Tornoe's cartoon makes a good point

Superior Court Judge Patricia J. Costello removed Dana Rone from her seat on the Newark City Council earlier this month for abusing her office when she interceded in a 2006 traffic stop involving her nephew. PolitickerNJ.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe has an interesting take on the matter: that New Jersey operates under a culture where the powerful and politically connected use their influence to get special treatment every day.

Whether its premium seats for concerts, special license plates and badges for judges and elected officials that send a not-too-subtle don’t-mess-with-me signal to state troopers and local police officers, or even the get out of jail free cards the PBA provides to legislators and political leaders in quantity to give away to friends (maybe even contributors), New Jersey politicos actively seek special treatment on a daily basis. So maybe Tornoe is right when he opines that there is some hypocrisy to the system, although his characterization is entirely generic – there is no confirmation that Costello or her family drives a car with judicial license plates.

Judges, though not necessarily Costello, get breaks all the time. U.S. District Court Judge Faith Hochberg and Superior Court Judge Harriet Derman were among the VIP’s that requested good seats to the recent Bruce Springsteen concert. Roberto Rivera-Soto, an Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, was censured last year after he called local law enforcement and a Superior Court Judge about a high school football practice dispute involving his son and another teenager. He currently faces a civil court lawsuit, but got off with just a slap on his wrists.

Sometimes Judges get in trouble – like then-Supreme Court Justice Robert Clifford’s arrest for drunk driving, or Rosemarie Williams being charged with assault -- though it is more likely that the public never hears about it when they do.