A justice of the Little Falls Town Court has officially resigned from his position after being arrested and charged for possession and sale of cocaine, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said Monday in a statement.
Mitchell Soules pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class B felony.
On June 28, 2023, Soules was arrested and charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, the commission said.
“Public confidence is irretrievably lost in a judge who engages in the criminal sale of drugs, and the resulting damage to the integrity of the court system is immeasurable,” Commission Administrator Robert Temeckjian said in a statement. “But it’s reassuring that our law-enforcement and ethics-enforcement entities hold them accountable and protect the public by removing them from positions of trust.”
The investigation
The arrest was after a three-month investigation conducted by the New York State Police Violent Gang & Narcotics Enforcement Team (VGNET) Utica Office. Soules was removed from his judicial duties following his arrest.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct authorized an investigation into Soules. In September 2023, the commission also authorized investigation into a second complaint that alleged the judge invoked his judicial office to get the Herkimer Police Department to drive him home from a location where he was stranded.
Soules’s resignation was effective April 17, but was removed from his judicial duties at the start of the investigation by the Commission in June. The former judge had been a Little Fall’s justice since 2022 and his term would have expired at the end of 2025.
Soules has agreed to never seek or accept judicial office in the future.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Little Falls town justice resigns following investigation
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