NEWS

Active Morris County trial judge assigned to higher court

Peggy Wright
@PeggyWrightDR

MORRISTOWN – Superior Court Judge Robert J. Gilson, who has presided over multiple homicide trials in Morris County including the murder of a woman in Boonton by her husband and his lover, has been temporarily reassigned to the state’s Appellate Division.

Gilson, 56, received the prestigious reassignment though he has only been a judge since October 2009 and does not come up for renomination and job tenure until next year. Winnie Comfort, spokeswoman for the state Judiciary, said the temporary assignment was effective April 1 and will run through June 21, when it could become permanent.

Gilson, who was not available for comment Monday, was initially assigned in 2009 to the Family Division in Sussex County, which is part of a court vicinage with Morris County. He was then reassigned to the Criminal Division in Morris County in 2012, where he was immersed in homicide and high-profile cases from the start.

When he handled criminal cases involving defendants who were drug or alcohol-addicted, Gilson often delivered remarks that urged them into recovery.

“That’s not really living,” he told defendants of dependence on alcohol or drugs.

Gilson’s is the latest of recent reassignments to the Appellate Division from Morris County in the past 18 months. Judge Thomas Manahan and Mary Gibbons Whipple, who both sat in the Criminal Division before their reassignments, also were temporarily named to the Appellate Division before the positions became permanent. Appellate Division judges primarily review the decisions of Superior Court trial judges and outcomes of trials, motions and sentencings.

Gilson most recently presided over the trial of Kashif Parvaiz, who was convicted on Feb. 26 of murder by arranging for his mistress, Antionette Stephen, to gun down his wife, Nazish Noorani, on a Boonton street in 2011.

The Parvaiz trial came on the heels of the murder trial of Carlos Rojas, who was convicted of beating his cousin to death and dumping his body in Riverdale. Last summer, Gilson was the judge on the trial of Anthony Novellino, who was found guilty of fatally stabbing his ex-wife, Judith Novellino, at their Denville home. He also was the judge on the trial of Amalia Mirasola, who was found guilty of shooting her spouse to death at their Butler home.

Gilson is expected to finish any outstanding motions he was working on, such as the cases of suspended Rockaway Township Police Officer Clifton Gauthier, who is accused of trying to fix drunken driving tickets for relatives, and suspended Parsippany Hills High School teacher Jenna Leahey, who is charged with having sexual trysts with a student.

According to his judicial biography, Gilson has long been attracted to appellate work, which means extensive legal research, sifting through legal arguments and writing opinions.

He was a partner in the litigation group of Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland and Perretti in Morristown, where he was chairman of the Appellate Practice Group and Pro Bono Committee. He then joined the state Attorney General’s Office, where he was named in 2006 to be its director of the Division of Law, which provides legal representation to state committees, departments, boards and employees.

Exactly how the gap in the Criminal Division will be filled was not immediately known Monday but Superior Court Judge William J. McGovern, who sits in Sussex County, is expected to be reassigned soon to Morris County.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com.