Elected Brooklyn Surrogate Judge Harriet L. Thompson last Thursday, April 14 filed a lawsuit against the NYS Office of Court Administration (“OCA”) alleging the OCA suspended her from the bench out of whistleblower retaliation, racial and other discrimination.
The legal action challenges the suspension of Thompson on December 17, 2021 after she barred former Surrogate’s Court public administrator Richard A. Buckheit from administering estates on her docket after calling him out for unlawful and unethical conduct, a decision that was upheld by Justice Wayne Saitta of the New York Supreme Court.
Also named as respondents in the suit were Chief Administrative Judge the Hon. Lawrence K. Marks, and its Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Deborah Kaplan.
The Judge’s new action asserts that OCA and its administrators do not have the legal power to suspend Judge Thompson under the New York State Constitution, the Public Officers Law, and the Judiciary Law. The petition was filed on Thursday, April 14, 2022 in State Supreme Court, Kings County.
The latest filing comes on the heels of another action recently filed by Judge Thompson in the New York Court of Claims, which alleges additional wrongdoing by the OCA and its present and former Administrative Judges, including race discrimination, retaliation, and violation of Judge Thompson’s constitutional rights as a result of her whistleblower activity which led to the Judge’s public feud with Buckheit and, ultimately, his resignation.
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