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Town Judge Richard Snyder carries bottled water from a distribution center on Feb. 20, 2016, at the Petersburgh Town Hall in Petersburgh, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz/The Albany Times Union via AP).
A now-former judge in upstate New York is out of a job after his successful efforts to evade jury duty caught the attention of judicial ethics authorities in the Empire State.
Richard T. Snyder served as a Petersburgh Town Court justice for roughly a decade, with his final four-year term slated to end in December 2025. In fact, he is still listed as one of two such justices on the tiny municipality’s court website as of this writing.
Snyder, however, recently resigned his position, in part because he avoided jury duty by inveighing against defendants in general and broadly asserting they all “did something wrong.”
In November 2024, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct served a written complaint on the Rensselaer County jurist. In December 2024, Snyder and the commission agreed he would turn in his robes in exchange for the disciplinary matter being shelved.
Late last month, the commission announced the resolution of the matter in a terse, two-page decision and order.
“On or about October 18, 2023, and on July 16, 2024, Respondent made statements that undermined the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and otherwise demonstrated his unfitness for judicial office,” a joint stipulation filed by the parties reads.
During that first instance, Snyder explained why he was unable to perform grand jury duty for a court in Rensselaer County.
“I’m the town judge in Petersburgh,” he said when called, according to a transcript provided as an exhibit to the stipulation.
The court replied: “Congratulations.”
Snyder, later called to account for his comments by the commission, “took issue” with the way the court congratulated him.
“I just thought she — I mean, it’s kind of funny the way she said it to me, like she was out for me already or something, you know?” the since-resigned judge explained to the oversight group.
Snyder did not leave anything in doubt.
“I don’t think I should be on this jury,” he told the Rensselaer County court.
Snyder offered several reasons why he would be a poor fit — but none of them were particularly convincing to the commission.
“I thought I was — I didn’t think it would be — that I should be on a jury being the Town Judge,” he said. “That’s what I told her.”
The commission asked why he would say a thing like that.
Snyder replied: “I don’t know. Just that a lot of people say — you know, I talked to them. They said, ‘No, they’re not going to pick you. You’re a Town Judge’ and stuff like that. ‘They don’t want a Town Judge on the jury,’ you know …”
After some back-and-forth, the commission established that judges are no longer exempt from jury service in New York state — and that Snyder was aware of that relatively recent change.
Pressed to account for who told him he was unlikely to be picked for jury service, Snyder replied that sheriffs were his source of information. This also did not go over well with the commission.
“Do sheriffs have law degrees?” one commission member asked.
“I don’t know,” Snyder replied.
Next, the commission noted Snyder said he had to oversee his own court on “a lot” of the nights the grand jury was scheduled for.
As it turned out, however, Snyder would have only had two court sessions that would have been implicated by the grand jury term.
“I guess I said it wrong,” he admitted.
Finally, the commission turned to the ex-judge’s comments about defendants.
During the grand jury selection process, he said: “I know everybody come in front of me, I know they are guilty. They would not be in front of me.”
For several minutes Snyder is grilled about that comment by the commission. And, for several minutes, he attempts to parse the difference between actual guilt and the U.S. court system’s bedrock promise that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
“[B]ut I didn’t mean it that way,” Snyder explained at one point. “I meant that, reason why people got tickets is because they did something wrong. But I know people’s not guilty. They’re innocent until proven guilty.”
One commissioner appeared taken aback and asked: “[D]id you just say ‘the reason why people get tickets is because they did something wrong’?”
Snyder replied in the affirmative and explained:
Well, like, speeding or maybe they broke into somebody’s house or committed a crime. That’s the reason why they got a ticket to appear in court because they did something wrong. But like I said, I know they’re not guilty. They’re innocent till proven guilty, but.
The commission and the resigned judge continued to discuss those preconceived notions of wrongdoing and guilt.
“Do you see any issue with that thinking in sitting as Town Justice?” one commissioner asked.
Again, Snyder defended his position. He said: “No. Like I said, they come in front of me, and “Do you plead guilty or not guilty?” Most of the time — like, plea deals with the ADA and Public Defenders where they do the plea deals — in all my times I been on the bench, I hadn’t ever changed a plea deal from a not guilty to a guilty.”
Eventually, during the hearing, Snyder changed his story, saying he actually did not remember making the original statement about everybody coming before him being guilty.
“I don’t remember saying that, tell you the truth,” he told one commissioner.
Asked if he was disputing the accuracy of the county court transcript, Snyder said he was, according to the transcript.
“Are you disputing Judge Laura Jordan’s observations of when you came before her during the empanelment?” a commissioner asked.
“Yes,” Snyder answered.
“Are you aware that there were other people present,” the commission retorted
To which Snyder said: “Yes, there was people staying right in front of me and you know, looking right at me when I’m trying to talk, and I was a nervous wreck and — you know.”
The judge’s resignation was effective Dec. 31, 2024.
“[U]pon vacating his judicial office, he will neither seek nor accept judicial office at any time in the future,” the decision and order notes.
