Alleged Questionable Conduct by NJ Municipal Court Judge Frank W. Gasiorowski.

After an unpleasant experience in the Bedminster Municipal Court in August 2010, which led to my filing a citizen complaint against Judge Frank Gasiorowski under N.J.S. 2C:52-30 (see Case Study, complaint #2), I decided to conduct an investigation into the existence of other allegations of misconduct against Judge Gasiorowski.

I first found a blurb reported in the New Jersey Law Journal on January 18, 2007 which stated:

A Somerset County judge is leaving the bench, for unstated reasons, 18 months before the end of his seven-year term. Superior Court Judge Frank Gasiorowski, 62, who sits in the Criminal Part, will resign on Feb. 1 (2007).

It sounded unusual to me that a Superior Court Judge would resign from his job 18 months before attaining tenure, and then take a job in an inferior court as a municipal court judge.

I dug a little deeper and found a possible reason in a report in the Courier News on January 17, 2007 with the headline "Prosecutor attempting to boot judge" which read in part:

The judge (Gasiorowski) also questioned (ex-Bound Brook inspector) Gandy and gave the impression the woman was a prostitute, the motion states. Since Gandy's guilty verdict, the defense has filed motions for acquittal and to get a new trial, motions Gasiorowski repeatedly adjourned because the case was scheduled on his days off or on his vacation, the motion states.

Then I found a story about the same case reported in the Courier News on January 18, 2007 with the headline "Superior Court judge retiring" which read in part:

On Tuesday, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office filed a motion to remove Gasiorowski from sentencing a former Bound Brook housing inspector convicted of official misconduct because, the motion states, Gasiorowski made pre-judgements about the case, interviewed a witness during the trial and put off motions to find a reason to overturn the verdict.

Apparently, the defense filed a motion for a new trial, and Superior Court Judge Robert B. Reed vacated the (Gasiorowski) verdict and ordered a new trial on July 17, 2007.  This story is currently posted on NJ.com.

I found additional evidence of questionable conduct by Gasiorowski before he resigned his Superior Court judgeship.  On July 25, 2007, the Home News Tribune published a story titled "Alleged bank robber can't enter PTI" which reads in part:

The appellate court ruled Gasiorowski, now a municipal judge in Watchung, strayed "from the standards established in pertinent case law" when he allowed Carvalho into the PTI program despite the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office refusal to give consent, which is required for the entry of a second-degree offender into the program.

It seems that the Prosecutor's office appealed to the Appellate division and got the ruling issued by Gasiorowski reversed.  The bank robber was finally sentenced in January, 2009.

Finally, I found a story published on the internet on May 31, 2007 titled "New Jersey Corruption (2)" in which Gasiorowski's conduct is alleged to be questionable within the context of several Motions filed by an individual back in 2005.

I still don't know for sure if there is a connection between these reports of Gasiorowski's questionable conduct and his abrupt resignation from the Superior Court in 2007, but there seems to be enough evidence to support a strong correlation.

Considering what Gasiorowski's been up to since then (see Case Study, complaint #2), I have little doubt that more stories of Gasiorowski's escapades will show up in the future.