Judge facing removal over school confrontation gets September hearing date

The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether or not to remove embattled Superior Court Judge Theresa Mullen this fall.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner on Tuesday issued an order calling for oral arguments over Mullen’s motion to dismiss a presentment filed against her by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct that recommended she be removed from her post over her behavior in a 2016 lawsuit against her children’s school.

Mullen, who sits on the bench in Union County, sued the St. Theresa School in an attempt to force the institution to allow her daughter to play on the boys’ basketball team. The school did not have a girls’ basketball team.

The school’s rules require parents who drag it into legal matters remove their children from its rolls. Mullen’s two daughters were expelled. A day later, the judge got into an altercation with school and police officials on school grounds.

The fracas ended with a charge of defiant trespass against Mullen. The judge in that trial said Mullen lacked credibility — a point agreed to by an appellate panel that upheld her conviction.

The ACJC also found her hard to trust, noting her testimony diverged sharply from other witness accounts. The panel found the same lack of candor in the civil case her husband brought against the school and the Archdiocese of Newark.

Her position as a judge was abused, the panel said, when the court sought to sanction her for obstructive behavior.

Arguments before the Supreme Court are set for Sept. 13, 2021.