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A New Jersey municipal judge is facing ethics charges over an off-the-cuff—and potentially off-color—remark made to a criminal defendant who was confused about whether she needed to post bail or was free to go.

Maureen Bauman, counsel to the state Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, filed the complaint against Franklin Township Municipal Court Judge Hector Rodriguez on Dec. 12.

Rodriguez, who has been on the  bench since February 2017, could not be reached for comment, but has denied any wrongdoing.

According to the document, the incident that led to the ethics charges occurred on Dec. 5, 2017, while Rodriguez was arraigning a woman charged with multiple indictable offenses.

The woman was to be released on her own recognizance, but appeared to be confused, the ACJC said.

“[D]o I owe you anything?” the woman asked Rodriguez, according to the complaint.

“Not that you can do in front of all these people, no,” Rodriguez is quoted as saying by the ACJC.

According to the complaint, the public defender and local prosecutor who were present at the hearing discussed the exchange, agreed that it was inappropriate, and notified Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone, the assignment judge for the Somerset/Hunterdon/Warren Vicinage, and Judge William Kelleher, the presiding judge for the vicinage's municipal courts.

In an interview with the ACJC, according to the complaint, Rodriguez said he responded the way he did because it appeared the woman wanted to give him cash, which as a judge he couldn't accept. He denied there was any sexual innuendo connected to the remark.

“You can't take it out of context,” he is quoted as telling the ACJC. “You take a statement and flip it around, throw it in the air, put spice on it and put it back into that—it's going to be the same when you—in the context of what I said.

“It was all about monetary bail,” Rodriguez was quoted as saying. “And I—she seemed confused. I said well you seem—I didn't say confused. And she goes do I owe you anything and I was like not that you would give me in front of all these people referring to money, a monetary bail.”

The complaint says Rodriguez failed to maintain the standard of conduct required of members of the judiciary, failed to be courteous and dignified to litigants and failed to avoid the appearance of impropriety.