A senior Queens judge allowed a bawdy Viagra-themed light-switch cover to remain in his courtroom for at least a year — even after a female lawyer complained that it was inappropriate for court.
The dirty decoration — which was taped up in Judge Martin Ritholtz’s Queens Supreme Court courtroom on Sutphin Boulevard — included a male stick figure with a hole in his groin so the switch stuck through and appeared to be a penis. The name of the erectile-dysfunction medicine Viagra was written on the side.
Lauren Garvey, an insurance defense attorney, said she was offended when she first saw the fixture last April — and confronted Ritholtz about it during a conference in January.
“A judge is supposed to foster respect for the rule of law,” Garvey said. “Instead, Judge Ritholtz makes a mockery of it.”
When Garvey, a Barnard College grad who was once an intern to former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, complained to Ritholtz, he seemed to laugh it off, she told The Post.
“I said, ‘You know, judge, I don’t know if you’re aware but there’s a Viagra sign in your courtroom.’ I told him that I felt it was inappropriate,” Garvey recalled. “He laughed and told me and four other attorneys about a witness who was on the stand and her phone started vibrating and she called it her ‘vibrator.’
“I said, ‘I don’t think that’s an appropriate story,’ and he said, ‘I’ll look into trying to get that switch plate taken down,’ ” Garvey said.
But when she returned to the courtroom last week, the crude decal was still in place.
Reached in his chambers late Monday, Ritholtz first told The Post that he had removed the Viagra-themed decoration.
When told that a Post reporter spotted the sticker in the courtroom right before it closed on Monday, he backtracked.
“The problem is, I’m a very busy judge,” said Ritholtz — whose 13-year term expires at the end of 2015.
Ritholtz then said he took the sticker down as soon as The Post called.
Ritholtz — who serves as a dean of the Queens County Bar Association — denied laughing at Garvey or telling the vibrator joke.
Another attorney who was present during the exchange confirmed Garvey’s version.
“It was an inappropriate thing for him to say, but he’s an old-time judge,” the lawyer said.
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan