


On Bronx Supreme Court Justice Naita Semaj’s push for elevation to the Appellate Division, First Department, we have two words: Hell no!
Yet someone in the Bronx Democratic Party is trying to fast-track her career.
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Though first elected to the Civil Court bench only in 2019, she got tapped for election to a 14-year state Supreme Court term in November 2021. She was also somehow selected last July for transfer from the Bronx Supreme Court’s Youth Part to the borough’s “gun court” — a specialized court that exclusively handles gun cases.
As a criminal-court judge, she’s made multiple controversial rulings setting accused killers loose back onto Bronx streets, while showing strong distrust of police and shocking disregard for crime vicitms.
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On top of all this, The Post has learned that Semaj is under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for tossing a prosecutor out of her court in a hearing involving a 17-year-old gangbanger charged with a shooting in a cell phone store.
Semaj allegedly went into a rage from the bench, claiming the teen suspect fired shots in self-defense and ordered the prosecutor never to appear in front of her again.
Yet she wants to take her antics to the next level — the Appellate Division.
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As Queens ex-prosecutor Jim Quinn told The Post: “There’s no way the governor can nominate her as a presiding justice. She would damage all credibility.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul should dismiss Judge Semaj’s bid for a promotion without hesitation, if the judicial screening panel doesn’t do so first.
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Sadly, Semaj is exactly the kind of pro-defendant, anti-law-enforcment jurist that progressives want on every bench in the state.
The future of public safety in New York literally hangs in the balance.