Lackawanna judge resigns for second time

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A Lackawanna judge resigned for the second time in the aftermath of a fraud proceeding to have a friend’s traffic ticket dismissed.

Louis Violanti resigned on Jan. 23, agreeing to never return. According to the state commission for judicial conduct, in January 2013 Violanti arranged and presided over a “sham proceeding.” No prosecutors were present, and a police officer impersonated the defendant, who Violanti knew.

Violanti dismissed the ticket against the defendant. He was charged with misconduct by the state commission, and his law license was suspended for two years. Violanti resigned in March 2013, but was then appointed by Lackawanna’s mayor as judge in March 2024 for a six-year term before resigning once again in January.

“It is outrageous that a judge would orchestrate a court proceeding and produce a transcript with a stand-in pretending to be the defendant, and no prosecutor present, so that a traffic ticket could be fixed,” said New York State Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian in a statement. “Had the Commission not been constrained by time limits in the law, the judge would have been removed in 2013 and constitutionally ineligible to return. Instead, a decade later he came back, only to face discipline and agree to the inevitable: permanent departure from the bench.”

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