Patricia DiMango
Patricia DiMango
Patricia Mafalda DiMango (born 1953) is an American retired justice of the Supreme Court of Kings County, New York and a media personality.
Education
DiMango, a Brooklyn native, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brooklyn College at the City University of New York, as well as a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University Teachers College. She received a Juris Doctor degree from the St. John's University School of Law.[1]
Career
DiMango was a former college professor and NYC Public School Teacher.[2] DiMango was appointed as a Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1995.[3] She was appointed Acting Justice of the State Supreme Court, 2nd Judicial District in 1998.[1]
She was elected as a justice of the Supreme Court of Kings County in 2002.[1]
DiMango is one of the three judges on the panel court show Hot Bench, created by Paramount legend Judge Judy Sheindlin, which debuted in September 2014.[4]
She is mentioned in a New Yorker article regarding Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old who spent over three years in Rikers Island awaiting trial. According to the article, DiMango was the presiding judge who released Browder on his 31st court appearance.[5] She has also been involved with numerous other high-profile cases, including murders and other crimes committed against children, and hate crimes.[6]
Although she released Browder on his 31st appearance it was only because the state decided to drop the charges because they had no evidence or case. Browder had also been before DiMango several times previously and refused to plead guilty despite the insistence of DiMango in order to clear the case.