New Jersey judge made racy lip-synching TikTok videos in his chambers: complaint

A Harvard-educated New Jersey criminal court judge is accused of recording “inappropriate” lip-synching TikTok videos in his chambers at the Bergen County courthouse, and also semi-nude in bed, according to a bombshell complaint.

Posting on TikTok under the pseudonym “Sal Tortorella,” Bergen County Superior Court Judge Gary Wilcox, 58, allegedly put out 40 public TikTok videos between April 2021 and March 2023, including some containing profanity-laced lyrics, references to violence, sex, and misogyny.

The 5-page complaint, filed last Friday by the disciplinary counsel for the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, highlights 11 videos allegedly created by Wilcox, which were found to be problematic either because of their content, the location of filming, including in the judge’s chambers, in the courthouse, and in a bed, or Wilcox’s attire — “wearing his judicial robes and/or partially dressed while lying in bed.”

According to the filing, some of the videos recorded in Wilcox’s chambers are littered with graphic sexual references to female and male body parts, as well as racist language.

In one such video, Wilcox apparently lip-synchs lyrics from Rihanna’s song “Jump,” including the lines: “If you want it let’s do it. Ride it, my pony. My saddle is waitin’, come and jump on it. If you want it, let’s do it.”

In a second video, the judge, dressed in a suit and tie and posing in front of law books, lip-synchs the following text: “All my life, I’ve been waiting for somebody to whoop my ass. I mean business! You think you can run up on me and whip my monkey ass? Come on. Come on!”

A third video shows the 58-year-old Wilcox holding cash and pretending to light a match while lip-synching Miguel’s hit “Sure Thing,” which contains the lines: “If you be the cash, I’ll be the rubber band. You be the match, I will be a fuse, boom. Painter, baby, you could be the muse. I’m the reporter, baby, you could be the news. ‘Cause you’re the cigarette, and I’m the smoker. We raise a bet, ’cause you’re the joker.”

Wilcox’s social media page, which has since been deleted, also allegedly contained a recording of the jurist wearing a “Beavis and Butt-Head” T-shirt while walking through the courthouse to the tune of Nas’ single “Get Down.”

The complaint states that the song contains “explicit lyrics concerning a criminal case and a courtroom shooting as well as derogatory and discriminatory terms, drug and gang references, and the killing of a doctor in a hospital who treated another gang member.”

In another video, the judge smiles at the camera with text superimposed on the screen that reads: “When an ex-girlfriend calls you “Santa” because of your new white beard.” In the background, the song “Touch” by Busta Rhymes is playing, including the lyrics: “For the record, just a second, I’m freakin’ it out. While she tryin’ to touch, see, I was peepin’ it out. She turned around and was tryin’ to put my d**k in her mouth. I let her.”

During his stint as a TikTok creator, Judge Wilcox also allegedly put out a video of himself wearing a “Freedom of Speech” T-shirt while lip-synching the lines:  “Go ahead baby. You hittin’ them corners too god damn fast. You gotta slow this motha****a down. You understand? I almost spilled my [Cognac] on this $200 suit.”

Wilcox graduated from the highly prestigious Harvard Law School and began practicing law in 1989.

After serving as a federal prosecutor, Wilcox was appointed to the bench as a family court judge in 2011 by then-Gov. Chris Christie.

In 2016, he was reassigned to adult criminal court and received tenure in 2018.

The complaint argues that by posting racy public videos to TikTok, Wilcox “exhibited poor judgment and demonstrated disrespect for the Judiciary and an inability to conform to the high standards of conduct expected of judges.”

Wilcox is now being investigated for violating three cannons of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which require judges to observe high standards of conduct, avoid the appearance of impropriety, and conduct their “extrajudicial activities in a manner that would not cast reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially as a judge.”

Wilcox has 20 days to submit a written formal answer to the complaint, reported NorthJersey.com.

After receiving the answer, the Advisory Committee will schedule a formal hearing. If the panel finds that Wilcox violated the Code of Judicial Conduct, he could face disciplinary actions ranging from a public reprimand to removal from the bench.