Mark Grisanti (left) at the police station and (right) at the scene outside his home (NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct).
A disciplinary panel called out a New York judge for a video recorded expletive-filled fight he had with neighbors in 2020 that ended with a shirtless interview down at the police station in Buffalo.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct revealed Tuesday that a 6-4 vote determined that a censure was warranted for Mark Grisanti, an acting New York Supreme Court justice in Erie County and a Court of Claims judge who was twice-elected to the New York State Senate as a Republican after switching parties.
The misconduct findings largely focus on the heated and much-publicized June 22, 2020, dispute that Grisanti and his wife had with his neighbors, the Meles, for encroaching on the judge’s driveway by the way they parked their cars.
Years-old news stories documented how Grisanti lost his shirt during a physical altercation with a neighbor and then put his hands on a Buffalo cop when that officer tried to arrest the judge’s wife.
During his interview with police, Grisanti explained that he got home after dinner at Dairy Queen and saw that his neighbors were antagonizing him again by parking their cars in a manner that, he thought, intentionally blocked his driveway to spark a fight. He maintained that the neighbors, Joseph and Gina Mele, were the aggressors and that he was only defending his wife, Maria.
The panel recounted how all parties involved were dropping f-bombs, but the judge, by virtue of his office, was held to a higher standard.
“During the course of this physical confrontation with the Meles, respondent loudly and repeatedly directed profane language at the Meles, including but not limited to the following phrases: ‘every f—ing Thursday,’ ‘f—ing asshole,’ ‘f—er,’ ‘you want to go again, tough f—ing guy,’ ‘I’ll f—ing flatten your face again,’ ‘get the f— out of here,’ ‘get the f— out of my driveway,’ ‘you f—ing asshole,’ ‘f— you,’ ‘nobody f—ing likes you guys,’ and ‘you piece of s—,”” the documents said.
At one point, the verbal vituperations devolved into something not unlike a wrestling match that cost Grisanti his shirt, hence why he was shirtless in body cam video and at the police station.
Buffalo Police Officer Ryan Gehr, one of the responding police officers that day, disclosed that he was “mad” going into work that day in connection with “something female-related,” in an attempt to explain why he aggressively threatened to arrest Maria Grisanti.
“Ma’am, if you don’t stop yelling, this is going to be a problem for you,” Gehr said.
“I don’t care,” Maria Grisanti replied. “You’re not going to arrest me.”
That response angered the officer, who replied, “I sure f—ing am.”
Though the panel criticized Gehr for making a powder keg situation worse, the judge was nonetheless called out for shoving the officer in response.
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Notably, the judge claimed that the Buffalo Police Department’s shoving of Martin Gugino weeks earlier in 2020 was on his mind when he saw Gehr trying to arrest his wife.
“There was a protest at least a couple of weeks before this — this incident in Niagara Square, where the police officers pushed a gentleman, and he fell over and he cracked his head open. That — when you saw the video, you were kind of in shock because of the force that was used,” he said, according to the panel. “My concern for Maria is I knew what she just went through. I knew how she was just attacked and choked out. When I saw her being grabbed and thrown down by this officer, when she’s five-foot-one, 105 pounds, that, to me, was excessive. That was improper. And I’m telling him to get off my wife, because I didn’t know if she was hurt or not.”
At the scene, Grisanti said “you arrest my f—ing wife… you’re going to be sorry,” also mentioning that he was friends with the mayor and that his son and daughter are both cops.
The panel concluded that Grisanti failed to promote public confidence in the judiciary by publicly swearing at neighbors and putting hands on a cop before “referenc[ing] his friendship with the Mayor of Buffalo in an apparent attempt to obtain preferential treatment based on those connections.”
The panel further said that the judge displayed “exceptionally poor judgment” and “fell far short of the high standards of judicial conduct.”
“In addition, respondent exacerbated his misconduct that day when he apparently sought to obtain preferential treatment from the police by referencing his relatives who were police officers and well as his friendship with the Mayor of Buffalo,” the decision said. “When he sought preferential treatment in this way and under these circumstances, he detracted from the dignity of his judicial office.”
The majority indicated that Grisanti’s acceptance of responsibility and otherwise “unblemished record as a lawyer and then as a judge” played a role in the conclusion that a censure was the “appropriate” punishment.
A minority of four panelists argued that Grisanti should have instead been removed from office as punishment.
“I dissent because I find the misconduct of the respondent sufficient to warrant removal. The evidence as well as the judge’s temperament during oral argument make clear both that the judge acted in a manner inconsistent with holding judicial office and that there is a significant risk he will repeat this or similar behaviors in the future,” wrote Commission Chair Joseph Belluck.
A second dissent accused Grisanti of lying repeatedly to law enforcement about details of the incident and threatening cops.
The six-person majority opinion disagreed.
“First of all, the dissent contends that respondent repeatedly and intentionally lied to the 911 operator when he called to complain about how the Meles parked their cars. The referee specifically found that respondent did not lie to the 911 operator,” the decision said. “The referee stated, ‘I do not find that the Commission established that these accounts, even if inaccurate, were deliberately false and not merely indicative of respondent’s perception of the event.’ Respondent’s perceptions were indeed supported by Lt. Muhammad’s observation that it appeared that the Meles’ cars were parked in an annoying way which was likely done to ‘f— with the Grisantis.’”
The majority also said that while Grisanti’s “profanity was improper,” those words did not amount to threats against police.
Grisanti’s answer to the disciplinary charges noted that he “denies that he made threats to police officers or attempted to invoke his judicial office or familial ties to obtain preferential treatment.”
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