Dirty panty judge raided victim’s hamper before: prosecutors
The Long Island judge accused of swiping a pair of dirty panties from his neighbor confessed to raiding her laundry hamper before, prosecutors revealed in court Friday.
Robert Cicale, 49, told police that on several occasions, he broke into the woman’s home without permission and crept into an upstairs bedroom, where he would “go to the hamper and he would steal girl’s panties,” prosecutor Jennifer Milito said.
The 23-year-old victim was an intern at the Islip Town Attorney’s Office when Cicale served as town attorney, lawyers said.
The panty purloiner — who is now a judge in Suffolk County District Court — and the victim live across the street from one another in East Islip.
“This defendant, cloaked with the awesome responsibility … is now standing before Your Honor on this very serious charge,” Milito said at Cicale’s arraignment in Nassau County court.
Cicale was busted after sneaking into the home on Donna Place at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to police.
The victim, who was sleeping at the time, woke up to find “a man standing there” and freaked, according to Milito. The victim quickly called her mother, who dialed 911, as Cicale fled.
The judge was caught by police walking up to a different house and knocking on the door before he was arrested, prosecutors said.
The dad of three was found with “several pairs of women’s panties in his jacket pocket” and several others in raincoat he was carrying.
Cicale, who is charged with burglary, appeared disheveled in court and pleaded not guilty. He was released on bail.
He confessed to police that he had “urges” to steal women’s underwear and wrote the victim an apology letter, prosecutors said.
“I went into the house to take the panties again but left when I heard someone home,” Cicale admitted, according to a criminal complaint. “The panties I had on me are from the other times I went into the house.”
Three orders of protection were issued against the disgraced judge, barring him from contacting family members at the home. He also must stay 100 feet away from the home and wear a GPS tracking device.
“This is highly disturbing,” Suffolk County DA Tim Sini told reporters after the arraignment. “This [is an] individual who swore to uphold the law and violated it in a very serious way.”
“The message here, both from the Suffolk County Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, is that no one is above the law,” Sini added.
Cicale said nothing as he left the courthouse, flanked by his lawyer and court officers.
Defense lawyer David Wexler said despite the alleged panty infraction, his client was a well-respected jurist. Cicale served as a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society and Islip Town attorney before he was elected to the bench in 2015.
“His reputation throughout the court is stellar. Every judge, every lawyer respects him,” Wexler told reporters. “I wouldn’t be shocked that Rob is such a nice guy that even if, I think, he didn’t do something, he would apologize.”
Wexler added, “He’s been involved in legal circles his entire adult life. [He is] committed to the law and just an all-around decent person.”
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Hide your panties, Perrie!
Wouldn't it make more sense just to put GPS tracking devices on women's panties?
I LoJack all my wife’s panties ... for her protection of course.
I need to find out if this guy lived in Houston in the 90's.
As a flight attendant, I lived in a crash pad on the North side, as did many of my F/A friends. We learned really quickly not to leave our laundry unattended, not even for the 2 minutes it might have taken us to run back to our apartments for hangers or a box of forgotten fabric softner sheets. This guy didn't just steal one pair of panties, he would take every pair that was in every washer or dryer. We went as far as posting hidden look-outs to try and catch the culprit, but to no avail. For a while, there were times that one or more of us had to go commando on our trips because we didn't have time to purchase replacements. We finally discovered that it was cheaper to lease or purchase stackable washer-dryer units, than it was to replace expensive lingerie. Never caught the guy, although it did cross our minds that he might have been one of our hidden look-outs, most of which were pilots.
Wasn't me, my 1st trip to Texas was in 2004
WOw! I wouldn't want to put my lie in that judges hands. Unless, I was wearing very sexy and expensive underwear.
Ha!!!
Well I find this to be a bit of an, shall we say odd pastime.