Small town law is a different animal.  NYC lawyers often have no experience, or forget how different law is in the outlying districts.  The NY Times recently ran a series of articles on justice courts upstate, and on the thousands of non-lawyer judges there.

Here is a shocking story.   Small town judge [actually a judge in several small towns] who also has a law practice believes X scratched his Maserati.  He has X arrested, and then, while the case is on the Judge’s docket, conditions a dismissal or a transfer to some other judge on restitution.

Conflict of interest?  Well, its hard to argue otherwise. "Hartzman ended up being criminally charged with scratching the car, and while the case was pending on Korpita’s docket, the judge pressured Hartzman to pay for the damage, the complaint says.

The suit, filed Aug. 13 in Newark, N.J., includes a civil rights count under 42 U.S.C. 1983, a deceit count and a malicious abuse of legal process count against Korpita, who sits in Rockaway Borough.

Hartzman also sued Korpita and the police department for malicious prosecution. And he claims that Korpita, the borough and the police intentionally or negligently inflicted emotional distress, falsely arrested and imprisoned him, and wrongfully enforced the law. The suit alleges that the police took Hartzman into custody for several hours without charging him.

Hartzman is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief finding that Korpita is unfit to serve on the bench and enjoining him from doing so. In addition, Hartzman is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The suit is Hartzman v. Korpita, 07-3848. "