An upstate judge should be booted for misconduct such as joking to lawyers that his ex-wife “likes the hole better than the pole” and driving around with a “boobies” bumper sticker, a judicial watchdog group says.
Guilford Town Court Justice Jeremy L. Persons, 47, makes sexually inappropriate comments to lawyers while on the job, parks his car around the courthouse that has a bumper sticker saying “Boobies Make Me Smile,” has a suspended driver’s license and can be seen wearing a gun in a hip holster at work anytime he isn’t in his robes, according to New York’s Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The watchdog agency is asking the chief judge of New York’s Court of Appeals to remove Persons – who is not a lawyer – from the judgeship position he’s held since 2020. If Persons fails to request a review of the CJC’s determination within 30 days, the high court will automatically remove him from office.
The CJC claims that Persons started discussing his failed marriage with a prosecutor and a lawyer while he was in a courtroom Aug. 26, 2021 — saying he’d been in a three-way relationship with his ex and another woman before the two women cut him out.
“She likes the hole better than the pole,” Persons told the two jurists of his ex at the time, according to the CJC’s determination.
also told a male public defender in October 2020 that he looked forward to the female public defender returning from vacation because “she’s better looking than [you],” the CJC claimed.
Persons then flirted with that same female public defender Aug. 26, 2021, saying he wanted to watch her golf. When she responded she wasn’t good at the sport, Persons creepily said, “That’s not why I want to watch you,” the CJC alleged.
The judge has also parked his car by the non-public entrance of the court where cops and jailed defendants come through, giving them a glimpse of his crude “boobies” bumper sticker and another with a graphic of “Judge Dredd,” a comic and movie character known as “judge, jury and executioner,” the CJC said.
In addition, the judge had his driver’s license suspended three times since 2017 for traffic violations and later for failing to appear on the tickets, the group said. He also allowed his car insurance to lapse – which is why his license was still suspended as of Feb. 23, the CJC alleged.
Meanwhile, Persons was issued a license to carry a concealed weapon Dec. 11, 2020, and he got two handguns, including a semiautomatic Glock as well as an Uberti revolver, the commission claimed.
Then while he was in and around the courthouse, it was Persons’ “practice” to carry one of the firearms in a hip-holster “which was easily visible anytime he was not wearing his judicial robe,” the filing said.
Once in 2021, Persons even “placed his handgun on the bench” when a public defender was before him “during a session of the court,” the CJC claimed.
The CJC brought seven charges against Persons on July 13, 2022, but the embattled judge never responded to the complaint or appeared in the case, the commission said.
Persons didn’t return messages from The Post seeking comment Monday.
In 2022, the commission recommended that another upstate judge, David Stilson, be removed from Alma Town Court for allegedly sharing demeaning posts on social media bout women and their “boobies.”