New Hartford, N.Y. – A Supreme Court justice elected by Central New York voters has been suspended pending her removal as a result of her behavior at a high school graduation party in 2022.
Erin P. Gall — a justice for the Fifth Judicial District based in Oneida County — was suspended with pay after the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct ruled that she should be removed after an inappropriate interaction with police and civilians at the party.
The commission ruled that she tried to use her position as a judge to influence police, and demonstrated racial bias and bias in favor of law enforcement.
Police body camera footage from the party, the commission said, showed her threatening to shoot a group of Black teens if they returned to her friend’s property and threatening to speak to officers’ supervisors as a judge when they did not do as she suggested. She also bragged to a police officer that she taught her son to beat others up if they attacked him, the commission said.
The commission made its ruling last Wednesday and made it public Monday.
Gall has 30 days to appeal the commission’s decision or she will be removed from the bench.
Syracuse.com | The Post Standard called Gall’s chambers and contacted her attorney. Neither was immediately available for comment.
Gall was elected to the bench in 2011. She ran as a Republican. Her current 14-year term is set to expire in December 2025. Voters from across Central New York voted for her. Her salary is $232,600.
On July 2, 2022, Gall participated in a “racially offensive, profane, prolonged public diatribe outside a high school graduation party,” according to a news release from the commission.
Gall was a guest at a high school graduation party in the town of New Hartford that was slowly growing out of control. Large groups of people were showing up uninvited after word got out about the party.
Sometime after 11:30 p.m., a group of four Black teens arrived at the party after seeing the address posted on social media. After the teens arrived, physical fights began to break out among people at the party.
Two of the teens and Gall’s son were found to have been involved in the fights, but it was unclear how the fight began, the commission said.
Police were called and Gall — despite not being the host of the party — took it upon herself to speak to officers and inform them repeatedly that she was a judge, the commission said.
When police arrived, it was clear many underage people were drinking. Gall denied drinking and said that she was sober for the entirety of the party.
Over an 80-minute interaction with police, she invoked her position as a judge more than a dozen times and made statements that were racially insensitive and others that demonstrated a bias toward law enforcement at the detriment of civil rights.
Body camera footage from officers on the scene showed, according to the commission, Gall making the following statements to police and the group of Black teens:
- Gall instructed the teens to leave as they searched for a lost car key and she tried to use her position as a judge to intimidate them by saying: “That is how Judge Gall rolls.”
- Gall called for the arrest of the teens and threatened to call the police chief.
- When officers told Gall that they did not want to appear before her on a civil rights violation if they heeded her suggestions, she told them, “You know I am always on your side.”
- After the boys were searching for the lost car key, Gall said that if they came back to look she would “shoot them on the property.”
- When a deputy confronted Gall about the threat calling her “lady” and saying, “This isn’t Texas. You can’t shoot somebody for simply going on your property.” She responded by telling the deputy to call her “judge” instead of “lady.”
- The sister of one of the boys arrived to wait with them. The sister told a partygoer who was yelling at them he looked like a “cokehead.” Gall then yelled back: “We might be able to afford the coke, but we don’t do it.”
- After telling a deputy that her son would attend business school in the fall, Gall said that the teens “don’t look like they’re that smart. They’re not going to business school, that’s for sure.”
Days after the party, Gall spoke with law enforcement officers inside the Oneida County Courthouse and expressed her dissatisfaction with how the officers handled the situation. The commission ruled that the conversation showed Gall did not recognize the severity of her actions that night.
An anonymous complaint was made to the commission, which spurred the investigation and disciplinary process.
During that process, Gall admitted her actions demonstrated the appearance of seeking preferential treatment as a result of her position, racial bias and bias in favor of law enforcement, the commission said.
Gall said she reacted as a mother and a wife who saw her loved ones in a fight and said she regretted her actions. Despite admitting her mistakes, she maintained that her actions should be punished with a censure rather than her removal from office.
In the end, the commission found that “impropriety permeated respondent’s conduct” and her choices “irreparably damaged her ability to serve as a judge.”
In 46 years, the commission has issued 184 determinations of removal. The state Court of Appeals has reduced 10 determinations of removal to either a censure or an admonition, but has never dismissed a sanction that began as a request for removal.
Staff writer Anne Hayes covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at ahayes@syracuse.com.