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Judge resigns amid Jan. 6 rally probe; ‘I would do it over again’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 30, 2024, 11:49 am CDT

A New York village and town court judge has agreed to resign amid an investigation into his attendance at a Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C.

Judge Donald R. Spaccio of New York agreed to resign effective Oct. 7, according to a Sept. 27 press release and a Sept. 19 decision by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Spaccio, who is not a lawyer, agreed to never again seek judicial office.

Spaccio had testified during the commission investigation that he didn’t participate in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. But he told the New York Law Journal at Law.com that he participated in a rally beforehand.

“Yeah, I went to [former President Donald] Trump’s rally. There’s a lot of things that are wrong with our country right now, so that’s why I felt I needed to be there,” Spaccio told the legal publication. “I would do it over again. We lose our rights when we go on the bench, and it’s not right.”

Judges can’t participate in political activities outside a period when running for office, according to the judicial conduct commission.

Spaccio has been a judge on the Montour Falls Village Court since November 2001 and the Montour Town Court in Schuyler County, New York, since January 2005, according to a stipulation.

The commission was also investigating complaints that Spaccio:

  • Shouted at police officers and invoked his judicial office when they asked him to remove a propane cannon from the roof of his building.

  • Yelled profanities at a Montour code enforcement officer during a dispute.

Spaccio told the New York Law Journal that he put up the propane “bird cannon” because a neighboring business had a vacuum on its roof that was just as loud, and he was frustrated by village inaction. His plan was to run the bird cannon when the vacuum was running.

Spaccio said he shouted at police officers when they threatened to arrest him for disorderly conduct over the propane cannon.

Spaccio also told the New York Law Journal that he resigned because he couldn’t afford the cost of a lawyer.

Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commission’s administrator, commented on Spaccio’s resignation in the press release.

“Judges may not engage in political activity except for a limited time when running for office, and even then, there are constraints on what they may do,” Tembeckjian said. “Whether or not a judge was a candidate, attending the rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was impermissible. So is invoking one’s judicial title in the midst a testy personal dispute.”