Judge Peter Kelly has run the Queens Surrogate’s Court for over 14 years. | Screenshot: New York state Assembly
- A top judge failed to disclose that his key legal advisor was romantically involved with an attorney arguing cases in his courtroom.
- The apparent conflict of interest extends to the highest levels of New York’s court system, as the law clerk’s father is the state’s chief administrative judge — who recently gave appointments to both the judge (his son’s boss) and the attorney (his son’s girlfriend).
- The case is the latest example of alleged favoritism in New York’s courts, particularly in Surrogate’s Courts that handle inheritance disputes worth millions of dollars.
The young man had a key to unlock the suburban Nassau County home. That much was clear to the private investigator watching outside.
The key soon unlocked something else: a secret. It was exactly the kind of evidence the investigator’s client, Shannon Hynes, was looking for.
Hynes felt something was amiss in Queens Surrogate’s Court, where she was locked in an inheritance dispute with her brother. The judge overseeing her case kept taking actions that Shannon — a seasoned trial lawyer by trade — considered unusual. So she hired the investigator, who that day discovered the “smoking gun.”…