Diva NYC judge tries to use status to dodge $150 in trash fines: I have trials every day

What a bunch of garbage.A longtime Brooklyn judge spent nearly two years dodging a stack of sanitation violations by repeatedly flaunting her judicial status to avoid hearings and get out of paying a paltry $150 in fines, a court ethics board found. Diva Justice Katherine Levine spent 20 months fighting the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings over three minor trash violations, earning herself an admonition from the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, according to a release Monday.The Commission found that the judge’s “unnecessary and repeated references to her judicial office created the appearance that she was inappropriately seeking special treatment,” the panel wrote in its findings.“Invoking judicial office to avoid paying a fine undermines public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary and suggests that judges are exempt from rules that apply to everyone else,” added commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian. “The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings was right not to give special treatment to a judge, and Judge Levine accepted responsibility for her conduct by agreeing an admonition was appropriate.”On at least eight occasions, Levine “repeatedly and gratuitously invoked her judicial title; her judicial status” while being a scofflaw, according to the investigation.The stink started in March 2024, when sanitation workers discovered a “large accumulation” of napkins, papers, egg cartons and other trash in the driveway of her Borough Park home, where she’s lived since 1996, records show.Instead of just paying the $50 mail-in fine, Levine decided to make a plea to her innocence — and began mentioning her title.“i plead not guilty,” she wrote in an online submission 10 days later.“I am a supreme Court Justice in Kings County and went to work at 10 am.”OATH found her guilty, but she failed to pay the fine, the CJC said.The next spring, Levine got two more fines for not putting lids on h...