Canandaigua, N.Y. (WHAM) — The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has ruled that a judge serving on the Canandaigua Town Court should be removed from his position for allegedly using racial slurs.

The commission said Judge Walter Jones repeatedly used the “n-word” while telling a story to two coworkers in a parking lot after court May 10, 2024. Paperwork said the story was about a Black man who became friends with Jones’ dad while working on his grandfather’s cotton fields in Texas in the 1950s.

There were a handful of people in the parking lot coming and going, and Jones was way too loud,” one of the colleagues told the commission during a Jan. 29, 2026 hearing. “We kept trying to walk away, and he would just get louder and more animated. He thought it was a sweet story of how his dad befriended a Black man in a time when no one else would.

The commission said both the clerk and attorney were upset and reported the incident to their colleagues and superiors.

During a hearing before the commission, Jones testified he “was quoting (his) father” and said “that’s not (his) word,” according to paperwork. Jones also testified “the lesson I was trying to get across was that with tolerance, dignity, and respect, we could overcome the differences between us, among us and become something else. Something better.”

“The gratuitous use of a racial slur by a judge, repeatedly and with evident zeal, is shocking and disqualifying,” commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian said in a statement.

The commission also claims Jones made racially insensitive comments about a Black defendant in court May 15, 2024. Paperwork said Jones claimed the defendant was “playing the race card” after the defendant expressed concerns about racial bias in her case.

The commission said in its determination that “It is troubling that (Jones) appeared not to recognize the impact of his powerful position as a judge and the inappropriateness of using a racial slur.”

Jones, who is in his 80s, has served in his position in Canandaigua Town Court since 1999 and his current term is set to expire at the end of 2027, according to the commission.

Jones’ attorney, Charles Steinman, told 13WHAM the determination is being appealed in the state’s Court of Appeals and has no further comment.

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The case is now in the hands of the Court of Appeals and the status of the case is unknown at this time.