Did Staten Island’s First Couple of Justice Just Hold a Secret Courtroom Hit Job?
By Frank Parlato
Staten Island, N.Y. — A recent court hearing, if it was actually held, was held without notice to the defendant and is now absent from the public docket.
Did a Staten Island judge conduct a hearing in secret, denying the defendant access?
The circumstances surrounding the proceeding suggest a pattern of misconduct implicating Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon and his wife, State Supreme Court Justice Judith McMahon.
The McMahons have long faced criticism for jointly wielding influence over Staten Island’s legal system. The man making the loudest accusations for a decade: A one Richard Luthmann – former lawyer-turned-felon-turned-journalist.
Now, in July 2025, DA McMahon claims he was “victimized” by Luthmann through a mass-distributed Substack email, despite evidence that he or a staff member subscribed to it voluntarily.
DA Claims Fear, But Offers No Proof
DA McMahon swore out a criminal complaint against Luthmann, not as the DA but as a private citizen-victim. He alleges that Luthmann violated a protective order, and he is scared for his life and safety. The email did not mention McMahon and makes no threats against him or anyone.
Luthmann asserts that no one ever served him with the protective order. Under New York law, prosecutors cannot charge someone with violating an order they were never legally served. McMahon has declined to produce the protective order, and it may not exist.
ICARD Abuse and Police Overreach
Rather than obtaining a court-authorized warrant, Wilkinson relied on an ICARD—an internal NYPD alert valid only within New York City and lacking the legal authority of a judicial warrant. No hearing. No judicial review. But Wilkinson boasted he can get any judge he wants to sign the order to extradite Luthmann.
Why? Because the McMahons control the island.
They Brought Back the Facebook Case—Because Mocking McMahon Still Hurts
So, apropos of this get Luthmann at all costs, the courts reopened a previously closed criminal case involving Luthmann f- the one McMahon brought against him as a victim – when Luthmann authored as Facebook page lampooning McMahon.
McMahon said he was a victim and threatened timid Judge Ron Castorina into perjuring himself in the grand jury and ascribing to Luthmann, his own criminal intent.
We will have much more on that later.
So now the case was long over. Luthmann spent time in federal prison on an unrelated matter and got three years’ time served on the McMahon Facebook case.
And now, after years, and just following the complaint filed by DA McMahon, newly appointed Staten Island Administrative Judge Ray Rodriguez scheduled a hearing for August 1, 2025.
Held in Secret, Erased by Morning: McMahon’s Case Against Luthmann Vanishes from the System
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Like, they did not notify him of the so-called protective order. Luthmann contends the court never notified him of this new proceeding, on a long-dead case.
But it was there on the docket. Screenshots were kept,
Despite attempting to attend virtually, Luthmann was denied access.
Luthmann submitted a formal request to appear under People v. Parker, 57 N.Y.2d 136 (1982), challenging the court’s jurisdiction and raising procedural objections.
By the end of the day, the docket reflected a “reserved decision”—an indication that a judicial order is pending.
By the following morning, the hearing had vanished from the docket. The court system displayed only: “There are no charges on record for this case.”
The record shows that Judge Ray Rodriguez presided over a hearing held without notice to the defendant, the longtime enemy of the DA and his wife.
DA McMahon is the victim-complainant. Luthmann is not notified. He learns of the hearing, attempts to join virtually, but is locked out. Then, the record disappears.
Rodriguez Stays on Case Against McMahon’s Enemy
Judge Rodriguez now finds himself at the center of controversy.
Under New York Judiciary Law § 14, judges are required to recuse themselves from cases involving personal or political entanglements. Rodriguez did not. He remained on the bench, despite the apparent conflict.
Whether out of loyalty to McMahon or political pressure, Rodriguez should have recused.
Instead, he took the case. And now, with the record missing, the decision to stay on may define his career. Understandably, the circumstances placed Rodriguez between a rock and a hard place.
DA McMahon and State Supreme Court Justice Judith McMahon hold unparalleled influence over Staten Island’s legal system. They can make or break Rodriquez, who professed his loyalty to the McMahons and their 30-year friendship.
