Queens Civil Court Judge Joseph Kasper has been ordered removed from the bench after state regulators found he let a longtime friend and convicted felon pose as an attorney in his old law practice, kept practicing law himself after taking office, and left thousands of dollars in client escrow funds unaccounted for. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced Kasper should be removed on Thursday, capping an investigation into misconduct that stretched back to before he won his seat in 2022.
According to The City Reporter, the commission found that Kasper continued practicing law after taking the bench, in violation of court rules barring full-time judges from doing so. Janice Bar, described in the outlet’s reporting as Kasper’s longtime friend and paralegal, filed at least 22 legal documents under Kasper’s name and signed court papers as “Janice Bar, Esq.,” despite not being a licensed attorney. Bar was also examined as a witness in open court while posing as a lawyer, the outlet reported.
Commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian, cited by The City Reporter, said Kasper facilitated “a felon’s masquerade as a lawyer.” Bar had been convicted of forgery and making an apparently sworn false statement in 2016, according to the same reporting. Tembeckjian said flatly that a full-time judge is prohibited from practicing law.
A Friendship That Predates the Bench
Kasper and Bar were friends for years, and the two served as Republican Party co-district leaders together in Queens during the 1990s, per The City Reporter’s account. Bar reportedly told Kasper about pretending to be an attorney, and the judge did nothing in response, the outlet reported. Bar had also repeatedly supported Kasper’s judicial campaigns over the years, the outlet noted…