ALBANY – A Schenectady man's lawyer argued in front of the state's highest court Wednesday that a judge's choice to rule on an appeal of his own lower court decision was an “abuse of discretion.”

“I'm asking this court … as the basic principles of fundamental due process that, in fact, this should not be a practice that should be allowed by law or by statute,” said Danielle Neroni Reilly, the attorney for appellant Brian Novak, who argues the county court judge should have recused himself.

After Schenectady County Court Judge Matthew Sypniewski, a Democrat, was elected to the position in November 2014, he was assigned the appeal of a decision in which he had found the defendant guilty of all charges when he served as a Schenectady City Court judge. Sypniewski, in his capacity as a county court judge, affirmed Novak's conviction.