Mary F. Thurber Censured

Mary F. Thurber became administrator of the estate of Alfred Dopkus around 1998, years before she joined the New Jersey Superior Court bench in 2009. New Jersey's judicial conduct rules bar sitting judges from controlling estates outside their own family — but Thurber kept the role for 13 more years after becoming a judge, only relinquishing it in April 2022, roughly 24 years after she'd taken it on. A law firm that later took over the estate identified at least five potential heirs that Thurber had never located during her decades administering it.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey issued Thurber a public censure — a more serious sanction than an admonishment or reprimand, though short of suspension or removal. She remains on the bench, tenured until New Jersey's mandatory retirement age of 70, which she'll reach in 2027. A judge is barred from holding an outside estate-administrator role specifically because it's the kind of conflict of interest and divided attention the office can't tolerate — Thurber held it anyway, for 13 years on the bench, while heirs who were owed a share of the estate went unfound.