Robert Putorti Removed

Robert J. Putorti, a non-attorney town justice in Whitehall, New York (Washington County), was removed from office by the New York Court of Appeals after brandishing a semiautomatic handgun at a defendant during a 2015 criminal case, then boasting about the incident years later with racially exaggerated details. Putorti said he pointed the loaded gun at the man because he had approached the stand too quickly, crossing a stop line for litigants. The matter drew formal scrutiny in 2018 after Putorti described the incident at a meeting of the Washington County Magistrates Association, boasting that he had pulled his licensed gun on a "large Black man" roughly 6-foot-9 and "built like a football player" — but the state Commission on Judicial Conduct found the man was actually about 6 feet tall and 165 pounds. The Commission found Putorti showed no remorse for the incident. New York's Court of Appeals upheld the Commission's removal sanction.