Philip Gentile Censured

Philip J. Gentile, a justice of the Rossie Town Court in St. Lawrence County, New York since 2018, was censured by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for a pattern of misconduct between November 2022 and March 2024. In a case involving a defendant charged with assault, Gentile spoke privately with the prosecutor without disclosing the conversation to the defense, and separately denied a defense motion to modify an order of protection after privately discussing the matter by phone with a local school official — both undisclosed ex parte communications. The Commission also found Gentile made injudicious and at times profane statements in court, and baselessly insinuated that a justice in a different town court had been having an affair with a court worker. Gentile, who is not an attorney, agreed to the censure and entered into an Agreed Statement of Facts stipulating to both the underlying conduct and the sanction.