A New York City judge repeatedly invoked her judicial position while trying to avoid sanitation fines issued after trash was left outside her Brooklyn home.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Katherine Levine began receiving $50 sanitation summonses in March 2024, after city workers reported a “large accumulation” of napkins, papers and egg cartons outside her home, records show.
A year later, she received two additional fines for failing to put lids on the garbage cans outside her Borough Park residence, where she has lived since the 1990s.
In communications with the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), Levine “repeatedly and gratuitously invoked her judicial title,” according to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Rather than pay the first summons, Levine challenged it, writing: “I plead not guilty. I am a Supreme Court Justice in Kings County and went to work at 10am.”
OATH ruled that she had “failed to set forth a valid legal defense regarding the summons” and ordered her to pay the fine within 30 days. She did not do so.
Levine received two more summonses, each carrying a $50 mail-in fine, in March and June 2025. She did not contest either one.
OATH issued decisions in June and October after she failed to respond. Because of the defaults, each penalty rose to $300.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Kathrine Levine was admonished by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for invoking her title in an attempt to avoid trash fines
Levine was fined for leaving trash outside her home and failing to properly seal her garbage bins (stock image)
On October 14, 2025, Levine left OATH a voicemail in which she identified herself as Judge Katherine Levine and said she had “trials every day in Supreme Court.”
That same day, she sent OATH two emails from her work account, which identified the sender as Hon. Katherine A. Levine, the commission said. The messages concerned all three fines.
“I was never notified of hearing dates on these tickets, and I cannot come down and sit in OATH for 10 hours as I am a trial judge in Supreme Court,” she wrote, according to the commission.
Levine also asked whether she could pay the fines without attending a hearing, saying she had “trials and motions every day.”
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The following day, she submitted an online motion concerning the summonses and again identified herself as a New York State Supreme Court justice.
“I vacate default judgments all the time in the name of equity and justice. I believe these first-time tickets for garbage disposals is 50 dollars,” she wrote, according to the commission.
OATH replied that it does “not participate in settlement” and that Levine “must follow OATH rules and protocols as everyone must do.”
Levine sent three additional emails requesting a supervisor.
The judge repeatedly cited her position while seeking to avoid an OATH hearing and reduce sanitation fines issued after three violations in 2024 and 2025
Before the commission reviewed the matter, Levine had no disciplinary history. She became a judge in 2008 and has served on the Kings County Supreme Court since 2017.
Levine reportedly has ‘openly and repeatedly expressed her remorse and embarrassment for having allowed her own frustrations to affect how she handled the Department of Sanitation summonses,’ the commission said.
‘Further, respondent recognizes that the gratuitous invocation of her judicial title was reasonably perceived at OATH as an attempt for a favorable adjudication of her summonses,’ the commission said.
The commission found her conduct was ‘inconsistent with her obligations to maintain high standards of conduct’ and broke the rule stating that a ‘judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others.’
‘By repeatedly invoking her judicial office when communicating with OATH, respondent brought reproach upon the judiciary and violated her ethical obligations,’ the commission wrote.
Levine will not face any further punishment from the commission, who determined admonition was enough.
‘We trust that respondent has learned from this experience and in the future will act in strict accordance with her obligation to abide by all the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct,’ it wrote.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Levine’s lawyer for comment.