A former village justice in Rockland County who was appointed to the bench last year despite his 1978 felony conviction has agreed to resign, the Commission on Judicial Conduct announced Wednesday.

Spring Valley Village Court Justice Jacques Michel, who is not an attorney, resigned effective June 5 because his felony record disqualified him from being a judge. Michel had been convicted of federal immigration fraud charges trying to help Haitian nationals become U.S. citizens, according to his attorney, Jeffrey Millman of Phillips & Millman in Stony Point.

Millman said his client, a reverend and former Rockland County deputy sheriff, “would have been a positive influence as a justice in Spring Valley … but we respect the laws of the state of New York.”