On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced that Louis P. Violanti, an Associate Judge of the Lackawanna City Court in Erie County, has resigned following charges of misconduct. Violanti’s resignation, effective January 23, 2025, comes after he was implicated in orchestrating a fraudulent court proceeding intended to dismiss a traffic ticket issued to an acquaintance.
This incident marks the second resignation for Violanti from the Lackawanna City Court. His previous resignation occurred in 2013, but at that time, he did not agree to a lifetime ban from returning to the bench. The Commission was unable to remove him before he resigned, which would have prohibited his return under the State Constitution.
In the 2013 case, Violanti was found to have presided over a sham proceeding where a police officer impersonated the traffic defendant, and no prosecutor was present. He subsequently dismissed the ticket, leading to a two-year suspension of his law license by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, which deemed his actions as “serious misconduct.”
Violanti’s law license was reinstated in March 2016, and he was reappointed to the bench by the Mayor of Lackawanna in March 2024 for a six-year term. The Commission’s Administrator, Robert H. Tembeckjian, stated that the judge’s actions were outrageous, emphasizing the severity of the misconduct involved in fabricating a court proceeding.
The Commission began formal proceedings against Violanti in 2024, serving him with a Formal Written Complaint dated August 12. He filed an answer to the complaint on September 13, 2024. On December 12, 2024, the Commission denied his motion to dismiss the complaint and granted a motion for summary determination. This ruling confirmed that Violanti’s misconduct had been established.
The resignation stipulation, which waives the confidentiality typically associated with Commission proceedings, allows the details of the case to be made public.
Under state law, once a judge resigns, the Commission has a limited timeframe of 120 days to complete its proceedings and issue a removal decision. This time constraint prevented the Commission from taking action against Violanti in 2013 without infringing on his due process rights, particularly as the attorney grievance process was also ongoing.
Tembeckjian remarked on the constraints posed by the time limits in the law, expressing that had those limitations not existed, Violanti would have faced removal in 2013 and would have been constitutionally barred from returning to judicial office.
