Judge who threatened to shoot Black teens for trespassing should be ousted, judicial conduct commission says
New York Judge Erin P. Gall seen on police body cam footage in July 2022. (Screenshot from the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct/YouTube)
A judge in Oneida County, New York, should be removed from the bench for “truly egregious” misconduct during a July 2022 high school graduation party outside a friend’s home, according to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Judge Erin P. Gall, a judge on New York’s trial-level supreme court, attended the party with her husband and then-18-year-old son. According to a July 22 press release, the commission determined that Gall engaged “in a racially offensive, profane, prolonged public diatribe” in which “she repeatedly invoked her judicial office, threatened gun violence, and both criticized and pledged favored treatment for the police.”
“Impropriety permeated respondent’s conduct” at the party, the judicial conduct commission said in a July 17 determination made public Monday.
Gall has 30 days to seek review of the determination before the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Her lawyer, Robert Julian, told the New York Times that she will appeal.
“We respectfully disagree with the determination,” Julian said.
The problems began after several people thought to be uninvited guests arrived at the party sometime after 11 p.m., and one of them overturned a tray of food. People were talking loudly, some using vulgarities, and confrontations were escalating. Gall’s husband and then-18-year-old son began shepherding guests away from a tent and to the street. At some point, Gall’s son was slapped and brought to the ground. Gall said the youth was kicked, stomped on and punched.
New Hartford, New York, police arrived after midnight. Gall identified herself as a judge and did the same when she screamed at four Black teenagers looking for lost car keys.
“You got to leave!” Gall said in comments caught on video. “You’re not going to find your keys. You got to call an Uber and get off the property. That’s what I’m saying. No. Done. You’re done. Done, done, done. Get off the property! And’s that’s from Judge Gall! I’m a f- - -ing judge! And I’m telling you! Get off the f- - -ing property!”
Later, Gall, who is white, told police that the Black teens should be arrested.
“They were trespassing, and … they should be arrested,” Gall said on police body cam video. “Come on. This is not my first rodeo. Are you from New Hartford? OK, New Hartford police: They should either be arrested or driven off the property. We shouldn’t be looking for their keys. They assaulted people here. We’re not pressing charges. We just need them gone. I don’t know if I have to call the chief of police. This is ridiculous.”
When a police officer told Gall that they could “end up in front of your court” for violating the teens’ civil rights, Gall replied, “Listen, but guess what, the good part is—the good part is I’m always on your side. You know I’d take anyone down for you guys. You know that. You know that. You know I am on your side.”
She also said her son had been attacked first, but his attackers got the worst end of it because “I taught my son to kick the s- - - out of anyone who hits him first.” She also said her son would be going to business school in the fall, whereas the four Black teens “don’t look like they’re that smart. They’re not going to business school, that’s for sure.”
An officer suggested that the best outcome would be for someone to find the keys and return them, so the teens would not have to come back and look for them.
Gall responded that she would call the police if the teens return.
“They’ll be arrested, or they’ll be shot on the property,” she said. “Because when they trespass, you can shoot them on the property. I’ll shoot them on the property.”
At an ethics hearing, Gall said she was emotionally distraught after seeing her son and husband caught up in the fighting, and she regretted her actions. She also said her overreaction was triggered by an assault that she endured in 1990 while she was an 18-year-old freshman at Boston College.
The conduct commission said it was sympathetic to Gall’s past trauma, but it does not excuse her “significant misconduct.”
Gall “irreparably damaged her integrity by repeatedly invoking her judicial office and forfeited her ability to be and to appear to be impartial, particularly as it relates to race and law enforcement personnel,” the commission said in its determination. “Given the range of her misconduct, members of the public can have no confidence in her ability to preside in a fair and unbiased manner.”
In a statement, Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commission’s administrator, said it is “utterly unacceptable for a judge to threaten gun violence, exhibit racial prejudice” and “promise favorable treatment for the police.”
Gall’s lawyer did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s request for comment.
Gall joined the bench in 2012. Her term expires in 2025.
Publications covering the recommendation include the New York Times and Law.com.
Police videos of the incident are available here.
