POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Republican Committee Chairman Michael McCormack filed a formal
complaint against Supreme Court Justice Robert Berliner of Rockland County and justice candidate Christi Acker in what McCormick called “the worst breach of judicial ethics I have seen in my time as a GOP county
chairman.”
A video posted on YouTube shows Berliner escorting Acker to meet with rabbis in the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel last Friday. Village residents tend to vote in a block following the direction of the spiritual leaders.
McCormick said Berliner broke the law when he took Acker on a campaign visit.
“It’s against the judicial ethic for a sitting judge to campaign in any election unless that sitting judge unless that sitting judge’s ‘window’ being open because they are running for a position, which Judge Berliner is not,” McCormick said.
Berliner and Acker are Democrats. Acker ran against Republican Linda Murray for a State Supreme Court seat in the Ninth Judicial District, which includes the counties of Rockland, Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess.
