New York Surrogate Censured

The following is from Tom Perrotta, Albany Surrogate Censured Over ‘Evasive’ Replies, N.Y. Law., March 1, 2007:

Cathryn M. Doyle, the surrogate in Albany County, should be censured for evasive responses to questions about a trust created to pay the legal expenses of Thomas J. Spargo, the former Supreme Court justice who was removed from the bench last year, the Commission on Judicial Conduct said yesterday.

The commission’s administrator, Robert H. Tembeckjian, had sought Surrogate Doyle’s removal from the bench, but the commission said the sanction was too harsh. No judge has ever been removed based solely on statements made to the commission.

Surrogate Doyle also was cleared of charges that her involvement in the trust for Mr. Spargo, her long-time friend, constituted a misuse of her office and compromised the integrity of the judiciary.

But the commission did say it would have voted to suspend Surrogate Doyle without pay because of her “shifting and evasive” testimony, if that sanction had been available to it.

Special thanks to Prof. Paul Caron for bringing this article to my attention.