{"id":372410,"date":"2026-10-13T22:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T22:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:56:19","slug":"gun-toting-nyc-judge-censured-by-ethics-board-for-bizarre-experiment-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372410\/","title":{"rendered":"Gun-toting NYC judge censured by ethics board for bizarre \u2018experiment\u2019 in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gun-toting New York City judge who pulled out a pistol in court<\/a> to \u201cdeceive\u201d a testifying police officer was admonished by a state judicial ethics commission for his \u201clittle experiment,\u201d according to an announcement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Criminal court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny whipped out his personal gun to challenge whether a testifying police officer back in 2025 could have actually identified if a suspect was carrying the weapon in a shopping bag.<\/p>\n

But as he went to pull out his personal 9mm pistol \u2014 to the discomfort of court officers in the room \u2014 he actually hid the gun on the ground and placed a stapler in a shopping bag in a bid to trick the cop.<\/p>\n

It was a bizarre move that the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said deserves official censure.<\/p>\n

Judge Jeffrey Gershuny got a recommendation of censure a year after he pulled out a gun during a hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Christina Santucci\/Queens Daily Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic confidence in the integrity of the courts depends on judges being honest and above-board,\u201d said CJC administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian. <\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Gershuny did not abide by that standard when he engaged in an elaborate deception and essentially tried to trick a witness on a significant evidentiary matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gershuny, seated at the bench, whipped out his personal and licensed SIG Sauer P365, removed the magazine, and told a court officer of his plan to show the testifying cop his gun \u201cand make the witness think he was putting the firearm in a bag when in fact he was putting a stapler in the bag,\u201d according to CJC documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it is about the bag and [the] firearm in the bag that gives off a distinction of it being a firearm,\u201d Gershuny said as he announced his \u201clittle experiment\u201d during an August 5, 2025 hearing in a felony gun case.<\/p>\n

The incident, first reported by The Post shortly after it happened, shows how the then-Brooklyn Criminal Court jurist \u201cintentionally deceived a witness in open court\u201d by swapping out the gun for a stapler, the CJC said.<\/p>\n

Judge Jeffrey Gershuny used his personal Sig Sauer P365 in a \u201clittle experiment\u201d to test a cop\u2019s ability to detect a pistol in a bag. Dmitri \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Both the court officer and her supervisor were uncomfortable with the plan and advised Gershuny against proceeding, but the judge plowed ahead and told the witness that he was placing his gun in a shopping bag from discount retailer Five Below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reality, he put the gun on the floor and placed a stapler inside the bag, the documents say, yet \u201casked the officer a number of questions about what he repeatedly and falsely represented was a gun in the bag,\u201d the CJC found.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic confidence in the integrity of the courts depends on judges being honest and above-board,\u201d said CJC administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian. HANS PENNINK<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess you what you[sic] identified is an L-shaped object, which is a Swingline Stapler,\u201d Gershuny said, who then blocked the gun from entering evidence \u2014 despite the witness never stating that he could tell if it was a gun or not in the judge\u2019s bag.<\/p>\n

Gershuny, currently a Manhattan Criminal Court judge, was docked pay and status by court administrators at the time<\/a> and banned from carrying a gun into court. <\/p>\n

The report notes that Gershuny fully \u201ccooperated\u201d with the CJC\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

The CJC also \u201curged\u201d court administrators to \u201creview the rules related to certain judges carrying weapons in the courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recommending censure, the CJC says they hope Gershuny \u201chas learned from this experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gun-toting New York City judge who pulled out a pistol in court to \u201cdeceive\u201d a testifying police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10916,10917,4542,4234,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-372410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn-supreme-court","tag-ethics","tag-guns","tag-judges","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}