Judge to civil court
The notoriously lenient Bronx judge under fire for putting an accused child-killer back on the street will be yanked off criminal cases and moved to civil court by next week, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Friday.
The move to pull Supreme Court Judge Naita Semaj from her current post comes as she battles an ongoing judicial probe into claims of abusive and unprofessional courtroom antics, as well as the controversy over her recent decision to free alleged killer stepdad Tyresse Minter without bail.
Minter was eventually put back behind bars with the help of an outraged Gov. Hochul.
Semaj is set to now start hearing civil cases April 24, after she wraps a gun-suppression hearing that she’s still overseeing in criminal court, sources said.
Rumors had been swirling for days that court administrators were planning to reassign the soft-on-crime magistrate.
“When it happens, it’ll happen,” court-officers union president Dennis Quirk told The Post on Friday, adding “I believe it’s going to happen, but they won’t give any warning up front.”
The state’s Office of Court Administration wouldn’t comment Friday.
The mom of 15-year-old murder victim Corde Scott — who was allegedly killed by Minter — hailed the reassignment.
“I’m glad to hear that Judge Naita Semaj will no longer be hearing criminal cases,” Karen Glenn told The Post Friday. “I believe in the justice system, and now families and victims can be treated with dignity.”
Glenn herself was berated by the judge for showing up late to the April 5 arraignment hearing for her son’s accused killer. Just days after being cut loose by Semaj, Minter ended up being re-arrested on a parole violation for another crime, after his release drew the ire of Hochul and others.
“This is not the first time she’s done bad things, like in my son’s case,” Glenn said.
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct had started probing Semaj after she kicked a veteran Bronx District Attorney’s Office supervisor out of her courtroom in April last year, The Post revealed Thursday.
Semaj had ripped into prosecutors after disagreeing with a plea deal for a then-17-year-old charged with attempted murder and criminal use of a firearm.
A rep for the commission declined to comment to The Post. “I’m just happy there is an investigation into the way she’s handled things in her courtroom,” Glenn said. “They have to look at the way she evaluates cases. Semaj has definitely engaged in unprofessional behavior.” Sources initially flagged the judicial probe this week after it emerged that Semaj, who was elected to a 14year term on the bench in November 2021, was applying for a promotion to become the presiding justice overseeing all disputed criminal and civil cases in Manhattan and The Bronx, one of those most influential positions in the New York state court system. Semaj was scheduled to be interviewed for the job in Midtown on Friday at 10.30 a.m., but she never showed, sources said.