Lockport City Court in Niagara County, N.Y. Photo: Google

A city court judge in Niagara County was censured by a New York state panel Friday for presiding over more than 2,500 civil matters involving a credit union that his brother, also an attorney, served as both an officer and a member of its executive committee.

Lockport City Court Judge Thomas DiMillo, an attorney who earns $200,400 in the position, agreed to the censure and said he didn't know his actions constituted misconduct.

According to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the panel tasked with reviewing allegations against the state's judges, DiMillo was the judge of record for 2,548 cases in which the credit union connected to his brother was the plaintiff.

Those cases were brought before DiMillo over the course of a decade, from November 2005 to December 2016. During that time, his brother, Angelo DiMillo, was both a board member and officer of the institution, the Cornerstone Community Federal Credit Union.

Judge DiMillo, when he took the bench in 2005, told court staff that cases involving his brother's law firm, Muscato DiMillo & Vona in Lockport, New York, should be assigned to another judge. He did not do so for cases involving the credit union, according to the commission.

Over the course of his first decade on the bench, DiMillo did not recuse himself from cases involving the CCFCU or disclose that his brother was affiliated with the credit union, the commission said. His brother was not paid for his positions with the CCFCU.

DiMillo, for his part, told the commission he didn't know there was a rule that disqualified him from presiding over those cases, or any others involving the credit union.

"Respondent avers that, until the Commission's inquiry in this matter, he was unaware of the rule disqualifying a judge from cases where a person he knows to be within the sixth degree of relationship to him is an officer of a party," the commission's decision said.

Each case from the CCFCU that came before him involved a defendant that either defaulted or otherwise didn't contest the claims against them, so no trials were held involving the credit union.

In another instance, in 2017, DiMillo presided over a small claims hearing in a case brought against the credit union from the owner of a snowplowing company, who was seeking $5,000 on a multimonth contract that the CCFCU had terminated.

DiMillo decided, after a hearing, that the credit union had lawfully terminated the contract, but ordered that $200 be paid to the snowplowing company's owner for the work he performed immediately before the agreement ended.

Since the commission contacted him this year about the misconduct in that case, and the others before it, DiMillo has instructed court staff to refer matters involving the credit union to other judges since his brother is still an officer and board member of the CCFCU, the commission said.

Robert Tembeckjian, the commission's administrator, credited DiMillo for accepting responsibility and taking steps to prevent a similar situation in the future, but said his past behavior could have presented an appearance of bias.

"A judge should not preside in a case where a close relative is on the board of one of the institutional parties," Tembeckjian said. "Even if the relative's role is passive and the matter is uncontested, a judge's participation, and any rulings favoring the relative's interests, would inevitably appear to be biased."

Angelo DiMillo declined to comment extensively on the commission's decision, but said his brother "learned a lesson."

"There's really no comment. I think the commission did the appropriate thing," DiMillo said. "I think my brother's learned a lesson and there's really nothing else I can say about it."

DiMillo was represented before the commission by Joel Daniels, a defense attorney from Buffalo. Daniels said DiMillo cooperated fully with the commission and is respected by lawyers and litigants from the region.

"He acknowledged his failure to recuse himself in the credit union cases," Daniels said. "It was an inadvertent error on his part, and he looks forward to continuing to serve the Lockport community."

DiMillo's current term as a Lockport city court judge ends in 2027, according to the commission. He also serves as an acting Niagara County Family Court judge.

READ MORE:

North Country Town Court Justice Resigns in Wake of Posting Photo of Noose on Facebook

Upstate Town Justice Retires After Signing Arrest Warrant for Client's Husband

Western NY Town Justice Resigns After Publicly Criticizing Attorneys, Criminal Justice Laws

Robert Tembeckjian Decries 'Dark and Pessimistic State of Affairs'