About Courts of Contempt
Hell Gate and Type Investigations began the research for Courts of Contempt in early 2025, with the goal of shedding some much-needed light on an opaque system—the broken and scandal-plagued process by which New York City’s judges are selected. During the course of the past year, we sat in courtrooms across the city; spoke with more than 50 attorneys who practice in New York City’s courts; combed through hundreds of pages of court transcripts; interviewed more than a dozen criminal justice professors, judicial reform advocates, and good government experts; and staked out various political party events and meetings. We’re extremely grateful to the people who spoke with us and shared their stories, insights, and experiences.
A note on methodology: Courts of Contempt features profiles of nine judges who embody aspects of this broken system. We chose these nine based on responses to a survey asking about demeanor, fairness, and knowledge of the law sent to hundreds of public defenders, private attorneys, law professors, and more, as well as additional feedback from lawyers and courtwatchers. We also conducted our own research and pulled from our collective decades of experience reporting in our city’s courts. There are many judges worthy of this level of scrutiny in New York City—in fact, all judges should probably be examined in this way—and we hope others will continue to shine a light on our court system. We’ll keep watch as well.
Hell Gate is Adlan Jackson, Christopher Robbins, Esther Wang, Jessy Edwards, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Katie Way, Max Rivlin-Nadler, and Nick Pinto. Nadia Tykulsker is its operations and finance manager. Rick Paulas is its marketing and external relations manager. This project was edited for Hell Gate by Esther, and written by Chris, Jessy, Katie, Max, and Nick.
This project was produced in partnership with Type Investigations, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project, with editing by Aviva Shen, Nina Zweig, and Sasha Belenky, and research by Allie Conti. Our fact-checkers were Paco Alvarez, Darya Marchenkova, Paige Oamek, Nina Zweig, Rosemarie Ho, Kate Mabus, Nina Sparling, Katrina Janco, and Sophie Hurwitz.
Additional thanks to Celia Young, Ballard Spahr, and Lawyers for Reporters. The zine and website were designed by Partner & Partners. Illustrations are by Lauren Tamaki.