ALBANY – The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has determined that Walter Schurr, a justice of the Friendship Town Court in Allegany County should be censured.

The commission found the judge, a part-time jurist who also works in a local airy, reduced speeding charges in five cases without the consent of the prosecutor as required by law, and reduced a speeding charge in another case based on a one-sided out-of-court discussion with a co-worker from the dairy, who was the defendant’s neighbor and friend.

The commission said Judge Schurr’s conduct in the latter case constituted ticket-fixing and “conveyed the appearance that the lenient disposition accorded to the defendant was based not on the merits of the case, but on the fact that the defendant was a friend who knew the judge.