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New Jersey’s State Supreme Court suspended a Filipino American judge for hindering the capture of a then live-in boyfriend, reports NJ.com.
State Superior Court Judge Carlia Brady withheld information from police to protect Jason Prontnicki from being captured.
He is currently serving a prison sentence on robbery and weapons charges and is not scheduled to be released until 2022.
Police arrested Brady herself in 2013 for hindering authorities, but they later dropped the case.
The suspension of Brady is considered symbolic because her term ended in April.
“I am thankful this ordeal is over,” Brady said to NBC4.
My Central New Jersey says the former judge sued Woodbridge Township and several police officers saying she is the victim of discrimination and a malicious conspiracy.
She called the case against her “one of the most egregious abuses of police powers, retaliation, racism, and gender bias to be perpetuated upon an innocent law-abiding citizen.”
She is the state’s first Filipino American to become a Superior Court judge .
The State Supreme Court split on its decision to suspend Brady.
The majority ruled she “acted not at the direction of the police or because she feared harm, but in the hope that she could assist Prontnicki and preserve their relationship while maintaining her judicial career.”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Barry Albin wrote her actions “should not be viewed from the sterile, 20/20 perspective of hindsight, but rather from that of a vulnerable human being, fatigued and frightened, in the grip of overwhelming stress.”
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