A power-mad Westchester County judge got her Democratic buddy out of trouble and tore into a prosecutor for not following orders in one race-based meltdown, a new misconduct report said.
Mount Vernon city Judge Nichelle Johnson was formally censured by a state judicial board for a pattern of bizarre behavior and blatant abuse of her authority that included calling a defendant from the bench to shake her down to pay a settlement and routinely helping friends out of tickets.
In one unhinged incident, Johnson — who is black — tore into an assistant district attorney for brushing off her demands in a tirade, apparently accusing the lawyer of not listening to her because of her race.
“’You are just a black judge sitting up here in a black court and I don’t have to listen to you,’” Johnson railed in court.
The prosecutor said he “had never been spoken to like that,” a court transcript showed.
Her misconduct went beyond outbursts from the bench — Johnson also helped fix car tickets for a neighbor and helped toss out a fine for a former mayor, who is a fellow member of the Democratic Party.
Johnson, a judge on the Mount Vernon City Court since 2016, improperly used her office to “undermine public confidence,” said the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct on Tuesday.
The judge had “asserted her judicial office for the benefit of others and improperly allowed her social relationships to influence her judicial actions,” was “discourteous to prosecutors” and had undisclosed and “unauthorized” communications with litigants appearing before her, the censure ruling noted.
“Leveraging judicial office for the benefit of friends leads to a dual system of justice — one for the well-connected, and one for everyone else,” said Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian, who noted that the judge was cooperative and accepted responsibility.
Most brazenly, Johnson helped former Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton Young skip out on a $750 judgment, personally intervening to take the case herself, and then writing to a clerk that the judgment “must be vacated,” the SCJC wrote.
The judge also stepped in to help her neighbor wriggle out of a ticket for a covered license plate by advising her how to remedy the violation, and then delivered a handwritten note to a clerk, asking for a dismissal.
“I don’t want it to go on the agenda because I feel terrible that she gave me the letter to bring,” Johnson texted the court clerk.
When Johnson wasn’t helping out pals, she was busy “yelling at length” at the district attorney’s office at least twice, the commission said.
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During a 2023 arraignment over a fake license plate resulting in the seizure of a car and cellphone, Johnson screamed at an ADA that the city’s towing system was a “g–damn racket,” called the impound staff “nasty as hell” and said the defendant “should get the damn things today,” according to a transcript released by the SCJC.
She went on to claim that the DA’s office refused to release the phone and car because they “don’t give a damn about what the judge says.”
In three separate cases, the SCJC found that Johnson had “unauthorized” communications out of court, advising a tenant appearing before her to pay her landlord and providing advice to a court officer on how a defendant could get her impounded car back — as the defendant listened.
And during a 2023 arraignment, Johnson attempted to locate a victim in a criminal case by dialing a number given to her by the defendant during a lunch break.
The judge told the SCJC that her actions were not for her own personal benefit, and a result of “significant professional stress.”
Johnson accepted responsibility for her misconduct and, in addition to the formal censure, agreed to take several remedial online courses on judicial behavior, including one called “Cultivating Healing and Health in the Judiciary.”
“I look forward to continuing to serve as Judge ensuring fairness and equality for all who appear before me within the requirements of our judicial system,” Johnson told The Post.
