William Wertheimer
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William Wertheimer was a Superior Court judge in the Union County district of New Jersey. He was a judge from 1984 to 2012. Wertheimer retired upon reaching 70, the mandatory age of retirement, in 2012.[1][2]
Complaints
Wertheimer has been before the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct several times. In 2001, he was admonished by the ethics committee for failure to recuse himself in a case where the defendant was brothers with the sheriff's officer assigned to his court. In 2007, the committee cautioned him for comments he made to an assistant prosecutor of Nigerian descent that most Nigerians who come through the court are in handcuffs, and for advising a prosecutor in a case with a hung jury that if she had not placed two "lower class blacks" on the jury, the mistrial might not have occurred.
In 2009, Wertheimer had a formal complaint filed against him by the committee alleging a joking reference to a 1930s-era Nazi organization during a trial in spring of that year. He reportedly joked about leaving the court early to attend a "Bund meeting" after an attorney requested early leave to attend a Seder, a celebration of Passover. Bund organized demonstrations in support of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. According to the complaint, judge Wertheimer apologized the next day.[1]
His misconduct hearing will be held before the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct on Thursday, February 18, 2010.[3]
External links
- Vicinage 12
- The Star-Ledger, "Union County judge, known for sense of humor, retires after 28 years," February 12, 2012
Footnotes
Federal courts:
Third Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Jersey • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Jersey
State courts:
New Jersey Supreme Court • New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division • New Jersey Superior Courts • New Jersey Municipal Courts • New Jersey Tax Court
State resources:
Courts in New Jersey • New Jersey judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Jersey
