SORE JUDGE SUES

Says she was suspended because of ailments

A White Plains judge whose appointment was marred by allegations of political cronyism says she’s been unfairly suspended due to her severe stomach problems and stinky sores on her legs.

City Court Judge Elizabeth Shollenberger charges in her suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court that the Office of Court Administration is violating her rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Shollenberger, who was the chairwoman of the White Plains Democratic City Committee from 2003 to 2016, writes that her numerous health issues are wrongly being held against her though she has them under control.

The 57-page lawsuit includes stomach-churning accounts of her ailments, which have resulted in her defecating on a courthouse bathroom floor, going to the bathroom in a courtroom wastebasket and complaints of odors emanating from a leg infection.

Shollenberger, 62, has spent roughly two months actually working since her appointment in January 2017 to a 10-year term by the all-Democrat White Plains Common Council. She collects a $187,200 salary along with generous health benefits.

“This is one of the most disastrous judicial appointments ever,” said attorney Mark Elliot, who served on a judicial screening panel that did not recommend Shollenberger for the job. “One of my concerns was whether she was physically capable of filling a 10-year term. She appeared to be very fragile,” added Elliot, who hoped the judge’s health improves.

Shollenberger’s ailments include pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immune thrombocytopenia, lymphedema in her legs, a fungal infection in her legs and obesity, the suit says.

Her trouble began only weeks into her tenure, when employees began locking the door to the judges’ restroom, preventing Shollenberger from using it, the suit says. The chief clerk of the courthouse, Eileen Byrne, allegedly refused to give Shollenberger a key. That meant the judge, who uses a walker and oxygen tank, had to use a jury restroom connected to a conference room in the courthouse.

“Everything in the restroom is easily audible in the conference room, and vice versa,” the suit notes.

Two subsequent incidents in which Shollenberger was “caught off-guard” by a bathroom emergency resulted in “a hysterical reaction” by staff, the suit says.

On May 1, 2017, the entrance to her courtroom was cordoned off with yellow police tape, wrongly signaling that it was “some sort of crime scene or the site of some horrendous health hazard,” the suit says.