Superior Court Judge Deborah Gross-Quatrone has been suspended without pay for two months over secret recordings she made of meetings with her colleagues and superiors.

The Supreme Court ordered the suspension Jan. 24 after Gross-Quatrone was accused of recording three meetings she attended at the Bergen County Courthouse with Assignment Judge Bonnie Mizdol and others. Gross-Quatrone recorded the third meeting with Mizdol after the assignment judge told her not to make a recording, according to the presentment in the case.

The court's order said Gross-Quatrone's conduct represents violations of canons requiring judges to observe high standards of conduct so that the independence and integrity of the judiciary may be preserved, and to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

The suspension is the latest development in a feud between Gross-Quatrone and Mizdol—one involving claims in a civil suit that Mizdol criticized her colleague's wardrobe and hairstyle, as well as accusations, later deemed by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct to be unsupported, that court staff were ordered to do homework assignments for Gross-Quatrone's son.

Gross-Quatrone's counsel in the civil case, meanwhile, has promised to continue pursuing that case, which had been stayed pending ethics proceedings.

Gross-Quatrone was accused of secretly recording the three meetings in December 2015 with Mizdol and various others. The ACJC said she demonstrated a “lack of veracity and an inability to conform her conduct to the high standards of conduct expected of judges.” At the third meeting, the trial court administrator, Laura Simoldoni, seeing a red light glowing in Gross-Quatrone's purse, reached in and removed an Olympus digital voice recorder that was being used to record the meeting, the ACJC said. Gross-Quatrone initially said she did not know how to operate the device but later was shown to have recorded the meeting secretly, the ACJC presentment said. Gross-Quatrone later said she was justified in secretly recording the meetings in order to protect herself from hostilities and abuse allegedly inflicted by Mizdol.

The ethics complaint that accused Gross-Quatrone of making secret recordings also said she used her judicial secretary to perform various personal tasks. But that evidence did not clearly establish that such conduct violates the Code of Judicial Conduct, the ACJC concluded.

Gross-Quatrone also was charged with having her judicial law clerk start work early, contrary to court policy, but Gross-Quatrone's knowledge of that policy could not be established by clear and convincing evidence, the ACJC said in its presentment.

Gross-Quatrone was confirmed to the bench in March 2015 after a stint as president of the Bergen County Bar Association. She was initially assigned to Passaic County but was relocated to Bergen County a few months later. She has served in the Civil Division in Essex County since early 2016.

In 2017, Gross-Quatrone filed a gender discrimination and hostile work environment suit against Mizdol in federal court. According to the suit, Mizdol kept close tabs on Gross-Quatrone's attendance and made critical remarks about her appearance, remarking on one occasion about her “beach hair and flip flops” and on another about her “fancy clothes and bare legs.” Mizdol denied any wrongdoing.

Gross-Quatrone's federal suit was administratively terminated last July until the conclusion of the related ACJC proceeding.

The Jan. 24 order leaves the door open for Gross-Quatrone to ask the court to reinstate the civil case after the disciplinary proceeding is resolved.

Gross-Quatrone's lawyer, Ralph Ferrara, said in a statement, “Judge Gross Quatrone has had a distinguished career as an attorney and as a judge. She excelled on the bench in Passaic County and in Essex County, winning the praises of her colleagues. The reason there was a problem in this case is because of the way she was inappropriately treated in Bergen County. She looks forward to having her day in court before a jury when the civil case is tried.”