NJ judge reprimanded for remarks to defendants

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey Supreme Court’s disciplinary committee has publicly reprimanded an Ocean County Superior Court judge for remarks deemed inappropriate during two sentencings.

Judge James Citta was reprimanded for disparaging a Mexican immigrant’s inability to speak English after six years in the United States and for comparing a man being sentenced for attempted murder to O.J. Simpson.

The committee’s report found the remarks inappropriate and excessive despite Citta’s reputation as an effective and hard-working judge.

Citta declined comment on the reprimand, but in a letter to the court he wrote that the stress of presiding over emotionally charged criminal trials had sometimes caused him to “say things better left unsaid.”