine.

A resident of Neptune, Thornton was appointed to the Court by Corzine in 2008. She earned her law degree from Rutgers-Newark in 1992 while she was employed by Prudential Financial. She was the Municipal Court Judge of Neptune Township from January of 1999 through December 2001. In 2002 Thornton was named special deputy commissioner of the Department of Banking and Insurance where she served until joining Corzine’s office as senior associate counsel in January of 2006 where she served until joining Rabner in the Attorney General’s Office in September of 2006.

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A crazy June: Things to look out for in Trenton this month

A crazy June: Things to look out for in Trenton this month (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — Hold onto your seats. It’s June in Trenton, and that’s always a bumpy ride. With the state budget due by month’s end, horse-trading is rampant as just about everything that was proposed all year long under the Statehouse dome is up…

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Christie to announce judicial nominations this afternoon

Governor Chris Christie has called a press conference for 2:30 this afternoon to announce his new judicial nominations.

The Star Ledger reported this morning that the governor would re-nominate Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, giving Rabner tenure, and nominate Superior Court Judge Lee Solomon to the Supreme Court.  In a deal struck with Senate President Sweeney, there a remaining vacancy on the Supreme Court would continue to be filled on a temporary basis by Rabner’s choice, Judge Mary Catherine Cuff.

Christie’s press conference can be viewed live here:

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Christie to nominate Chief Justice Rabner for tenure on NJ Supreme Court

Christie to nominate Chief Justice Rabner for tenure on NJ Supreme Court (via NJ.com)

By Matt Friedman and Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today will re-nominate Stuart Rabner as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, The Star-Ledger has learned. The development is a breakthrough in negotiations between…

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NJ Supreme Court rules for themselves, fellow judges

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 3-2 with Chief Justice Stuart Rabner not participating, this morning in Paul M. DePascale v State of New Jersey that the pension and health benefits reforms passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Christie last year violates the State Constitution’s provision prohibiting a reduction in judges salaries during their terms.  Thus, New Jersey Judges will not be contributing more to their pensions and health benefits, unless the Constitution is amended.

The issue now goes back to the Legislature.  Legislation putting a Constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall was held up in June pending the Supreme Court’s decision.

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Judge Michael Guadagno elevelated to Appellate Court

Photo credit: The Monmouth Journal

Judge Michael A. Guadagno, the presiding judge of the Monmouth County Court’s family division, has been elevated to the Appellate Division of the State Superior Court effective August 1, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced today.

Judge Guadangno is Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s husband.

The Appellate Division of the Superior Court is New Jersey’s intermediate appellate court. The 32 Appellate Division judges hear appeals from decisions of the trial courts, the Tax Court and state administrative agencies.  The Appellate Division decides approximately 6,500 appeals and 7,500 motions each year.

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Former Long Branch Woman Appeals To Christie, Legislature, For Relief From Abusive Judge

Rachel Alintoff

A former Long Branch woman who appealed to Governor Chris Christie for help regarding unfair and illegal treatment by the Monmouth County Judge presiding over her divorce case says she has heard from the State Attorney General’s Criminal Division and the Governor’s office who have referred her case to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.

Rachel Alintoff, 36, told Christie during his town hall meeting in Garfield last week that Judge Paul X. Escandon stripped her of her parental rights of her 2 year old son, Hayden, without the legally required hearing, as punishment for her seeking an order of protection in New York, where she lives now, against her estranged husband Bryan who failed to dispose of a handgun as Escandon had ordered as part of a custody order.

Alintoff also told Christie that Escandon, after his ruling on her parental rights was overturned by the Appeals Court, denied her access to her clothing, money for legal fees and granted her only $1,100 per month in child support from her husband who earns, she says, over $500K per year on Wall Street.

Here’s a link to video of Alintoff speaking to Christie and the Governor’s response.  The video will start with Christie recognising Alintoff.  At the 43:58 mark Christie moves on to Peter, the young student who became famous for asking the Governor for a note to excuse him for missing school.

Here’s the text of Alintoff’s remarks and questions to Christie:

I am going through a divorce in Monmouth County in front of Judge Paul X. Escandon.
In October 2011, Judge Escandon stripped me of all my parental rights to my 2 year old son without the legally required hearing.
I had only supervised visitation. This was a punishment for an order of protection I was seeking in NYC (where I am currently living) when my husband failed to dispose of his handgun as per a court order. My son had to endure a month of barely seeing his mother until Judge Escandon was Summarily reversed by the Appelate Court for his illegal ruling.

Since then, Judge Escandon has gone on to make other illegal rulings against me such as denying me access to my clothing, granting no money for my legal fees and only issuing $1,100 in support a month to my son and me which puts us below the Federal Poverty Level. All while my husband makes on average over half a million dollars a year on Wall Street.

This is not an isolated incident. Judge Escandon has done similar things to other woman and has a habit of financiallly ruining women in his courtroom.

I have a 2-part question:

1) What will you do as Governor to ensure that Judges like Escandon follow the law or are taken off the bench?

2) Judge Escandon is the former law partner of Assemblyman Sean Kean whose main platform is reducing Alimony for women.
What will you do as Governor to make sure that Judges are kept from carrying out their own political agendas from the bench?

Alintoff, who first brought her situation to MMM’s attention as a comment in the post about the Garfield town hall meeting, says she’s heard from Jeanne Ashmore in the Governor’s Office and Detective Charles Crescenz in the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office, both of whom told her the matter would be taken up by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.  Neither Crescenz nor Ashmore would comment to MMM.  John Tonelli, Executive Director of the ACJC also declined to comment.

Alintoff  emailed every member of the State Legislature today to inform them of her situation.  Her father, Merny Schwartz, Phd, wrote to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner about Escandon’s conduct last December.  Schwartz maintains a blog on his daughter’s case before Escandon, JudgePaulEscandon.blog.com.

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