Judge brought to tears at ethics hearing, report says

Joseph Portelli serves as a family division judge in Passaic County.

LAWRENCEVILLE -- A family division judge who's accused of making vulgar and sexually suggestive comments in front of lawyers and witnesses, was brought to tears at a hearing Wednesday over his alleged ethical breaches, The Record reported.

Passaic County Superior Court Joseph Portelli and his attorney, Ralph Lamparello, asked the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct during a hearing in Lawrenceville to dismiss the ethics charges filed against him in September, the newspaper reported. If the committee determines he violated judicial ethics, it'll recommend to the state Supreme Court the imposition of penalties, which range from a formal reprimand to removal from the bench.

As reported by NJ Advance Media, the ACJC alleges Portelli breached his ethics by saying he likes it how a deputy attorney general "rams (the case) up" a legal guardian's posterior and by repeatedly complimenting a witness' appearance while she was testifying including writing a note saying "you look nice today."

According to the complaint, Portelli's comments in the first incident "impugned the integrity of the judiciary" while his complimenting the witness demonstrated a bias in favor of the state.

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In another incident, Portelli invited a child to sit on his lap while he was seated on the bench and then told the deputy attorney general trying the case "you can't come sit on my lap next." The judge often invited children behind the bench, engaged in small talk with them or let them use his gavel in order to put them at ease, according to the complaint.

Portelli's comments in this incident in the presence of a child and others were "inappropriate, offensive and sexually implicit" and "demonstrated poor judgment and a lack of dignity and respect for his office," according to the complaint.

Portelli, who is assigned to the children in courts docket in the family law division, often presided over guardianship cases in which the court was seeking to terminate the rights of a parent or guardian to a child or children. Portelli, however, allegedly told a deputy attorney general he "hated" guardianship cases because they were "so boring and long."

According to The Record, Portelli said at his hearing Wednesday the ethics complaint might stem from his ruling in the case of two Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission officials -- Anthony Ardis and Paul Bazela.

Ardis and Bazela were convicted in March 2014 of using employees to make repairs at their homes. The defense, however, requested a new trial, saying Ardis and Bazela should have been tried separately. Portelli, in August 2014, granted them a new trial, which, he said, upset the state Attorney General's Office, according The Record.Portelli stated at the hearing Wednesday the complaint to the ACJC was made a month and a half after his decision to split the Ardis and Bazela cases.

Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.