NJ Judge Accused Of Taking Unapproved DWI Fund Payments
Law360, New York (November 6, 2017, 5:56 PM EST) -- A New Jersey municipal judge is accused of making payments to himself and his staff, including unauthorized bonuses, from a fund set aside for administrative costs stemming from backlogged drunk driving cases, without obtaining required approvals, judicial ethics officials announced on Monday.G. Dolph Corradino, the former municipal judge of Little Falls Township, never submitted the request paperwork necessary to finalize more than $15,200 in payments disbursed to himself and his staff between 2009 and 2015 from the state’s Municipal Court Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund, according to complaint released by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct on Monday.
The payments include nearly $12,000 in bonuses he gave himself over the seven-year period from the monies, also known as the driving while intoxicated, or DWI, fund, according to the complaint.
By failing to submit requests for expenditure of DWI funds prior to holding special DWI court sessions and in using money from fund to pay himself bonuses unrelated to administrative costs to the sessions, Judge Corradino “demonstrated an inability to conform his conduct to the high standards of conduct expected of judges and impugned the integrity of the judiciary,” in violation of conduct rules, the complaint said.
Judge Corradino’s attorney didn't immediately repsond to a A message seeking comment on Monday.
Judge Corradino also held presiding judgeship positions of Passaic County municipal courts and Passaic Vicinage Central Judicial Processing Court, but was suspended from those roles and his municipal judgeship in September 2015. The suspension was vacated in June of this year, but he resigned from his municipal bench a month later and hasn’t been reappointed to his other posts, the complaint said. He had been Little Falls’ municipal judge since 1993.
According to the complaint, Little Falls was among the municipalities that qualified for monies from the fund, which was established to defray costs associated with additional court sessions needed to address pending and backlogged DWI cases.
Glenn A. Grant, acting administrative director of New Jersey courts, issued guidelines in 2009 setting forth, in part, that all expenditures from the DWI fund required preapproval from the assignment judge of that municipality’s vicinage, the complaint said.
Reports from routine annual reviews of Little Falls’ administrative procedures and office practices showed that the municipality provided information “without any supporting documentation” as to the DWI fund between 2009 and 2015, according to the complaint.
Instead of following the judiciary’s protocols for payments, Judge Corradino verbally requested payment from the Little Falls Township manager for monies from the fund. There was no paperwork of any kind submitted by Little Falls Municipal Court or Judge Corradino in connection with the judge’s requests for payment from the fund.
The judge admitted that he never read the protocol memorandums, according to the complaint. The judge also said that he took an $11,995 bonus for himself as his “reward for the efficient performance of his court,” the complaint said.
“Respondent, however, knew or should have known that any expenditure from the DWI fund required preapproval by the assignment judge,” the complaint said.
Judge Corradino is represented by Joseph P. LaSala of McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP.
The ACJC is represented by Disciplinary Counsel Maureen G. Bauman.
The case is In the Matter of G. Dolph Corradino, Former Presiding Judge-Municipal Courts, case number 2016-022, before the New Jersey Supreme Court, Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.