Handgun And ConstitutionA state panel on judicial conduct on Thursday called for the removal of a town judge in Washington County who brandished a gun at a defendant he had described as a "big Black man," demonstrating racial bias.

The 11-member New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, with one dissent, called for the steep sanction against Robert Putorti, a justice in Whitehall Town Court and the Whitehall Village Court.

Putorti had admitted that in late 2015 he brandished a loaded semi-automatic handgun at a Black defendant whose criminal case was to be heard that day in village court.