Long Island judge pleads guilty to stealing his neighbor’s panties, likely to get probation

By Larry McShane

Suffolk County Judge, Robert Cicale, leaves First District Court in Central Islip, after being arraigned for breaking into a home and raiding a woman's underwear drawer. March 30, 2018.(David Wexler/for New York Daily News)

An undies-obsessed Suffolk County judge has pleaded guilty to surreptitiously plucking his neighbor’s panties from her hamper last year.

Robert Cicale, who was suspended after his arrest as a serial lingerie larcenist, confessed to the creepy crime Friday in Suffolk County District Court. The 50-year-old jurist entered his plea to a felony count of attempted burglary, and is likely to receive a sentence of five years probation at his Nov. 15 sentencing.

Cicale was carrying a raincoat, its pockets packed with previously purloined panties, when he was arrested last May for raiding the hamper of his 23-year-old East Islip neighbor, who was once a co-worker at the Islip Town attorney’s office.

Cicale confessed to raiding the woman’s hamper for her panties on multiple occasions before he was finally nabbed.

“He violated the laws, the public trust and the victims’ sense of security,” Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said in a statement. “(The plea) holds him accountable for his actions and serves justice.”

Defense attorney Michael J. Brown told reporters that his client had dealt with some mental health issues in the last 18 months. The lawyer added that Cicale had a 26-year history of service, working as a Legal Aid attorney, the lawyer for the town of Islip and a county judge, prior to his fall from grace.

The plea from the married father-of-three was expected to come with conditions imposed on sex offenders, prosecutors said.

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Long Island judge pleads guilty to stealing his neighbor’s panties, likely to get probation