Judge suspended after allegations of explicit TikToks filmed in courthouse

A New Jersey Supreme Court judge who filmed herself in semi-undressed lip-sync with explicit lyrics in TikTok videos, some recorded in the courthouse, has been suspended without pay.

Judge Gary Wilcox, 59, agreed to the three-month suspension after he was accused of creating 40 now-deleted TikTok videos, 11 of which contained “explicit language or inappropriate behavior” under the account name “Sal Tortorella” from April 2021 to March 2023.

Wilcox was issued a formal complaint by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct in June 2023, stating that 11 of the videos he posted contained references to “violence, sex and misogyny”, and were located “in chambers, in the courthouse and in the courthouse found. a bed” while the judge wore his robes or half-undressed.

In some videos, Wilcox lip-synched songs with explicit sexual, racist or profane references, the complaint said.

In one, the judge lip-synced while in chambers with the lyrics: “If you want it, let’s do it. Ride it, my pony. My saddle is waiting, come on and jump on it. If you want it, let’s do it.” it”, from the song Jump by Rihanna.

In another, wearing a suit and tie in the chambers with law books behind him, he lip-synced to the words: “All my life I’ve been waiting for someone to kick my ass. I mean it! You think that you can run up to me and kick my monkey’s ass.’

The Advisory Committee also said Wilcox recorded a TikTok video wearing a Beavis and Butt Head T-shirt while in the Bergen County Courthouse, with Go down by Nas playing as he walked along.

“The song contains explicit lyrics about a criminal case and a courtroom shooting, as well as derogatory and discriminatory terms, references to drugs and gangs, and the murder of a hospital doctor who was treating another gang member,” the complaint said.

Wilcox’s attorney, Gary Wille, said this, according to… New Jersey Sphere: “He did not endorse any of the artists, their lifestyle or their views. It was never his intention to discredit the judiciary. Indeed, none of the messages were directed against anyone or had anything to do with a case or party before him lag. They were not made in the discharge of judicial duties.”

Wilcox asked that he not be disciplined or receive any punishment no greater than an admonition.

In posting the TikTok videos, the complaint alleged that he “undermined public confidence in the judiciary” and violated high standards of conduct to prevent impropriety and maintain conduct that would not raise a reasonable doubt about his ability to to act impartially, and Wilcox agreed to a three-month suspension without pay, according to Law & Crime.

Newsweek I attempted to contact Wilcox’s law firm via email for comment.

Newsweek has contacted the New Jersey Courts Communications Office by phone and will update the piece if a response is received.

Wilcox said in response to the complaint that he created his TikTok account on a personal device “during the period of lockdown caused by COVID-19” because he heard it was a “popular way to connect with people.” and that his “intention was always to separate his personal use of TikTok and anything anyone saw around it from his actual personal life and what he did as a judge.”

Additionally, Wilcox started posting on TikTok because the “activity seemed silly, harmless, and innocently fun. Respondent opened his account out of curiosity to explore this new phenomenon.”

Wilcox’s suspension began on October 8 and will end on January 8, 2025.

He was appointed to a family court bench by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2011 and reassigned to the criminal justice division five years later.

Wilcox also previously served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey and had an “impeccable record as a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey” before the formal complaint was filed.

Newsweek also contacted TikTok for comment via a form on their website.

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