A western New York jurist has resigned amid a probe that he tried to invoke his judicial office to avoid being issued tickets for unlicensed driving, a state watchdog said Monday. Former Clarkson Town Court Justice Ian Penders, an attorney since 2014, quit the bench amid the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
The CJC said the judge in Monroe County had been stopped by police twice in June, and on Aug. 15 pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
You got stopped twice? Learn to quit while you\u2019re behind, man.<\/p>\n
While this isn\u2019t an excuse for the former judge\u2019s behavior, it goes to show that location really matters. Were the judge trying to get around New York City proper, he probably would have been able to catch a train or three to get where he needed to go. Once you leave the five boroughs and actually need a car to get around, you open yourself up to all sorts of foolishness.<\/p>\n
While this is definitely one of the tamest Judges Behaving Badly<\/a> stories I\u2019ve ever seen, the threshold for the appearance of impropriety is very low at the end of the day. If you don the robes and gavel, you have to be on your best behavior \u2014 even when you\u2019re just getting from A to B.<\/p>\n Western NY Judge Resigns After Invoking Office in Attempt to Avoid Traffic Ticket, Judicial Conduct Watchdog Says<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Judge Resigns From Bench Over Traffic Tickets<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n What is the most you\u2019ve paid for a traffic ticket? Getting a traffic ticket in New York usually sets folks back a couple hundred bucks. However, there are some outliers: a traffic ticket cost a New York judge his robes. Law.com has coverage:<\/p>\n A western New York jurist has resigned amid a probe that he tried to invoke his judicial office to avoid being issued tickets for unlicensed driving, a state watchdog said Monday. Former Clarkson Town Court Justice Ian Penders, an attorney since 2014, quit the bench amid the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n The CJC said the judge in Monroe County had been stopped by police twice in June, and on Aug. 15 pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n You got stopped twice? Learn to quit while you\u2019re behind, man.<\/p>\n While this isn\u2019t an excuse for the former judge\u2019s behavior, it goes to show that location really matters. Were the judge trying to get around New York City proper, he probably would have been able to catch a train or three to get where he needed to go. Once you leave the five boroughs and actually need a car to get around, you open yourself up to all sorts of foolishness.<\/p>\n While this is definitely one of the tamest Judges Behaving Badly<\/a> stories I\u2019ve ever seen, the threshold for the appearance of impropriety is very low at the end of the day. If you don the robes and gavel, you have to be on your best behavior \u2014 even when you\u2019re just getting from A to B.<\/p>\n Western NY Judge Resigns After Invoking Office in Attempt to Avoid Traffic Ticket, Judicial Conduct Watchdog Says<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the most you\u2019ve paid for a traffic ticket? Getting a traffic ticket in New York usually sets folks back a couple hundred bucks. However, there are some outliers: a traffic ticket cost a New York judge his robes. Law.com has coverage: A western New York jurist has resigned amid a probe that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chris-Williams-2025-reP44M.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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