Town of Colonie Judge David Green investigated for ethics violation by Commision on Judicial Conduct
By MEREDITH SAVITT and JOHN McINTYRE
COLONIE – A New York State Supreme Court judge has ordered the Colonie Town Court to accept a local real estate attorney’s papers for filing after the attorney, in an Article 78 proceeding, challenged the court’s rejection of his submissions. While the attorney won his case, it has opened an ethics inquiry into Town Court Justice David Green.
In her decision, Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Connor ruled that the Town Court’s clerk failed to perform her mandatory duty of accepting the attorney’s papers for filing. The judge relied on Judiciary Law language requiring court clerks to accept any papers that do not fall within five specified exceptions, none of which applied in this case. She directed the Town to accept Moore’s filings.
Town Attorney F. Guy Roemer said he had no comment on the decision, stating that the Town’s position was outlined in its post-hearing brief. Roemer added that the Town has not yet decided whether to appeal.
How the Case Began
Clifton Park-based attorney T. Patric Moore filed an Article 78 petition in March, seeking to overturn the Colonie Town Court’s refusal to accept his filings. Mary Falace, the Town Court’s Chief Clerk, informed Moore that she had been instructed to reject any legal submissions from him.
In an affidavit filed in April, Falace stated that the instruction came from Senior Town Justice and Court Administrator Andrew Sommers. She further attested that no reason was provided for the directive. In his affidavit, Judge Sommers stated that he was “ethically restricted from providing to her the reason why I directed her to reject any such papers.”
Falace also noted in her affidavit that “minutes after speaking with Mr. Moore, one of the other part-time judges [Green] called me and, in a harsh and demanding tone, ‘chewed me out’ for refusing to accept the papers Mr. Moore sought to file.”
Judge O’Connor took the unusual step in an Article 78 proceeding of ordering an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Judge Sommers acted outside the scope of his authority or failed to perform a legal duty. After three days of testimony from multiple witnesses, the judge upheld Moore’s right to file papers in Colonie Town Court. However, the decision did not address the ethical issues raised during the hearing concerning Judge Green.
What the Testimony Revealed
According to a post-hearing brief submitted by the Town, the controversy began when Falace received a phone call last December from a tenant involved in an eviction proceeding before the Colonie Town Court. The tenant claimed she had spoken with Judge David Green, one of the court’s three justices, who was representing her landlord.
Falace and the tenant testified that Judge Green had negotiated with the tenant about forgiving past-due rent due to the apparent illegality of the rental apartment. These negotiations occurred while the eviction proceeding was pending on the court’s docket. The tenant also testified that Judge Green said the eviction would be withdrawn.
The tenant further testified that Judge Green communicated with her multiple times. “He would email me and he would call me,” she said. “The purpose of the communication I had with counselor David Green, Judge David Green, was he represented Lorraine Johnston, my landlord, and she was trying to evict me.” She also recalled that Judge Green advised her she could remain in the apartment and that “he was not going to have Padric Moore evict her.” At the time, the tenant did not know who Moore was.
Falace testified that the format and font of the withdrawal notice matched paperwork Judge Green had previously used in eviction cases prior to becoming a judge. She retrieved an older eviction file and confirmed her suspicions. In a separate case from 2023, Judge Green’s eviction paperwork also matched the format and font of the tenant’s withdrawal notice.
Spotlight News requested documents from the Colonie Town Court under FOIL to compare formats.
Moore-Petition-Nov2023_RedactedMoore’s petition for the eviction case
Green-Petition-May2012_RedactedA petition filed in Colonie Court by David Green in 2012
A petition filed by Moore earlier in 2023.
In its post-hearing brief, the Town stated that Judge Green “readily testified that he negotiated with [the] Tenant regarding past due rent and the withdrawal of Tenant’s eviction proceeding, all while such proceeding was pending on the Court’s docket.” Judge Sommers testified that during a meeting on an unrelated matter, Judge Green told him that Moore sometimes covered cases for him.
Moore admitted during testimony that he neither charged the landlord, Lorraine Johnston, nor had a retainer agreement with her, even though she had not been a client previously. Regarding the similarities in paperwork, Moore stated that eviction documents are prepared by someone else in his office.
The testimony raised concerns about a “potential strawman issue,” with Judge Green allegedly bringing his own eviction cases to be heard before the court using Moore as an intermediary. Judge Sommers testified, “I had difficulty processing that.”
Ethics Concerns and Judicial Advisory Opinion
Judge Sommers testified that he sought guidance from the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics regarding the situation. In a February 1 opinion, the committee stated that if Moore was acting as an “associate” of Judge Green or handling legal work on his behalf, the court could not accept filings from Moore. The opinion also advised Judge Sommers to report Judge Green to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Following this guidance, Judge Sommers instructed Falace to reject filings from Moore. “No, what I would say is this: As judges, we are obligated to honor our judicial ethics. We sought an opinion, we got the answer, and if you read the opinion it says we cannot accept filings by this attorney and, therefore, I told Mary do not accept the papers,” he said.
Judicial Investigation Underway
The Town initially sought to seal the advisory opinion but was unsuccessful. Roemer explained that the Town had been trying to maintain confidentiality because it was aware of an ongoing investigation by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, which handles allegations of misconduct by New York State judges.
Judge Green confirmed that the commission had interviewed his sister, who is employed at his office. The investigation centers on whether Judge Green acted improperly in eviction cases and whether Moore was improperly used to file cases on his behalf.
Neither Moore nor Judge Green responded to requests for comment from Spotlight.
