A former Charleston municipal judge was publicly reprimanded by the state Supreme Court for fixing traffic tickets, one for a friend and one for a brother-in-law.
Joseph Sidney Mendelsohn, who is now retired, agrees that his actions constitute professional misconduct.
According to court records, Mendelsohn twice interfered with the normal magistrates’ court case for awarding traffic fines.
The former judge did not contest the superior court’s findings, according to the disciplinary action launched by the Supreme Court on March 31.
The court did not identify whose tickets Mendelsohn helped, using only the initials in its report: JT for the first case and PK for the second.
These identities were not immediately available, but the Post and Courier filed for Freedom of Information Act requests for these records after a police spokesman initially requested the document so the department could proceed and a court clerk requested the request for searching for records.
In the first case involving JT, Mendelsohn filed a traffic ticket on February 13, 2019 – a day before the date set for the driver’s trial of the summons. He told the clerk that the recipient was a friend. Mendelsohn checked the boxes for “judge of first instance”, “appeared”, “innocent” and “municipal court”.
Mendelsohn then signed his own name on the ticket, dating it on February 14 – the next day, when the recipient was due to appear in court before Judge Alesia Rico Flores.
The records indicate that when Flores read the ticket, she found an attached note: “Mendelsohn discarded the ticket.”
A few days later, Mendelsohn allegedly bypassed the ticket process again, determined the Supreme Court.
This time, in the case involving PK, which the Supreme Court noted was Mendelsohn’s brother-in-law, he sent a Charleston police officer whose last name was Coghlan a note saying, “Mr. Coghlan, can you see your way to a dismissal?”
The note was attached to a February 2019 traffic ticket.
Both tickets were issued for heavy traffic at 404 Calhoun Street, where the James Island connector reaches the peninsula. During rush hour, Mendelsohn observed that drivers used to cross parts of the road illegally to avoid hitting the rear.
In issuing the reprimand, the court noted that it was the most severe punishment they could pursue, since Mendelsohn no longer acts in court.
Mendelsohn could not be reached for comment. This was not his first reprimand.
In 2003, Mendelsohn was arrested in Mount Pleasant after a traffic stop on his way home after a wedding in Georgetown. A policeman noticed his 2001 Acura labeled “Joe M” turning and braking for no apparent reason at US 17. The judge, on the bench since January 1978, refused to take an alcohol test and was taken into custody. An open bottle of whiskey was found in his back seat.
He was released later that night, after he was first sent by a city judge to the county jail, contacting another judge to sign his release order and then have the prison process that order.
Mendelsohn pleaded guilty in the DUI case and apologized for his “indiscretion”.
But when he circumvented the municipal judge’s initial decision to send him to spend a night in prison, Mendelsohn opened a case of misconduct against him and the other judge, magistrate James B. Gosnell, who were reprimanded by the state Supreme Court in 2005.
“I am very sorry for my indiscretion,” he told Mount Pleasant City Court Judge Dale DuTremble. In admitting his guilt over the misdemeanor charge, Mendelsohn said, “I’m trying to do the right thing and leave it behind.”
Talk to Sara Coello at 843-901-2995 and follow her on Twitter @smlcoello.