High court backs removal of Whitehall judge who pulled gun on Black litigant

[mahatmakanejeeves]

NEWS

High court backs removal of Whitehall judge who pulled gun on Black litigant

The Court of Appeals accepted a state commission's decision to remove Justice Robert J. Putorti Jr. after Putorti asked the court to reconsider the judgment

Mike Goodwin
Oct. 19, 2023
Updated: Oct. 19, 2023 12:03 p.m.

ALBANY — The state’s highest court ordered the removal of a Whitehall justice who repeatedly boasted to fellow judges about pulling his loaded, semi-automatic handgun on a “large Black man” in his courthouse.

The Court of Appeals on Thursday accepted the state Commission on Judicial Conduct’s determination that removed Robert J. Putorti Jr., 53, who had served Whitehall town and village courts since 2014. ... Putorti asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider the commission’s decision to remove him from the bench, but the justices saw no reason to reverse the decision.

{snip}

The commission’s decision said the incident took place in late 2015 or early 2016 in the village court. The man had been scheduled to appear before Putorti. He approached the bench and the judge drew his weapon even though the judge later admitted the man did not demonstrate deadly force.

He pulled the firearm on the man he later described as a “big Black man” and a “large Black man.” Putorti described the man as 6-feet-9 and “built like a football player” though the man was six feet tall and weighed 165 pounds, according to last year’s decision by the judicial conduct commission.

{snip}

Written By
Mike Goodwin
Reach Mike on
https://www.facebook.com/mike.goodwin.583
https://twitter.com/goodwintu
Mike Goodwin has been a stock broker, garbage man, and a house painter. He has been a journalist since 1995 and the Times Union has been his home since 2002. As a city desk editor, he's on the front lines of newsgathering for the Capital Region’s newspaper. Think you have an interesting story? Contact him at [e-mail] or 518-454-5465.