Canandaigua Town Court Justice Walter W. Jones has been removed from the bench effective immediately after New York’s highest court upheld findings that he used a racial slur multiple times and mocked a Black defendant from the bench. The New York State Court of Appeals determined that Jones committed judicial misconduct and that removal, not a lesser sanction, was the appropriate response.
The court’s decision, reported by NY Daily Record, accepted a determination from the Commission on Judicial Conduct that Jones be stripped of his seat. According to findings cited in the court’s opinion and detailed by CourtListener, Jones used a racial slur, “the n-word,” at least three times during a conversation outside the Ontario County Jail on or around May 10, 2024.
A Slur Repeated, Then a Courtroom Remark
A court employee told investigators that Jones actually used the slur four times over about eight minutes, a detail reported by syracuse.com. Five days later, on or about May 15, 2024, Jones arraigned a Black woman who had visible facial injuries and, per the commission’s findings, remarked from the bench, “Naturally she played the race card.”
The same proceeding captured an even more pointed comment. Per the commission, Jones suggested the woman would have attacked her own attorney had she not been restrained, saying she “couldn’t attack you, but she probably would have if she hadn’t been handcuffed.” The Court of Appeals concluded that Jones committed misconduct and that “the sanction of removal is warranted,” according to the opinion obtained through CourtListener.
Court Cites Appearance of Bias, Rejects Lesser Punishment
The Court of Appeals found that Jones’s conduct demonstrated at least the appearance of racial bias that could undermine public confidence in the judiciary, per the same CourtListener record. Judges, the court wrote, are held to a higher standard of conduct than the general public. The opinion also found that Jones failed to recognize how his statements could affect public confidence in judicial impartiality and integrity.
Jones had argued that removal was too severe a punishment for his conduct, but the Court of Appeals rejected that argument, as the syracuse.com report notes. Jones was first elected to the Canandaigua Town Court in 1999, and his current term had been set to run through December 31, 2027, according to the court record. The same account notes that Jones had previously been cautioned twice by the Commission on Judicial Conduct for other conduct.
Part of a Record Year for Complaints Statewide
The case lands amid a surge in scrutiny of New York’s judiciary. The Commission on Judicial Conduct received 3,363 complaints in 2025, the highest number ever recorded by the panel, up from the previous high of 3,353 in 2024, according to the NY Daily Record. The commission initiated 141 new investigations based on complaints it received that year and issued 10 formal disciplinary determinations in 2025, consisting of seven censures and three admonitions.
Since 1978, the commission has publicly disciplined 994 judges statewide, including 185 who were removed from office entirely, per the same report. Jones’s removal adds another name to that list, with the Court of Appeals making clear that the finding of racial bias, however it was expressed, carried consequences too serious for him to remain on the Canandaigua bench.
