New York Judge Accused of Breaking Into Neighbor’s Home to Steal Panties

A Long Island, New York, judge has been arrested and accused of breaking into a neighbor’s home to steal her panties, police say.

Police arrested Suffolk County Judge Robert Cicale after a 23-year-old woman called them to report an intruder in her home, ABC 11 reported.

The recent college graduate gave police a description which led them to Judge Cicale, 49, whom they later discovered in possession of the woman’s soiled underwear. Cicale was charged with second-degree burglary.

“Mr. Cicale was found in possession of soiled female undergarments that we believe to be proceeds from the burglary that occurred this morning or a prior burglary at that location,” Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron said in a statement.

The victim and the Cicale family are acquainted, but it wasn’t clear how friendly they are, the media reported.

Cicale, a married man with children, was elected to the bench in 2015 as a Republican, the New York Daily News reported. He was East Islip’s town attorney staring in 2012. Cicale also worked for the Legal Aid Society, which supplies legal representation to those too poor to afford counsel.

Newsday reported that Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, told them, “We will be addressing the judge’s status in the morning.”

One lawyer who has appeared before the judge claims Cicale is a fair and well-liked jurist.

Cicale is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.