A Queens Surrogate’s \u00a0Court judge failed to disclose\u00a0for months that his law clerk was dating a Uniondale attorney\u00a0arguing cases in his courtroom, including one in which\u00a0a NYPD detective was locked in an inheritance dispute with his Long Island-based sibling, court records show.<\/p>\n
The conflict of interest allegations center on Judge Peter Kelly, who until late 2023, had run the Queens Surrogate’s Court for more than 14 years, and his principal law clerk and chief legal adviser, Zachary Zayas, whose father is the state court system\u2019s chief administrative judge.<\/p>\n
Court records show Zayas, 30, was\u00a0dating attorney Cheryl Katz, 36, during a period when she represented Sean Hynes, 51, of Bellerose, in an inheritance battle with his sister, Shannon Hynes, 46, of Franklin Square. Zayas and Katz subsequently moved in together.<\/p>\n
In early 2023, a Kelly ruling made\u00a0Sean Hynes the executor of his father\u2019s roughly $2.1 million estate. The ruling also gave Sean Hynes the authority to utilize money from the estate\u00a0to pay his attorneys.<\/p>\n
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDA Queens Surrogate’s Court judge did not\u00a0disclosed for months that his law clerk was romantically involved with a Uniondale attorney\u00a0arguing cases in his courtroom, court records show.The conflict of interest allegations center on Judge Peter Kelly, who until late 2023, had run the Queens Surrogate’s Court for more than 14 years, and his principal law clerk, Zachary Zayas.One of the cases is about a\u00a0NYPD detective who is was locked in an inheritance dispute with his Long Island-based sibling, court records show.<\/p>\n
The judge\u00a0recused himself from the case after the romantic relationship was uncovered by Shannon Hynes, sending the\u00a0legal standoff\u00a0to Surrogate’s Court in Staten Island.<\/p>\n
Shannon Hynes, herself a marriage\u00a0law attorney, wants\u00a0to have Kelly\u2019s motions\u00a0tossed “due to misconduct, fraud and misrepresentations.”<\/p>\n
To date, she\u2019s been unsuccessful, with Staten Island Surrogate’s Court Judge Matthew Titone ruling against her. She is planning additional motions.<\/p>\n
Complicating matters, Joseph Zayas, the state court system\u2019s chief administrative judge, who runs the State Office of Court Administration \u2014 essentially Kelly\u2019s boss \u2014 is Zachary Zayas\u2019 father.<\/p>\n
Allegations of \u2018judicial impropriety\u2019<\/p>\n
Court documents show Sean Hynes\u00a0paid nearly $423,000 to three law firms where Katz worked between 2020 and 2024. Since Katz and Zayas lived together, he stood to benefit financially from his girlfriend\u2019s legal work, Shannon Hynes contends.<\/p>\n
“This is the very definition of judicial impropriety and preferential treatment,” Shannon Hynes said in an interview. “If this is not exposed and corrected, this case will set a very troubling precedent; one that disregards ethical rules, case law and the fundamental principles of justice.”<\/p>\n
In an emailed\u00a0statement, Katz, a partner at the law firm of Forchelli Deegan Terrana, denied “any allegations of wrongdoing or unethical conduct. All of my actions and conduct have been carried out in full compliance with the law and ethical standards governing the legal profession … It cannot be ignored that these allegations are being made by an adversary who has repeatedly been unsuccessful in various courts.”<\/p>\n
In court papers, Katz said her romantic relationship with Zayas was no secret and that they attended many State Bar Association events together.<\/p>\n
Sean Hynes, a detective in the 114th Precinct in Astoria, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Angelo Grasso, his new attorney, said his client “categorically denies that the decisions in Surrogate\u2019s Queens were ‘influenced’ by the relationship between Ms. Katz and Mr. Zayas.”<\/p>\n
Al Baker, spokesman for the Office of Court Administration, said Judges Zayas and Kelly were prohibited from commenting on Shannon Hynes\u2019 specific allegations because they involve pending legal matters.<\/p>\n
“Additionally, Zachary Zayas will not comment on the litigation itself, based on the same prohibition, but categorically denies any allegations of wrongdoing or unethical conduct,” Baker said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement to Newsday, Kelly said he\u2019s spent years refuting Shannon Hynes\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n
“The results of these intensive, prolonged, and expensive investigations showed I acted properly and in compliance with all governing rules and statutes,” Kelly said. “The above has come at a great emotional and financial toll for myself and my family.”<\/p>\n
Details of the dispute were first reported by New York Focus, a nonprofit online news site.<\/p>\n
Inheritance dispute<\/p>\n
The case centers on\u00a0the estate of Richard Hynes, of Bellerose. He was\u00a0Shannon and Sean\u2019s father, who died on Christmas Day in 2019.<\/p>\n
