TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A state judge once charged with helping her then-boyfriend evade police told New Jersey’s Supreme Court on Thursday that she was under extreme emotional distress at the time and shouldn’t face discipline.
Carlia Brady appeared before the court Thursday in a video conference. Brady, who sat in Middlesex County, was charged with misconduct and hindering a police search in 2013. Those charges later were dropped, but last fall a state panel on judicial conduct recommended that she be removed from the bench.
The Supreme Court said last month it wouldn’t remove Brady, but wanted to hear more testimony before deciding on discipline.
At Thursday’s hearing, a representative from the state panel argued that removal was still warranted because Brady gave Woodbridge Township police “intentionally vague” information about the whereabouts of Kenneth Prontnicki.
Brady argued that she left specific information in voicemails to police that were later altered or destroyed.
“I have never changed that story and I never will change that story,” she said.
Brady added that she was under strain because of the relationship unraveling at the same time she believed she was pregnant with Prontnicki’s child.
Some justices questioned why police didn’t play her voicemails to a judge who later issued a warrant for her arrest.
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