A New Jersey judge who last year sued the state judiciary is accused in a new ethics complaint of violating rules by his actions in family court matters in which he was involved.

Ocean County Superior Court Judge John Russo Jr., who claimed in a suit filed last year that he was harassed over the amount of time he spent caring for his disabled son, has been on paid administrative leave since May 2017.

The accusations filed against Russo by the state Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, contained in a March 26 complaint, stem from four separate cases. The ACJC complaint alleges that Russo violated the Canons of Judicial Conduct while on the bench. The complaint does not specify the degree of discipline being sought.

Russo could not be reached for comment.

The first incident, according to the complaint, occurred on May 16, 2016, while Russo was sitting in the Family Division in Ocean County. In that case, a woman was seeking a restraining order against a man who, she alleged, abandoned her along a roadway, threatened to burn her house down and forced her to have sex. The complaint alleges that Russo, from the bench, put himself in the position of defense counsel by asking her if she tried to “run away,” “block[ed her] body parts,” “close[d] your legs,” or called for the police.

The second incident, the complaint said, occurred in March 2016, when Russo allegedly called a Family Division manager in Ocean County and sought help in rescheduling a personal matter that was pending in Burlington County Superior Court.

The third incident also occurred in March 2016, while he was presiding over a family court matter involving a man with whom he attended high school, the ACJC said. Russo, the complaint said, did not recuse, but reduced a child support lien from $10,000 to $300.

In the fourth incident, from May 2016, Russo allegedly called a woman involved in a paternity case to warn her that she could be sanctioned if she did not heed a court order to comply with a paternity test.

In a separate civil suit, Russo is claiming that he was suspended from the bench after clashing with supervising judges over time he spent attending to the needs of his disabled son. Russo alleges in the suit that he was subjected to a hostile work environment because of his association with his son, who has Down syndrome, a speech disorder, and possibly a bipolar disorder. Russo's suit named the state judiciary, Ocean County Assignment Judge Marlene Lynch Ford and Presiding Family Judge Madelin Einbinder.

Russo, who was confirmed in December 2015, said in his complaint that he was removed from duty in April 2017 and told to undergo a fitness for duty evaluation before hearing any more cases. According to the suit, Ford told Russo that his law clerk had complained about him and that the circumstances could support a hostile work environment claim if the clerk, a woman, is found to have told the truth. The suit also claims that Ford told Russo he was suspended because he had experienced “significant problems adjusting to life as a Superior Court judge.”

Russo is the son of former state Senate President John Russo, who represented the 10th District in Ocean County as a Democrat from 1982 to 1991.