ALBANY, NY (news release) — LeRay Town Court Justice John W. Hallett (Jefferson County) has resigned while under formal charges by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for allegedly making homophobic and inappropriate remarks and gestures to an attorney.
Judge Hallett, who will resign from office effective December 31, 2018, has agreed never to seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future. The Commission accepted a stipulation to that effect signed by the judge and the Commission’s Administrator and closed its formal proceeding.
Judge Hallett was served with a Formal Written Complaint dated August 16, 2018, containing one charge alleging that, in January 2017, he made the following statements at the Jefferson County Court Complex while conversing with an attorney who was promoting a film festival at which the actor Viggo Mortensen was the honoree: (1) The film festival was “about the gayest thing I have ever heard,” and (2) “You and Viggo Mortensen should get a hotel room and suck each other’s dicks.” Five months later, while conversing with the same attorney, the judge allegedly (1) made a gesture with his hand to his mouth to connote oral sex and (2) thereafter patted the attorney lightly on the cheek and stated, “there, there, little boy.”
Judge Hallett, who is an attorney, has served as a Justice of the LeRay Town Court since 2003. His current term would have expired on December 31, 2019.
The Commission has accepted 82 such stipulations since the procedure was instituted in 2003.
LeRay Town John Hallett resigns after being charged with making homophobic remarks and gestures to an attor… by Newzjunky on Scribd