By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 10/22/2026
Category: Criminal Courts / Court Administration / Civil Rights / Judicial Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A Queens defendant will receive a new trial after a state appeals court found that the trial judge questioned witnesses so aggressively that the judge appeared to become an advocate for the prosecution.
The Appellate Division, Second Department, on Wednesday reversed Wilson Chimborazo’s convictions for burglary and assault, along with a separate bail-jumping conviction. The four-judge panel sent the case back to Queens Supreme Court for a new trial before a different judge.
The ruling does not find Chimborazo innocent. The appellate court said the evidence was legally sufficient and that the jury’s verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. The reversal instead turns on the fairness of the proceeding itself.
Chimborazo was convicted in 2017 after a jury trial before Justice Ronald D. Hollie. He was found guilty of first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary and second-degree assault under one indictment, and first-degree bail jumping under another.
According to the appellate decision, the trial judge repeatedly inserted himself into the examination of multiple witnesses. The questioning was excessive and prejudicial, the court found, and generally created the impression that the judge was acting as an advocate for the prosecution.
A judge may ask questions to clarify testimony or keep a trial moving. But a judge cannot abandon neutrality, signal disbelief of one side or strengthen the other side’s case in front of the jury. Jurors are instructed to decide facts independently. A judge’s words and tone can carry unusual authority in the courtroom.
That power imbalance is why the appellate panel ordered a new trial before a different justice.
Chimborazo’s lawyers did not properly preserve the judicial-interference claim during the trial, according to the decision. Ordinarily, that failure can block appellate review. The court nevertheless reached the issue through its interest-of-justice authority, a form of discretionary review reserved for errors serious enough to threaten the integrity of a conviction.
That choice is significant. The panel concluded that the problem went beyond an isolated question or routine courtroom management. It affected multiple witnesses and the appearance of judicial neutrality.
The decision also draws a line between evidence and process. The judges did not say the prosecution lacked proof. They said a verdict supported by evidence can still be reversed when the trial itself is not fair.
For defendants, that distinction is fundamental. The right to a fair trial does not depend on whether an appellate court believes a person probably committed the crime. It requires a neutral judge, an impartial jury and adversaries who present their own cases without the court taking sides.
For victims and witnesses, the reversal carries another cost. A trial held nearly a decade ago must now be repeated because the original proceeding did not meet constitutional standards. Memories fade, witnesses become harder to locate and families are forced back into court.
The Queens District Attorney may retry the charges. The appellate court did not direct prosecutors to dismiss the case, and it did not resolve Chimborazo’s other appellate arguments because the new-trial order made those issues unnecessary to decide.
The ruling leaves a clear accountability question for New York’s court system: what safeguards exist when a judge’s questioning begins to shape the prosecution’s case?
Appellate review can correct a conviction years later. It cannot return the time spent litigating a trial that should have been neutral from the start.
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