Zoning Board Attorney Harold Cook Takes Leave of Absence in Wake of Misconduct Charges

Municipal Court Judge Harold Cook III, who currently serves as the attorney to the Wyckoff Zoning Board, announced through his attorney on Friday that he'd be taking an unpaid leave of absence from his post in Wyckoff and the towns of Haledon, North Haledon, Ringwood and Wanaque where he serves as Judge following the judicial misconduct charges levied against him last month by the New Jersey State Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.

Zoning Board Chairman Doug Christie told Patch on Monday that the board would be meeting in closed session on Tuesday about finding a replacement for Cook so it could carry on with ongoing business, including the Christian Health Care Center expansion application.

"We'll hold a special meeting tomorrow. My initial reaction was to look on this positively. I'm glad he did it because it puts the board in a better position to move forward. But we cannot meet without legal representation, so we have to have a board attorney present and we'll meet Tuesday to iron out those details," Christie said.

Christie said the Board has only met once since the complaint came to light so it hasn't served as a major distraction as of yet, but "we don’t want to have a dark cloud hanging over out heads, so I'm glad he took the responsible position and decided to take a leave of absence for now."

The complaint, which was filed on May 19, states Cook has been "sued both personally and in his capacity as a member of more than forty limited liability companies in approximately forty-three cases in Superior Court of New Jersey...and the allegations against (Cook) in these various lawsuits include, but are not limited to, breach of fiduciary duty to investors, fraudulent transfer of real property, fraudulent concealment of the financial health of various entities with which (Cook) was/is intrinsically involved, legal malpractice, fraudulent concealment of fraud by third-parties, failure to obtain consent from investors, securities fraud, and default on promissory notes and personal guarantees in the aggregate sum of more than $20 million."

The complaint alleges that failure to disclose his involvement to proper authorities in the multiple lawsuits alone merits judicial misconduct, but goes on to allege that several of his creditors have been awarded monetary judgements against him, totaling $2.7 million dollars. It also claims that creditors have sought to have his wages garnished as a municipal court judge to satisfy creditors.

In the midst of multiple litigations Cook "improperly transferred real property to either family or limited liability companies in an apparent effort to avoid his judgement creditors," the complaint alleges.

Candace Moody, the counsel for the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct who wrote the complaint, told Patch that Cook had 20 days from the filing of the complaint to respond and at time hearings could be held to determine what if any penalty Cook would face.