To the editor:

I was a non-attorney clerk with Peekskill City Court from 2016-2021. I was present for the period mentioned in the Commission for Judicial Conduct (CJC) complaint dated August 8, 2024.

It is with sadness that I write in response to former Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald J. Johnson’s recent Letter to the Editor. I feel that it is necessary. I regret that Mr. Johnson’s family has had to endure this painful process, but I would ask that they be mindful that court staff also have families. Some of my former colleagues are still traumatized by the hostility that they were forced to endure.

I would guess that perhaps thousands of defendants have been sentenced by the former judge over his eleven-year tenure in criminal court. One critical component of most sentencing is something called a Pre-Sentence Report, more commonly referred to as PSR, drafted by NYS probation officers.

The PSR reflects, among other things, the level of remorse that the defendant has expressed. Remorse and contrition by the defendant are considered key indicators when a judge is determining whether the person standing before them deserves leniency.

It is clear with his recent letter that Mr. Johnson would fail miserably were a similar report issued about his response to the CJC complaint. Deny, deny, deny is apparently in vogue now, and Mr. Johnson appears to be all in.

With no surprise to anyone who worked with the court during that period, Mr. Johnson now seeks to re-work the narrative, recast himself as the victim, and revise details contained in the complaint, all, naturally, in his favor. The tone and tenor of the letter suggests that Mr. Johnson has learned nothing from this unfortunate experience. There is no hint of remorse.

Yes, there is the obligatory “I am human and I’ve made some mistakes” tossed in between quibbling about the length of the word “so,” and his faux apology to a fellow judge regarding his alarmingly creepy texts. He suggests that School Superintendent Mauricio fall on his sword for his testimony to the CJC. Nothing like blaming the witness for one’s own misdeeds.

Referencing the improperly dismissed tickets, Mr. Johnson goes on to state, that somehow, the “better practice” would have been dismissal on the record, and with the parties present. What? The better practice?

How self-forgiving of you. There is no such thing. The only practice is dismissal on the record in front of parties. Mr. Johnson knows this all too well. To do otherwise invites the type of shenanigans that appear repeatedly in the complaint.

“I have never berated attorneys, staff or members of the public publicly or privately.”

Well, on that one, I was there. Yes, you did. Sometimes, every day.  Sometimes, several times a day. You referred clerks to administration for discipline and threatened others with transfer.  Some clerks went home crying. What about their families?

Deny, deflect, obfuscate.

I wonder, were the judge standing before himself on the bench at sentencing, how he would feel about his own lack of accountability.

John Dondero, Round Lake, NY Peekskill City Court- Retired