He’s the one feeling the heat now.
A judge from upstate New York finds himself in trouble after implying that another judge was involved in a passionate relationship with a local government employee — reminiscent of William Hurt and Kathleen Turner’s relationship in the film “Body Heat.”
While overseeing his courtroom in St. Lawrence County in January 2023, Rossie Town Judge Philip Gentile made an offhand comment to a prosecutor, suggesting that a judge and a code-enforcement officer from a nearby town shared a close relationship. He likened their connection to the steamy scenes from the 1981 movie, as reported by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The Times Union mentioned that Gentile had previously appeared before the unnamed judge regarding a private zoning issue in which the enforcement officer was involved.
“It was kind of like … Kathleen Turner and William Hurt in ‘Body Heat,’ you know, because they were so … close in the court that they were finishing each other’s sentences and stuff,” Gentile said of the other judge and the enforcement officer — comments picked up on his own court’s recording device.
The commission’s report on the incident included a footnote that described Hurt and Turner’s characters as being in “a passionate affair” and involved in a “plot to murder the latter’s husband,” the outlet said.
Gentile’s comments earned him a censure, or formal reprimand.
“It undermines the judicial obligation to be fair and impartial when a judge bases decisions on outside conversations to which one or more parties are not privy and cannot counter,” the commission said in its ruling.
“Nor does it enhance the integrity of the court for a judge to utter profanities on the bench or spread baseless gossip about other judges or public officials. The commission expects Judge Gentile to
be more sensitive to these and his other judicial obligations going forward.”
According to the judicial commission, Gentile “has acknowledged that his conduct was improper and warrants public discipline.”
The wisecrack comment wasn’t the only thing that has gotten Gentile in trouble.
Between November 2022 and March 2024, Gentile also spoke to a prosecutor in an assault case but refused to share the conversation with a defense lawyer, balked at modifying an order of protection after having a private conversation and “uttered profanities in court,” the commission said.
Gentile, who is not a lawyer — and is not required to be by local law — has served as a judge in Rossie since 2018. His current term runs out in December.
