A judge in New Jersey is in trouble because he shared several TikTok videos of himself singing to Nas and Busta Rhymes songs.
A few online videos that have caught the attention of officials could cause Judge Gary N. Wilcox to lose his job. The videos were recently brought to the attention “of New Jersey’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct when a complaint” was made about almost 40 TikTok videos released between April 2021 and March 2023 under the username Sal Tortorella.
Wilcox was seen in the videos rapping along to rap lyrics, but the page has since been deleted. Even though we don’t know what songs were on his whole playlist, many of the ones he repeated were said to be sexual or violent. Wilcox was seen singing along to “Sure Thing” by Miguel and “Jump” by Rihanna, which were not rap songs. On the other hand, “Get Down” by Nas and “Touch It” by Busta Rhymes were rap songs with a lot of curse words. Wikcox made things even worse by filming some of his videos while he was wearing his robes as a judge. Other videos showed him inside the courts and chambers. Law books were seen behind Wilcox in one popular TikTok. Others were shot in his house.
Robert Hille, Wilcox’s lawyer, thinks that the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.
Hille “told The New York Times”, “I don’t think anyone will believe that anyone wanted to do harm here at the end of the day.”
The suit says Wilcox didn’t treat his job with respect and couldn’t live up “to the high standards of behavior expected of judges”. Soon, a date will be set for a meeting to decide what his punishment will be. Wilcox could be kicked off the bench. But he has to retire next year, so being fired won’t hurt his job as much as it would otherwise, though it will hurt his reputation.