BLOOMFIELD, NJ — An ethics complaint against Judge Wilfredo Benitez, the chief Bloomfield municipal judge, has been filed in the state Supreme Court. The complaint stems from his alleged conduct while being arrested for suspicion of driving while intoxicated, a charge for which he was acquitted in Bergen County Superior Court. Benitez is also a Belleville and East Orange municipal judge.
In the complaint, filed Jan. 24, 2018, with the NJ Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, Benitez is alleged to have been found asleep behind the wheel of his car by two NJ State Police officers on Nov. 12, 2016. He was on the shoulder of Route 80, in Teaneck. It was alleged that his breath smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot and watery.
From the written complaint, the exchange between the officers and Benitez was apparently recorded because at one point, a response by Benitez is said to be “indiscernible.”
The troopers asked him if he had been drinking or taking drugs. Benitez said he had not. He was given a field sobriety test at which time Benitez questioned the officers’ actions with him.
“I’m a judge,” he said.
Based on the field test results, Benitez was placed under arrest for driving while intoxicated. He complained, saying that he could not believe the officers were doing this to him and began using expletives, according to the police report. He is alleged to have told the officers it was a waste of time arresting him and they knew what he said was true.
“You’re not going to give me any courtesy?” Benitez said.
A trooper relied, “What courtesy?”
While being read his Miranda rights, Benitez is alleged to have repeated that his arrest was a waste of time.
“I’ll fight you,” he allegedly said.
At the Totowa State Police Substation, Benitez was given two blood/alcohol content tests.
On May 11, 2017, a Bergen County Superior Court judge found him not guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol.
According to the ethics complaint against him, while being arrested, Benitez sought preferential treatment because he was a judge. Also in the complaint, Benitez acknowledged to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct that he told the State Troopers he was a judge and wanted preferential treatment because he took “umbrage at being treated like a common criminal.”
According to Peter McAleer, the director of communications for the NJ Administrative Office of the Courts, the complaint will be reviewed by a nine-member panel made up of active and retired attorneys, retired judges and lay people.
“The committee meets only when a case is to be reviewed,” he said in a telephone interview. “The review is still pending because the judge has to file his answer to the complaint.”
If the complaint warrants a hearing, it would be public and held either in Trenton or East Brunswick, McAleer said. A hearing could lead to a dismissal of the complaint, with or without private discipline; public admonition; public reprimand; public censure; suspension; or the institution of removal proceedings.The New Jersey Supreme Court is the only body that can publicly discipline a judge.
Benitez, was appointed to the Bloomfield bench Sept. 2017. He is the first Hispanic to serve in that position.
In a statement, Dan Knitzer, a spokesman for Bloomfield, said, “The township of Bloomfield was made aware of the incident in question by Judge Benitez prior to his appointment as a municipal court judge and was advised at that time that he had been found not guilty. No action will be taken at this time regarding Judge Benitez pending the outcome of the hearing by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.”
Connie Jackson, the public information officer for the city of East Orange, said the city declines to comment. The township of Belleville was not reached in time for this story.
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