N.J. Judge Resigns From Bench To Pursue Comedy Career
By David Madden
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBS) -- The New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered a municipal judge in Hackensack to make a choice: he can be a judge or a stand-up comic, but not both.
And now former judge Vince Sicari, 44,has made his choice -- comedy.
Sicari earned about $13,000 a year in his judicial role. But under his stage name, Vince August, he may have a budding entertainment career.
But court officials say that would violate New Jersey's Code of Judicial Conduct.
Gloucester County lawyer Harold Kasselman, a former prosecutor, says once an attorney dons that black robe, everything changes.
"They're precluded from even being put into any position where there would be a reasonable doubt about their impartiality," Kasselman explains.
And the court, in a unanimous decision, found the two jobs "incompatable."
Kasselman -- who, by the way, has his own side gig as an author -- predicted in our interview that Sicari might opt for the stage.
It turns out he was right. Sicari turned in his resignation a couple of hours after the ruling came down.
