Jaroszynski Receives Unqualified Rating from Judicial Commission

Sally Jaroszynski

MAYVILLE – The Democratic Nominee for Chautauqua County Family Court Judge has received an unfavorable rating for a local judicial commission – despite the fact that she received a favorable rating just two years earlier.

The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting today that the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission has given Family Court Judge candidate Sally Jaroszynski an unqualified rating.  In 2014, when Jaroszynski ran for a newly created family court seat, she received a qualified rating.

The ratings from the commission are only given upon request from a candidate. When given a rating, the commission has the option of rating a candidate as highly qualified, qualified or not qualified.

FAILED TO DETECT EMBEZZLEMENT BY FORMER COURT CLERK

Jaroszynski is a local attorney who’s practiced law in family court for 25 years and also currently serves as justice for the Ellicott Town Court. She also served as one of the two Ellicott Town Justices between 2011 and 2015, when former court clerk Jennifer Piazza was found to have taken more than $34,000 in cash.

An audit from the office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, released in 2015, stated that both town justices “did not segregate the duties of the full-time Court clerk, who controlled all phases of the Court’s cash collection, recording and reporting process with minimal oversight. As a result, the full-time Court clerk was able to manipulate Court records and admitted to embezzling funds. Neither the Justices nor the Court clerks performed monthly accountabilities, and the Board did not consistently conduct, or retain anyone to conduct, the required annual audit of the Justices’ records.”

It’s not known if the audit from the state comptroller’s office played a role in the commission’s unqualified rating.

Jaroszynki is running against Fredonia area attorney Michael Sullivan and Sherry Bjork – who will square off in a Republican party primary next week.

The current race for Family Court Judge comes after Judith Claire retired from the bench in June.

In 2014 Jaroszynski unsuccessfully ran for the newly created second family court judge seat, losing to judge Jeffrey Piazza in the 2014 November election.