2020/11/26

Forensic Magzine November 25, 2020: Rare Review of Cases Handled by Judge Forced Into Retirement by Dementia

In August, New York court officials made a sad and surprising announcement: ShawnDya Simpson, a 54-year-old judge, was retiring because of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It was both a tragedy and a dilemma: How would anyone know whether the judge’s illness had affected her handling of cases in the months, maybe years before she was forced from the bench?

In October, court officials announced they would do something rare: conduct a review of scores of the judge’s orders and decisions to see if there were obvious examples of mistakes or misguided judgments.

This week, court officials announced the results of the review. Officials said a State Supreme Court justice had reviewed 40 of the judge’s decisions and orders, as well as 1,000 status conference orders on routine issues.

“None of the status conference orders or decisions on motions were found to be irrational,” said Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration.

“It was clear that the decisions and orders were written addressing the particular actions, in other words not block copied one from another, as they addressed particular facts and arguments in each individual motion and the decisions were appropriate to the arguments,” Chalfen added.

Chalfen said the review consisted of Simpson’s year sitting as a judge in the Bronx. Simpson had been moved to the Bronx from Brooklyn after complaints about her productivity, demeanor and failure to show up in court on time. Chalfen did not say why the review had been limited to Simpson’s final year. more