‘PERV’ JUDGE’S DIRTY LAUNDRY
He’s a serial skivvy stealer. A Long Island judge accused of swiping a pair of his neighbor’s dirty panties admitted to earlier raiding her laundry hamper to satisfy his “urges” to steal women’s underwear, prosecutors said Friday.
Robert Cicale, 49, told police that on several occasions, he broke into the woman’s home without permission and crept into an upstairs bedroom, where he would “go to the hamper and he would steal girls’ panties,” prosecutor Jennifer Milito said in Nassau County Court.
Cicale, who was elected in 2015 as a judge in Suffolk County District Court, also confessed, “I went into the house to take the panties again but left when I heard someone home. The panties I had on me are from the other times I went into the house,” according to a criminal complaint.
The 23-year-old victim was an intern at the Islip Town Attorney’s Office when Cicale served as town attorney, prosecutors said.
The two live across from each other on Donna Place in East Islip.
“This is highly disturbing,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Sini. “This [is an] individual who swore to uphold the law and violated it in a very serious way.”
The panty purloiner was busted 9 a.m. Thursday after sneaking into the home — where his victim was alone and fast asleep, according to police.
“The defendant went to her bedroom, and she called out,” said Sini. “When he realized there was actually someone in the home, he fled the home.”
The woman called her mom, who dialed 911. Police caught the disgraced jurist as he was walking up to someone else’s home and trying to knock on the door, Sini said.
Cicale was found with several pairs of women’s underwear in his jacket pocket — and more in the raincoat he was carrying, prosecutors said.
It’s unclear whether all of those pilfered panties belonged to the woman.
“He had urges on this date and prior dates to take panties,” said Milito, who added that there were five victims, who all live at the home.
The dad of three appeared disheveled in court, where he pleaded not guilty to felony burglary. He was released on $50,000 bond and ordered to stay 100 feet away from woman’s home. Three orders of protection were also issued — which could pose a problem to the judge’s living situation, since he lives so close.
“He’s going to have to make some adjustments,” said Judge David McAndrews.
Prosecutors said Cicale wrote a letter of apology to the woman.
Cicale, who made $181,300 last year according to See Thru New York, was “temporarily relieved of his judicial duties” indefinitely, according to Office of Court Administration spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
The judge said nothing as he sheepishly left the courthouse. Defense lawyer William Wexler said Cicale was “committed to the law and just an allaround decent person.”