NJ Esq. Cited for Contempt Files Ethics Complaint Against Judge...MORE, CLICK HERE

Local Lawyer Cited for Contempt Files Ethics Complaint Against Judge...MORE............

New York Lawyer
November 8, 2007

By Michael Booth
New Jersey Law Journal

A lawyer arrested and held in contempt by a Bloomfield Municipal Court judge has filed a complaint against him with the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, claiming he penalized her for raising a racial-profiling defense in her client's traffic-violation case.

Rashidah Hasan, an East Orange solo who is also the director of legal affairs for Essex County College, appeared before Judge Joseph Connolly on Oct. 4 on behalf of her client, DeWayne Smith. Bloomfield police had stopped Smith and charged him with careless driving, driving with no insurance, having a loud muffler and failing to obey police orders.

Smith, who is black, believed he was the victim of racial profiling, Hasan says, and she demanded that the police department turn over records of its traffic stops, which might support his claim.

After Municipal Prosecutor Paul Sant’Ambrogio concluded his case, Hasan made a verbal motion to dismiss the charges.

Connolly, she says, “went into a rage, pounding on the desk,” held her in contempt and ordered her to pay a fine of $100. He told her to pay up at the next scheduled hearing in the case, on Oct. 25.

At the second hearing, Hasan asked Connolly to withdraw the contempt finding, arguing that she could not adequately represent Smith under the threat of jail for noncompliance.

Connolly refused to vacate the original contempt and then held her in contempt again, fining her $500 and ordering her to spend 10 days in jail.

“I was hauled off to the basement of the building in handcuffs and placed on a bench in the basement in handcuffs,” she says. “I was fingerprinted and photographed. I was humiliated, disrespected and very emotionally upset by this whole incident. Imagine the fear and horror this incident must have on litigants before the court if their counsel is treated this way.”

Connolly declines to comment on Hasan’s allegations because the contempt proceedings are still pending.

Sant’Ambrogio, who was present when Connolly found Hasan in contempt, also declines to comment, other than to say, “It was very unfortunate.”

Bloomfield police said they could not release information about the incident.

Hasan's attorneys — Ronald Hunt and Raymond Hamlin of Newark’s Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley — did not return calls seeking comment.

— With reporting by Charles Toutant