A New York State judicial ethics commission officially censured Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny on Tuesday for pulling his personal pistol in court and tricking a testifying officer with a hidden stapler swap.
Gershuny, currently assigned to Manhattan Criminal Court, staged what he called a “little experiment” during an August 5 felony gun hearing in Brooklyn. The 47-year-old jurist announced he would demonstrate whether a police witness could truly identify a firearm concealed inside a shopping bag. He then produced his licensed SIG Sauer P365, removed the magazine, and outlined his plan to a court officer: he would make the witness believe he was placing the gun in the bag when he was actually substituting a stapler.
“What it is about the bag and [the] firearm in the bag that gives off a distinction of it being a firearm,” Gershuny said as he launched the demonstration in open court, according to Commission on Judicial Conduct documents.
Both the court officer and her supervisor objected and advised the judge against proceeding. Gershuny pressed forward anyway, telling the witness he was placing his gun into a Five Below shopping bag. He had already hidden the pistol on the floor beside him. Inside the bag sat only a Swingline stapler.
“I guess you what you[sic] identified is an L-shaped object, which is a Swingline Stapler,” Gershuny said after questioning the officer about what he repeatedly presented as a gun in the bag.
The commission found that the judge “intentionally deceived a witness in open court” and asked the officer multiple questions about the object while “falsely represented” it was his firearm. The witness never actually claimed he could identify the item as a weapon.
Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, delivered the panel’s rebuke in its Tuesday announcement.
“Public confidence in the integrity of the courts depends on judges being honest and above-board,” Tembeckjian said. “Judge Gershuny did not abide by that standard when he engaged in an elaborate deception and essentially tried to trick a witness on a significant evidentiary matter.”
Court administrators had already stripped Gershuny of pay and status immediately following the 2025 incident and barred him from bringing weapons into the courthouse. The commission noted that Gershuny fully cooperated with its subsequent investigation.
The panel recommended censure rather than removal, stating it hoped Gershuny “has learned from this experience.” The commission also formally urged court administrators to examine policies allowing certain judges to carry firearms inside courthouses.
Gershuny blocked the actual gun from entering evidence after revealing the stapler switch, though the officer on the stand had never asserted he could distinguish a weapon from other objects in the judge’s bag.
The commission’s censure represents the public culmination of a disciplinary process that began after the bizarre courtroom episode first came to light last year.