Judge Resigns After Telling Lawyer to Fellate Viggo Mortensen

A judge in upstate New York has resigned amid an investigation of a homophobic remark he reportedly made to a lawyer, saying the lawyer and actor Viggo Mortensen should "suck each other's dick."

LeRay Town Court Justice John W. Hallett made the statement to lawyer Terence Brennen in January 2017, according to a complaint filed with New York State's Commission on Judicial Conduct, the New York Post reports. At the time, Brennen was promoting a film festival featuring the work of Mortensen, best known for the Lord of the Rings films and now Golden Globe-nominated for Green Book.

"You and Viggo Mortensen should get a hotel room and suck each other's dick," Brennen said the judge told him. Hallett also called the film festival "about the gayest thing I have ever heard," according to Brennen. The exchange reportedly took place at the Jefferson County Court Complex in Watertown.

The lawyer also said that during another conversation five months later, Hallett made a gesture intended to "connote oral sex," then patted Brennen on the cheek and said, "There, there, little boy."

The commission brought a formal complaint against Hallett in August. But now he has submitted his resignation, effective at the end of this year, and agreed he will not ever serve in a judicial capacity again, the commission announced Wednesday. This means the complaint will be dropped. Hallett had held the town court justice position since 2003, and his current term was scheduled to expire at the end of 2019.

"Homophobic remarks and anti-LGBTQ sentiments have no place in the lexicon of the courts or the vocabulary of a judge," said a statement released by the commission's administrator, Robert H. Tembeckjian. "Such statements undermine public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, which demands that a judge be and appear fair-minded and unprejudiced toward all who have business in the courts."