NEW CITY – A Rockland County Supreme Court Judge has agreed to retire after being charged with misconduct by the Commission on Judicial Conduct after failing to disclose personal relationships and other conflicts with numerous attorneys who appeared before her
As part of the agreement, Rockland County Supreme Court Judge Sherri Eisenpress, a Democrat in the Ninth Judicial District, has agreed to never return to the bench after retiring on April 28th of this year. Eisenpress’s term runs through December 2036. The Ninth Judicial District includes Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties.
“For the public to have confidence in the courts, judges must be and appear to be impartial. That means stepping aside from cases where they have clear conflicts and disclosing arguably disqualifying conflicts, so the parties have an opportunity to ask that the judge step aside,” said Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian. “The allegations against Judge Eisenpress were serious, and her permanent departure from office is appropriate.”
In August 2025, Judge Eisenpress was served with formal disciplinary charges, alleging as follows:
- From 2019 to 2024, she presided over at least 55 cases involving attorneys with whom she maintained close personal and social relationships, and failed to disclose those relationships or to recuse herself;
- From 2016 to 2025, she presided over at least 41 cases involving the law firm of her principal law clerk’s spouse, and failed to disclose the relationship and to insulate the law clerk from involvement in those cases;
- In 2022, she presided over a matrimonial matter in which the lawyer for one party was co-hosting a fundraiser for her judicial campaign. The judge issued a temporary custody order in favor of the attorney’s client, and only recused herself from the matter after the defendant’s attorney sought her disqualification due to the relationship; and • In 2024, she presided over a matter in which a party was represented by her law clerk’s husband, she denied a request that she disqualify herself, and later stepped aside for unrelated reasons.
Judge Eisenpress has served as a Rockland County Supreme Court Judge since 2023, and her term runs through December 2036. Judge Eisenpress previously served as a Judge of the Family Court from 2012 to 2022, and an Acting Supreme Court Justice in Rockland County, from 2014 to 2022.
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