A list of judicial misconduct committed by Magistrate Aurendina Veiga

Complaint One:  Is Magistrate Veiga properly installed as a judge in accordance with the Rhode Island Constitution?  Apparently NOT.  Read the case of Charles Picerno.

Complaint Two:   The RI Supreme Court has censured Magistrate Veiga for falsely telling a former client that she had filed on his behalf a libel/defamation lawsuit against the Providence Journal.  Veiga, who was in private practice then told client Carl Barovier he had a strong case but never pursued it.  Mr. Barovier was apparently left without a remedy because the statute of limitations ran out.   10-31-01 Prov. Journal

Complaint Three:  Traffic Tribunal Magistrate Aurendina "Dina" G. Veiga, suspended without pay since May 6 for ethics violations. A recommendation, made by the Commission on Judicial Tenure & Discipline, stated that Veiga be removed from the bench for a series of ethics violations that date back several years. Last week, in unanimously recommending her removal from the bench, the commission said her history of disciplinary problems and "her continued failure to comply with her duties and obligations under the Code of Judicial Conduct" make her unfit for a judicial position.
She would still have her law license even if removed from the bench, unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise.

Veiga has been suspended from her magistrate's job without pay since May 6 based on the latest ethics complaint to be lodged against her -- bouncing a check for $567.10 to an East Providence jewelry store and then failing to make good on it for almost a year and a half, despite repeated demands for payment from the business owner. At a public hearing on June 14, a special prosecutor presented evidence that Veiga had bounced 173 checks over a 27-month period between January 2003 and March 2005 and that there was no record that she had ever made good on 65 of those checks. Veiga testified that she'd made timely restitution on all but the one check to the jewelry store.

Her prior disciplinary problems include misleading legal clients about the status of their cases, misleading the commission when it was looking into one of the client's complaints, failing to comply with a Supreme Court order that she take 20 hours of ethics courses within one calendar year, and taking court action in the case of an alleged traffic offender, after meeting with him privately, without notifying the charging police department.

This is Veiga's second suspension from the bench. In December 2003, she was suspended for 30 days without pay. Veiga is a former bail commissioner and assistant public defender who was appointed to the traffic court in 1999 by District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio. She has a long history of ethics violations, which date back to her days in private practice.

EMAIL Caught! right now!