The inheritance battle landed before Kelly, who had been the sole judge overseeing Queens Surrogate’s Court. Kelly was elected as a Supreme Court justice in late 2023, leaving his surrogate post. <\/p>\n
Shannon Hynes said the case felt amiss from the start, from the limited fact finding\u00a0and witness depositions to the repeated rulings that favored her brother.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 21, 2023, Kelly named Sean Hynes the sole executor of his father\u2019s estate. The judge also denied Shannon Kelly\u2019s\u00a0motions to dismiss his ruling.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, Shannon Hynes, suspicious about the nature of what she described as one-sided rulings, hired a private investigator to follow his brother\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
The investigator discovered Zachary\u00a0Zayas and Katz were in a romantic\u00a0relationship and sharing a home\u00a0in Massapequa. At the time, neither Zayas, Katz nor Kelly had disclosed the relationship to Shannon Hynes or her attorneys.<\/p>\n
After Shannon Hynes\u2019 attorneys brought the relationship to the court, Kelly said he\u2019d been aware the two were living together since late 2023, court transcripts show. Katz said in a sworn affidavit the relationship\u00a0was disclosed to the judge shortly after it began in June 2023.<\/p>\n
“I believe that there was favoritism that took place in this case,” Shannon Hynes said. “I believe that there was partiality. And at the very least the appearance of impropriety, which is why the judge had to disclose it and should have immediately recused himself from this case.”<\/p>\n
Katz\u00a0notes Titone, the Staten Island judge now hearing the case, has found Shannon Hynes\u2019 allegations lacked merit.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Shannon Hynes] has not set forth any evidence of actual bias in the proceedings that were previously before the Queens Surrogate\u2019s Court,” Titone wrote in a Jan. 28\u00a0ruling denying her request to toss out Kelly\u2019s rulings.<\/p>\n
Judge recuses himself<\/p>\n
Zayas has clerked for Kelly since 2021, covering most of the Hynes\u2019 case. Shannon Hynes said Zayas was in court for most conferences and appearances in the case.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, Kelly recused himself from the case, although by that point the bulk of the issues had already been litigated.<\/p>\n
Speaking from the bench on May 30, 2024, Kelly framed his decision to recuse himself as “discretionary” but added: “I don’t need the aggravation. The litigants in this case would fight over the time of day if there was a clock on the wall.”<\/p>\n
The judge added most of his rulings were made before he learned of the relationship and that Zayas had no decision-making authority or influence over the outcome of the case.<\/p>\n
“The court attorney at issue became my principal law clerk in … January of 2024,” Kelly said. “He was not involved in anything to do with this case any time prior while he was just a … junior court attorney.”<\/p>\n
But during the time\u00a0Kelly said he was aware of the relationship, the judge issued several\u00a0crucial rulings that favored Sean Hynes, including a motion to remove him as executor of the estate, records indicate.<\/p>\n
Katz, in a January 2024 email to Shannon Hynes\u2019 attorney, bragged his client had lost “every single proceeding\/allegation that she has ever commenced against my client.”<\/p>\n
The complicated entanglements in the case run even deeper.<\/p>\n
In March 2024, Judge Joseph Zayas appointed Katz to serve on the statewide Surrogate\u2019s Court Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations about the court\u2019s operating procedures. Earlier this year, Judge Zayas appointed Kelly to co-lead the committee.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Shannon Hynes said she filed a complaint against Kelly with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by the judiciary.<\/p>\n
Marissa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the commission, told Newsday “complaints are confidential unless a judge has been publicly disciplined. Accordingly … I cannot confirm, deny or comment on the existence of a complaint.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\tRobert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens Surrogate’s \u00a0Court judge failed to disclose\u00a0for months that his law clerk was dating a Uniondale attorney\u00a0arguing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,19184,122,124,123,5369],"class_list":{"0":"post-65410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-qs","12":"tag-queens","13":"tag-queens-headlines","14":"tag-queens-news","15":"tag-state-and-local-courts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410","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=65410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}