Jayson Williams

Embattled New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto

Roberto Rivera-Soto, an Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, is in trouble again: a prosecutor has accused him of violating a court order when he identified an investigator who used a racial slur in the Jayson Williams case.  Bennett Barlyn, an Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor, has filed an ethics complaint against Rivera-Soto.  The prosecutor wants to retry the former basketball star on manslaughter charges. 

The latest complaint could make it difficult for Rivera-Soto to win reappointment to the top court when his term comes up in 2011.

In 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court censured Rivera-Soto for his role in a 2006 incident involving his son and a teammate on a high school football team.  The court agreed with a judicial conduct panel that Rivera-Soto "engaged in a course of conduct that created a risk that the prestige and power of his judicial office might influence and advance a private matter."  Rivera-Soto still faces a civil suit.

Defense attorney Joseph Hayden says he won't seek appointment as the U.S. Attorney from New Jersey

Joe Hayden, a prominent defense lawyer whose name has surfaced in legal and political circles as a potential pick for U.S. Attorney, took his own name out of the mix today.

“It is an honor that people within the legal community suggested that my name be considered as a candidate for the next United States Attorney,” said Hayden in response to an inquiry from PolitickerNJ.com.  “I have reflected upon it, but I am convinced that I have longstanding commitments to clients -- a half dozen clients -- that would not make this possibility feasible.”

Hayden represents Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero, who was indicted in September on eight corruption counts.  He also represents former Nets star Jayson Williams, who faces a retrial for manslaughter over the shooting of his limo driver in 2002.