McMahon Chose the Bench Over the Bedroom—and Turned It Into a Weapon
Even when the power couple broke up for a time and Mike McMahon was being comforted by a woman well known to Luthmann, a nice woman but just that a woman, a woman without political power- a good lover, yes. But no political juice. But even then, Judge Rodriguez was on hand, yes, and maybe to console his close fellow judge, Judith. That’s a true friend.
McMahon, who maybe just needed some love he never got in his ambitious and competitive quest for power, to his credit, left the endearing young charms of the comely lady with the comforting voice and tender arms. He had to choose: It was power dynamics or love. He chose power dynamics.
Judith Got Caught Steering Cases for Her Husband—They Took Her Title, She Should Have Been Disrobed
With one prosecuting and the other presiding, conflicts of interest, nepotism, and judicial impartiality were the McMahon’s to cherish and decree.
And the only man in the way was a one Richard Luthmann. After all, it was Luthmann who revealed secret recordings of Judge Judith McMahon commanding and plotting to make sure she steered DA hubby Michael’s criminal cases to a compliant judge and away from the two due process stickler-judges in Staten Island. That, too, is love in its own way.
But Luthmann caught her, (a whistleblower upset by the McMahons’ corruption recorded her frank conversations, which Frank Report happily has copies of).
The Office of Court Administration demoted her. They had no choice. It was so obviously criminal that even they, the guardian of judges disguised as the watchdog, had to do something. So instead of a referral to the DA (her husband) they just demoted her – took away her administrative judge status and cut her salary. Kicked her off Staten Island for a year. Then let her quietly return, but just as a trial judge, not the administrative judge anymore.
At least not officially.
She Fixed Cases for Her Husband—and Got Demoted. Now They Want Luthmann’s Head
You have to understand, with her husband as DA, she is feared and is in control of most of the judges, but not all.
But thanks to Luthmann, Judge McMahon lost as much as $500,000 in extra pay and pension. No wonder they are out to get him.
No wonder they have enlisted Judge Rodriguez, the man chosen to take Judge McMahon’s place as top administrative judge, and who, for all we know, stood in his place when McMahon went AWOL for a time from the wife who made her rulings for him. Which is a kind of love too and maybe one a jaded DA did not appreciate. A woman willing to be corrupt for the man she loves is a form of love, and don’t let anybody tell you it’s not so.
Would McMahon’s inamorata have done the same for him – maybe go to prison, which might be the result of all this – to help her man Mike’s career? From what I know of the lady in question, that answer is no.
So Luthmann is the sole cause of this Staten Island power couple’s bedevilment. Stop Luthmann—they might whisper to each other—lovely quiet glorious pillow talk since they got back to sharing the same pillow again.
They Tried to Crush Him—Now the Substack Case Is Exploding Beyond Staten Island
And that floozie will never be mentioned, not by Mike and certainly not by Judith—maybe not even by Luthmann. Though I think he might have mentioned it had they not denied him access to the hearing.
But is seems so unfair. The McMahons have effectively run the courthouse like a closed system—one controls the charges, the other controls the bench. Allegations of backroom deals and favoritism have long followed them, but their vendetta against Luthmann may mark a tipping point.
And they say to each other, Luthmann is not big enough to do this to them. Let’s quietly squash him like we did in 2018.
But somehow, and maybe it is not fair, this is no longer just a Staten Island story. The case of Richard Luthmann raises constitutional concerns—lack of notice, absence of a warrant, a fictitious criminal complaint over a Substack, no proof of a valid protective order, and a vanished case file.
The presiding judge? A known political ally of the District Attorney.
What began with an email has now triggered calls for a federal civil rights investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor. For years, critics say, the McMahons operated behind closed doors, beside a pillow – except for that one fairly brief aberration.
Now, the national spotlight is about to go on—and the Department of Justice may be next. And as a couple, a lovely, wonderful power couple, running their island just like any other banana republic island, they thought they’d never be caught.
Not fair, they say. Just ask their pillow.
To be continued
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