Accuser Claims Ethics Complaint is “100% the Reason” for Her Stepping Down as Chief Judge
By Dan Murphy
On July 11, Westchester resident Janet DiFiore, the Chief Judge of New York State’s Highest court, announced that she will be stepping down in August. The announcement comes after a complaint filed against DiFiore with the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct became public.
The complaint was filed against DiFiore by Dennis Quirk, the head of the NYS Court Officers Union. DiFiore and Quirk have been engaged in a back and forth regarding allegations made against each other, resulting in a formal complaint filed against DiFiore, which Quirk tells Yonkerstimes.com “is 100% the reason why she is stepping down.”
Quirk was accused of racist behavior leading the state corrections union, a charge that Quirk has vehemently denied. DiFiore hired former Homeland Security Director Jey Johnsson to conduct an investigation against Quirk.
The allegations against Quirk were leaked to the NY Post. Quirk discovered that DiFiore had released the allegations against him to the press, resulting in Quirk emailing DiFiore the following in 2020. “Your call to the NY Post that I am a racist is false and you know it. You want to spread false rumors let’s see how you like the online articles about your relationship with a police officer with ties to organized crime while you were married posted all over every Court building in NYS.”
DiFiore took Quirk’s email as a threat and moved forward with a disciplinary action against him with a hearing officer, Phyliss Flug. In a letter dated, Aug. 24, 2021, DiFiore wrote to Flug that Quirk sent her a “threatening and disrespectful email,” adding “I implore you to use your authority wisely to uphold the values of our entire court system.”
Flug sent DiFiore’s letter to the Commission on Judicial Conduct and to Quirk. Quirk then filed a complaint with the Commission, writing that the letter was evidence of “an overall lack of professionalism and improprieties that Chief Judge DiFiore has consistently engaged in.”
Quirk added that while he denied the allegations made against him, “DiFiore has never, to my knowledge, denied the allegations made against her.”
Quirk explained in his letter to the commission that a full day of testimony was held on the matter in April of 2021, and despite getting a subpoena for DiFiore to testify, she never was required to attend the hearing.
After the hearing was closed, DiFiore wrote her letter to Flug, which Quirk found to be “in clear violation of my due process rights and Collective Bargaining Agreement guarantee of a fair and impartial hearing,” and “was a blatant attempt to use the enormous weight and prestige of the Office of Chief Judge of the State of New York to advance her private interest of having me terminated for my lawful First Amendment protected speech.”
“In my 47 years of professional interaction with the state judiciary, I have never encountered the systematic culture of intimidation and influence peddling that Chief Judge Janet DiFiore has consistently engaged in,” wrote Quirk.
It is important to note that Hearing Officer Flug forwarded DiFiore’s letter to the Commission on Judicial Conduct, apparently because she believed that DiFiore may have violated ethics laws or judicial conduct guidelines.
We spoke to Quirk who told Yonkerstimes.com that “No Chief Judge has even been removed or censured. She blew a fit when I wrote that email and filed my complaint to the commission, and the fact that the hearing officer forwarded the letter to the Commission, makes me confident that the reason why she is stepping down is 100% related to this complaint and her improper conduct against me.”
The story that Quirk referenced when he emailed DiFiore was written by Mt. Vernon Exposed and Samuel Rivers. We contacted Rivers who told us that DiFiore never contacted him or sued him for his stories on her, which included another story about her hiring a nanny without paying taxes on her employment.
DiFiore, 66, has served six years of a 14-year term as Chief Judge. She told the NY Times that, “she was ready to pursue other opportunities after more than six years on the job. “I’ve made my contribution,” she said, adding that she had no other job waiting, but felt it was a “comfortable moment” to move on. She allowed, however, that there would be “another chapter in my professional career.”
It is also interesting to note that DiFiore received no support from members of the NYS Democratic Party after recently ruling against the democrats regarding the redistricting of Congressional districts across the state. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries tweeted “Good riddance,” on the news of DiFiore’s departure. DiFiore switched political parties in 2007 from republican to democrat.
Many New York Democrats are hoping that Governor Kathy Hochul will appoint a more progressive democrat to lead the state’s highest court. Sen. Brad Hoylman, said the Court of Appeals has fallen “increasingly out of step with the needs and desires of New Yorkers on issues such as workers’ rights, criminal justice and tenants’ protections.”
DiFiore’s court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen said that her resignation was not connected to the investigation, and that complaints filed to the Commission are supposed to be kept confidential. DiFiore was appointed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from office last year.
Another member of the Court Officers Union we spoke to thought that there was another reason for DiFiore’s attacks against Quirk. “Why did DiFiore go after Quirk to begin with? There is more to this story, she went overboard to ruin his career reputation.”
Prior to the NY Post story against Quirk, the Union leader and DiFiore had fought over re-opening of the courts and COVID. Quirk wanted to protect his members with PPE and thorough cleaning of the courtrooms before permitting his members to work again. During this heated debate between the two, Quirk published the addresses of DiFiore on Facebook and urged his members to protest outside. He was suspended for 30 days by the OCA. While he remains union president, Quirk retired after the suspension, and has sued DiFiore and other state officials for libel-slander in Federal court over the NY Post story. That case is still pending. The Post is not a named defendant.
Westchester native Jeff Deskovic, who is now an attorney after being wrongfully convicted and spending years in prison, said “I am not sorry to see her go: the Court of Appeals rarely granted permission to defendants to appeal to them, and ruled for the prosecution almost always. Beyond that, DiFiore’s using her office to send an ex parte letter to a hearing officer during a disciplinary hearing, in an attempt to influence the proceeding, is outrageous. It is off the record influences like that which lead to wrongful convictions and other forms of injustice, ultimately costing the accused a fair proceeding, undermining due process rights, and the legitimacy of proceedings. Judge DiFiore’s stepping down should not be the end of this matter: if she is found guilty, there should be some real consequences for her actions. If that was me or any other member of the public, we would face consequences. Why should she be any different?”
Deskovic raises a good question. After DiFiore steps down, is she still in jeopardy of legal action against her by the commission?
That answer appears to be no: “It’s over if she resigns before the Commission completes their review of the complaint. That stops the inquiry.” one NY attorney told us.
But that same attorney also explained, “The other question that remains is should she be punished for her behavior moving forward as an attorney, and will this impair her ability as a future lawyer? The Grievance Committee could be asked to review her actions, but also determine if there is any other conduct that she has engaged in that may be material to any complaint.”
Much more to come….stay tuned.
