‘JUDGE SHOP’ SUIT

Whistleblower targets wife of SI’s DA

A whistleblower court clerk is suing former Staten Island Administrative Judge Judith McMahon, saying she “conspired” with her husband, the borough’s district attorney, to judge-shop on narcotics cases and ensure prosecutors got a sympathetic jurist.

McMahon and her hubby, DA Michael McMahon, “conspired to develop and use Part N (the special narcotics part) as a way to steer grand-jury applications away from judges who were deemed ‘defense-oriented judges’ and towards the Honorable Charles Troia,” Richard Luthmann, the lawyer for former court Chief Clerk Michael Pulizotto, claims in papers filed in Manhattan federal court.

Judge McMahon is named as a defendant in the suit along with officials and officers employed by the state Office of Court Administration.

Pulizotto previously filed a $25 million state slander suit in Manhattan against court-officers union honcho Dennis Quirk.

Pulizotto, claiming he’s a whistleblower out to expose corruption, had secretly taped conversations with Quirk, Judge McMahon and other court officials. Amid the controversy, he was reassigned to an OCA office in Manhattan.

Judge McMahon also has been reassigned — to Manhattan Supreme Court, where she oversees the trial and mediation sections.

McMahon oversaw all Staten Island courts before her husband, a former congressman and councilman, ran for DA in 2015. To avoid conflict, she relinquished her supervision over the criminal section during his campaign.

But the suit filed Tuesday claims Judge McMahon directed that no more “complex” criminal cases go to Justice Mario Mattei or Justice Wayne Ozzi because the DA’s office had complained they are “too defense oriented.”

It also alleges Judge McMahon directed Pulizotto “to influence” Mattei to declare the jury in a criminal case deadlocked so that a mistrial could be declared and the DA could retry the case.

“Judge McMahon denies these baseless allegations contained in Mr. Pulizotto’s frivolous complaint,” said Judith McMahon’s attorney, John Connors.

A spokesman for DA McMahon said, “This lawsuit is just another desperate attempt to tarnish the reputations of the DA.”