Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd is facing disciplinary charges for allowing his secretary to work remotely for six months in 2022 despite a policy that required her to work in person.
The Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct filed a formal complaint yesterday against Hurd, alleging that he either knew or should have known that his secretary was prohibited from working from home before he authorized it. They said Hurd admitted that he allowed it but believed “he had the discretion to do so.”
“(Hurd) abused the power and prestige of his judicial office for the benefit of his secretary by permitting her to work remotely in violation of Judiciary policies prohibiting remote work for judges’ secretaries,” the panel said in its complaint.
The name of his secretary was withheld from the complaint to maintain confidentiality. The secretary moved out of state in late 2021 and received an exemption from the state’s residency requirement.
The panel could recommend public admonition, reprimand, censure, suspension, or removal from the court. By filing the complaint, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct has already opted against disciplining the judge privately. The complaint suggests that he violated three canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct: observing high standards of conduct to preserve the integrity of the courts; avoidance of impropriety and the appearance of impropriety; and the avoidance of “lending the prestige of their office to advance the private interest of others.”
The final decision on discipline rests with the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Hurd, a civil court judge in Mercer County, was nominated to the bench by Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009 and renominated for a tenured seat on the Superior Court in 2016. He can serve until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2039.
The complaint against Hurd is one of two open cases against a Superior Court Judge.
Gary Wilcox, a criminal court judge in Bergen County, is accused of making profane, racist, and sexually graphic TikTok videos. Wilcox admitted to creating about 40 lip-synced videos that he placed on TikTok, some while wearing his judicial robe while in his court chambers, walking through the Bergen County courthouse, and in his bed partly undressed, using the pseudonym “Sal Tortorella,” but says he didn’t realize they would be available to the public and claimed many were “taken out of context.”
Private disciplinary actions are rarely made public.
In 2018, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct chose to deal privately with an ethics complaint filed against Louis Sceusi, a Superior Court Judge in Morris County accused of violating rules that judges refrain from political activity by endorsing his wife for Republican County Committeewoman in a contested race that year.
The panel found that the allegations against Sceusi had merit but did not rise to the level necessitating a formal proceeding. In cases where a judge’s conduct would reflect negatively if his behavior became habitual, court rules allow for a private censure, reprimand, admonishment, or guidance concerning the alleged conduct. The exact level of the disciplinary action is not public.
The judge signed a nominating petition for his wife, Ingrid Sceusi, a longtime Republican committeewoman and former municipal chair. Ingrid Sceusi was defeated for re-election by challenger Gretchen Tramontin-Clegg.
Sceusi, who spent eleven years as mayor of Rockaway, had entered the race for State Assembly in a 2011 special election following the death of Minority Leader Alex DeCroce. He withdrew the night of the election, clearing the way for Betty Lou DeCroce (R-Parsippany) to take her late husband’s seat. There have been suggestions that Gov. Chris Christie nominated him to the bench in 2012 as part of a deal to get him out of the race. Sceusi reached the mandatory retirement age in 2022.