New York judge resigns after saying he thinks everyone’s guilty

New York judge resigns after saying he thinks everyone’s guilty


A judge in upstate New York resigned after he allegedly told another judge that he believed anyone who came before him was guilty.

Why It Matters

Richard Snyder was a justice of the Petersburgh Town Court. He has served the court since 2014, and his current term would have ended in December of this year.

The state of New York has accepted 146 resignation stipulations since the procedure was implemented in 2003, “in which a judge could agree to resign from judicial office, never seek or accept judicial office in the future, and waive confidentiality such that the agreement with the judge would be made public,” according to the commission’s website.

What To Know

Snyder was served with a formal written complaint in November 2024, according to a Tuesday news release from the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The complaint said that Snyder was trying to be excused from grand jury duty in October 2023. He allegedly said he could not serve as a grand juror because he believed that anyone who came before him was guilty, so he could not be impartial. He was dismissed from serving on the jury.

Town Judge Richard Snyder carries bottled water from a distribution center on Feb. 20, 2016, at the Petersburgh Town Hall in Petersburgh, N.Y.

Cindy Schultz/The Albany Times Union via AP

The judge presiding over the jury reported Snyder’s conduct to state officials.

Snyder later appeared for testimony at the commission, where he allegedly repeatedly said that anyone who appeared before him “did something wrong.”

The commission reported that Snyder also said, “I know they’re guilty because they did something wrong. That’s how they got a ticket,” and “…That’s the reason why they got the ticket to appear in court, because they did something wrong.”

There are no automatic exemptions or excuses from jury service in New York.

“Everyone who is eligible must serve,” the state’s juror website reads.

Anyone over the age of 18 who is a U.S. citizen, resident of the county they reside in, able to communicate in and understand English and has not been convicted of a felony is eligible.

What People Are Saying

Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, in a statement: “It is bad enough that a judge would seek to avoid such a fundamental civic responsibility as jury service. It is astounding that the judge would claim an inability to be impartial, and to declare under oath that the accused must be guilty or they would not be in court. There is no place on the bench for someone who so deeply misunderstands the role of a judge and the administration of justice.”

What Happens Next

As a condition of his resignation, Snyder is unable to seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future.

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