Judge Jones Removed Over Racial Slur and Bias

A Story Told in a Jailhouse Parking Lot

On May 10, 2024, after presiding over evening arraignments at the Ontario County Jail, Jones walked to the parking lot with his court clerk, Kristen Bartolotta, and Assistant Public Defender Cali Anne Valenti. After showing them a gift for his wife and handing Valenti some books she had not asked for, Jones told the two women an eight-minute story about his father and grandfather, who had owned cotton fields in Texas during the Depression. In telling it, Jones referred to a Black farmhand by name preceded by a racial slur, repeating the slur, by the credited testimony of both women, two to four times, at one point raising his voice as he acted out a scene in which his father shouted the phrase at the man. Neither woman had asked to hear the story and it had nothing to do with the arraignments that evening.

Both women testified they were shocked. Valenti texted her office within minutes: “Jones was just telling me and Kristen a very long story in the jail parking lot about his childhood that included the repeated use of the n word LOUDLY. Kristen and I wanted to crawl into a whole [sic] and never come out.” Bartolotta reported the incident to the Town Supervisor days later, still worried that a bystander in a nearby car might have recorded it. At his hearing, Jones insisted he had used the slur only once, that he was merely quoting his father, and that omitting it would have made the story’s “lesson” about tolerance incomprehensible. He successfully told the same story to the referee and the Commission without using the slur at all.

“Naturally She Played the Race Card”

Five days later, on May 15, 2024, Jones arraigned a Black woman, identified in the record only as Ms. D., on assault and related charges. She had no prior criminal record and a visibly serious facial injury, including what a corrections officer described as a broken orbital socket. Jones denied her public defender’s request for lower bail, over the objection that she was a first-time defendant who could not afford to miss work. Ms. D., growing distressed, told the court she believed she was being held because she was Black, calling Ontario County “a racist-ass county.”

After she was removed from the courtroom, Jones said, “Naturally she played the race card,” then told her public defender that she “would have attacked” him had she not been handcuffed, and asked whether the Public Defender’s Office taught its attorneys to fight back. Jones later called the remark a mistake, but maintained at his hearing that it had not created any appearance of bias. The Commission found the opposite: that his use of the phrase, and his assumption that a Black defendant would falsely invoke race for advantage, was itself evidence of racial bias or, at minimum, its appearance.

The Discipline Ladder (New York)

New York’s Commission on Judicial Conduct can determine a sanction directly, up through admonition, censure, and removal, rather than merely recommending one to a court. A judge who disagrees has 30 days to seek review by the New York Court of Appeals, which can accept, reduce, increase, or reject the Commission’s findings and sanction, and can suspend the judge with pay in the meantime. If no review is sought, the Commission’s determination becomes final on its own.

Not His First Warning

The Commission’s determination noted that Jones had already received two prior Letters of Dismissal and Caution, a lesser, confidential form of Commission discipline: one in August 2021 over directing his court clerk to contact a complaining witness about restitution, and a second in March 2024, just two months before the parking lot incident, over inefficiencies in how the court handled its own finances. Both letters had specifically reminded Jones of his obligation to uphold public confidence in the judiciary. The Commission treated the timing and repetition as an aggravating factor, along with what it described as Jones’s continued failure, even at his own hearing, to recognize that what he had done was wrong.

The Rules He Broke

How It Played in the Press

Finger Lakes Daily News and the Daily Record both covered the Commission’s removal determination when it issued in March 2026, and coverage picked back up when the Court of Appeals suspended Jones with pay in April while it considers his appeal.

Where Things Stand Now

Jones has not been removed. The New York Court of Appeals heard argument on September 15, 2026, with ten minutes allotted to each side, and it has not ruled. The case still appears on the court’s own list of undecided argued appeals, as No. 79, checked October 19, 2026. He remains suspended with pay, and the Commission’s removal determination does not take effect unless and until the Court of Appeals affirms it.

The court is not limited to yes or no. On review it can accept the Commission’s findings and its sanction, reduce the sanction to censure or admonition, increase it, or reject the findings outright. Jones’s current term runs through December 31, 2027. Two days after this argument a second New York judge entered the same posture: on September 17, 2026, the Court of Appeals suspended a Poughkeepsie judge with pay while it reviews his own removal determination, which is Case File No. 45. Both men are now waiting on the same seven judges.

Sources

PRIMARY SOURCE

• New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Determination, In the Matter of Walter W. Jones, dated March 12, 2026. cjc.ny.gov
• New York Court of Appeals, Matter of Jones v New York State Commn. on Jud. Conduct, 2026 NY Slip Op 02362 (suspension with pay, decided April 16, 2026). nycourts.gov
• New York Court of Appeals, September 15, 2026, argument calendar (Matter of Hon. Walter W. Jones, No. 79). nycourts.gov
• New York Court of Appeals, Undecided Argued Appeals, listing Matter of the Hon. Walter W. Jones, No. 79, among the cases argued the week of September 15, 2026, and not yet decided (checked October 19, 2026). nycourts.gov

NEWS COVERAGE

• Finger Lakes Daily News: Canandaigua Judge Removed Over Racial Remarks, Bias Findings (March 28, 2026). fingerlakesdailynews.com
• Daily Record (Rochester): NY Court of Appeals to review judge’s potential ouster. nydailyrecord.com

This post summarizes public judicial-discipline records and news reporting for general informational purposes as of this October 2026 update. It is not legal advice, and nothing here implies that Judge Jones’s still-pending appeal has been finally decided. This post does not spell out the racial slur described in the underlying record.