A former judge who resigned from the bench after threatening to shoot Black teenagers at a party has been hired for a key legal post by an upstate New York county.
The ex-judge, Erin P. Gall, a Republican, is now an assistant attorney for Herkimer County. Local Democrats said they were appalled by the appointment, while a Republican leader defended it.
Ms. Gall, 53, formerly a State Supreme Court justice in neighboring Oneida County, started her new job on Jan. 2 — months after saying she would fight a state commission’s decision recommending her removal from the bench, and one week before the state Court of Appeals granted her motion to withdraw a request for a review of the decision, according to court documents.
She had resigned her judgeship in December after being suspended in July. A state commission found that Ms. Gall, who is white, had engaged in a “racially offensive, profane” rant at a high school graduation party that was recorded by an officer’s body camera.
In her new position, Ms. Gall will assist the county attorney in all legal matters and will be paid about $108,150 a year, according to Steven R. Billings, a personnel director at the Herkimer County attorney’s office. Her annual salary as a Supreme Court justice was $232,600.
Mr. Billings said the county attorney, Lorraine H. Lewandrowski, had chosen to hire Ms. Gall, and that it would be up to her whether Ms. Gall works on cases involving juveniles. Ms. Lewandrowski did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Gall declined to comment.
The reaction to her hiring reflected a political divide in Herkimer County, where Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one among registered voters.
Sylvia Rowan, chairwoman of the Herkimer County Republican Committee, acknowledged that Ms. Gall’s behavior at the party was something people “will probably frown at.” But, she said, “to question her ability in her job and what she did in that situation is different.”
“I’m a firm believer in second chances,” she added.
Ms. Rowan also said that there were other considerations, including how short-staffed the county attorney’s office was. A shortage of young lawyers in the area and a backlog of work were likely to have been key factors in her hiring, she said.
Elizabeth Briggs, co-chair of the Herkimer County Democrats’ executive committee, said Ms. Gall should not have been hired at all.
She said she had called the county attorney’s office to question the decision. A chair of the Legislature’s human resources committee told her that because Ms. Gall was not being hired as a judge and still had her law license, the commission’s finding did not block the hiring, she said. Ms. Briggs said she was “flabbergasted.”
“How can a juvenile walk into court and feel confident that they’re going to be treated appropriately and respectfully?” she said.
Helen T. Rose, a former Herkimer County legislator who is also a Democrat, said she was “appalled” by the hire.
“The realm of responsibilities that could be assigned to her gives me grave concern for equal justice and fairness in the county attorney’s office,” she said.
The events that led to Ms. Gall’s expulsion happened in July 2022, when she, her husband and her 18-year-old son attended a high school graduation party at a friend’s home.
A large number of uninvited guests showed up shortly after 11:30 p.m., and four Black teenagers arrived in a car, according to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct’s report.
Fights broke out, with Ms. Gall’s husband and son involved, and one of the Black teenagers lost his car key. It was unclear what role the Black teenagers had played in the fighting, the commission determined.
The police arrived, and for the next hour and 20 minutes, Ms. Gall invoked her status as a judge more than a dozen times, saying, “Get off the property — and that’s from Judge Gall,” the commission found.
“I’m a judge,” she added, using a vulgarity for emphasis.
As the teenagers searched for the key, a police officer told her that if it was not found, someone from the group would have to return to find it.
“If they come back looking for it, I’ll call you while they’re on the property,” Ms. Gall said, adding: “If they did, they’ll be arrested, or they’ll be shot on the property. Because when they trespass, you can shoot them on the property. I’ll shoot them on the property.”
In another exchange, she said to the officers that the Black teenagers “don’t look like they’re that smart” and “were not going to business school, that’s for sure.”
Ms. Gall admitted to making the comments after the police released body- and dashboard-camera footage of their interactions with her.
When she stopped fighting her removal from the bench, she cited “numerous death threats,” a motion filed by her lawyer, Robert F. Julian, showed.
Robert H. Tembeckjian, the state commission’s administrator, said in an email that in his opinion, “her removal from judicial office was inevitable, and under the Constitution, that would make her ineligible to return to the bench.”
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