#Brooklyn judge forced to retire early following Alzheimer’s diagnosis

A Brooklyn judge has been forced into early retirement following an Alzheimer’s diagnosis and an investigation into accusations of “erratic” behavior on the bench, officials announced Monday.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice ShawnDya Simpson — who is 54-years-old — agreed to formally retire on October 31 after the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct discovered she had the degenerative memory disease during an investigation into possible misconduct.

The Commission last year began looking into complaints against Simpson that “her demeanor toward litigants, lawyers, and others had become erratic and at times intemperate,” according to an agreement that the judge reached with the CJC.

The oversight body was also probing allegations that “she was frequently absent from court, arriving very late and/or leaving very early, or not arriving at all,” while lawyers and their clients were left waiting for their scheduled hearings to proceed, the stipulation papers say.

After the CJC confronted Simpson with findings that showed she had “been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since August 2019,” Simpson and her lawyers revealed her diagnosis in February.

Her medical records showed that she is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, which had “progressed to an advanced level uncommon to a person of her age,” the stipulation papers say.

In March, the commission served Simpson with a complaint saying “that respondent should be retired from judicial office,” because of her medical disability.

Simpson began as a civil court judge in Brooklyn serving in that position from 2004 through 2016 until she was elected to be a Supreme Court Justice in 2017. She had most recently been assigned in the Bronx, the CJC said.

In a statement announcing her retirement, Simpson said, “I expected this announcement to come much later in my life and career, but it is not God’s will or plan.”

“My life has been a little Black girl’s American dream. Whoever thought a little Black girl from the projects and raised by a single mother would have an opportunity to sit on the bench and balance the scales of justice? I have thoroughly enjoyed serving as a judge for the past sixteen years,” Simpson said.

CJC Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said it was “as sad a situation as I have encountered in over 40 years of judicial ethics enforcement.”

“The Commission sought to balance its responsibility to ensure public confidence in a capable judiciary with compassion for Judge Simpson and her family over her heartbreaking Alzheimer’s diagnosis,” Tembeckjian said in a statement.

Tembeckjian told The Post that the Commission has only had to force the retirement of judges due to medical reasons three other times, out of 94 total retirement agreements they have reached with judges.

Tembeckjian clarified that the CJC doesn’t get involved in cases when judges voluntarily resign within a reasonable amount of time after receiving a permanent health disability diagnosis.

Simpson notably exonerated John Bunn, a man who was wrongly incarcerated for 16 years for a 1991 murder he didn’t commit because of the work of scandal-plagued NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella.

Simpson has also been embroiled in controversies in the past for alleged rule-bending behavior.

In June 2018, a Brooklyn prosecutor asked Simpson to transfer a child rape case she presided over to another judge after she broke court rules by secretly speaking with a potential trial witness without lawyers being present.

The Post revealed in July 2018 that Simpson was using rentals in Brooklyn to claim she was a resident there — a requirement in order for her to preside as a judge in the borough — all while her primary residence was in a home in New Jersey.