A New York judge took Caribbean vacations with a group of attorneys and engaged in a text message chain featuring “off-color jokes” and “sexually graphic images” with them — helping fuel her hasty retirement, court officials said.
Rockland County Supreme Court Justice Sherri Eisenpress agreed to step down on April 28 over multiple alleged conflicts of interest, the state Commission of Judicial Conduct said Monday.
The CJC said Eisenpress failed to disclose her close personal relationships with the group of attorneys, even as she heard their cases in her courtroom, violating laws that judges must be impartial.
The half dozen lawyers argued in front of Eisenpress between 2019 and 2024 — when they all also traveled to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Jersey Shore together at various times, according to the commission.
The women were also on a text chain at various times titled “Punta Cana Parties,” Bougie B*tches” and “Queen Dara and Her Loyal Subjects,” in reference to the court’s principal attorney, who conducts research, analysis and drafts opinion for judges.
“[Eisenpress] and the members of the group text message chain … shared confidences and discussed and shared social and travel plans and invitations, gossip, photos, off-color jokes, and sexually graphic images,” the CJC wrote, outlining its misconduct allegations.
Eisenpress, in response to the allegations, argued there were “very few jokes or images that could be considered, depending on the context, as off color.”
She also insisted none of those questionable quips were shared or written by her – and claimed she only had “friendly, collegial relationships” or just “collegial relationships” with the lawyers whose cases she heard, according to legal docs.
The alleged conflicts didn’t stop there for Eisenpress, who went from family court to state Supreme Court justice during her 15 years on the bench.
Eisenpress was accused of presiding over 41 cases involving the law firm of her principal law clerk’s spouse, while declining to acknowledge the ties or to limit the top aide’s work on those cases, the commission said.
She also handled a matrimonial case in which the lawyer for one of the spouses was co-hosting a fundraiser for Eisenpress’ election campaign — and only recused herself after the opposing counsel called her out, according to the commission.
In 2024, Eisenpress allegedly refused to immediately recuse herself from a case in which her law clerk’s husband represented one of the parties, the CJC said. She later stepped aside for unrelated reasons.
Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian called the allegations against Eisenpress “serious” and said “her permanent departure from office is appropriate.”
Eisenpress lauded her time on the bench in her resignation letter to Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas on Jan. 29.
“During my tenure, I was mindful of the responsibility that comes with expanding access to justice and strengthening public trust in the court,” she said.
Eisenpress, in a statement through her lawyer, called it the “greatest honor of my professional life to serve the people of New York” and said she disagrees “with many aspects of the Commission’s position on this matter.”
“I have nevertheless concluded that the most responsible course for my family, was to step aside rather than subject litigants, myself, the court system, and my colleagues to a prolonged and financially draining proceeding,” she stated, noting she detailed her defense in her response to the commission.