Syracuse, NY -- State Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy walked purposefully into a courtroom Tuesday morning, ready to get going on another day of criminal court.
Except another judge was already sitting in the judge’s chair.
Cuffy immediately realized his mistake and hung his head as lawyers, jail deputies and court security burst out laughing.
It didn’t help that Cuffy walked in on perhaps the biggest jokester on the floor. From the bench, Judge Stephen Dougherty didn’t miss a beat. He grabbed the microphone and intoned:
“All rise! Now entering the courtroom, Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy...”
Cuffy’s humorous mistake is the result of a game of musical courtrooms that he and his three counterparts have been playing since courts reopened following the early days of the pandemic.
Behind the four courtrooms on the Criminal Courthouse’s Third Floor is a hallway with lots of doors. Across from those doors are the chambers for all of the judges. Any judge can easily reach any courtroom.
Before the pandemic, each judge had his own permanent courtroom. And the one that Cuffy walked into Tuesday had been his courtroom for years.
But not during the pandemic. All four judges have been rotating among two courtrooms to make room for trials, which have been taking up the other two of the four courtrooms (one for the proceedings, another for jury deliberations).
And on Tuesday, Dougherty -- who traditionally sits two courtrooms away -- was assigned to Judge Cuffy’s usual courtroom. How confusing is the calendar? Dougherty hangs signs outside each courtroom telling people where he’ll be on any given day of the week. It changes every week.
After Cuffy left, Dougherty joked that he’s the only judge who hasn’t made that mistake yet during the pandemic.
That’s because he’s the only judge who hasn’t been able to hold court in his own courtroom since the pandemic began, a court security officer noted.
Cuffy left to find the right courtroom, where he assumedly got the welcome he was expecting.