An upstate Judge who pulled a loaded handgun on a black defendant has been booted from the bench by New York’s highest court over the racist incident, a Thursday ruling shows.

Robert J. Putorti, a judge in Whitehall courts, was removed effective immediately over the 2015 incident in which he whipped out the semi-automatic gun in court because he allegedly felt threatened by a “big black man.”

New York’s Court of Appeals unanimously found Putorti, 52, “exploited a classic and common racist trope that Black men are inherently threatening or dangerous, exhibiting bias or, at least, implicit bias,” according to the ruling.

Putorti – who held the post in Whitehall Town and Village Court since 2014 – then later bragged about the incident several times to other judges and to a college journalist who wrote an article about it.

The high court was unpersuaded by arguments from last month that Putorti was justified in his actions because he was afraid – instead determining that the defendant “presented no threat to anyone” when the judge pulled a gun on him in his courtroom.

While judges are allowed to carry a concealed gun at the bench, they can’t brandish the firearm unless they believes someone else is using deadly force.

Putorti didn’t show remorse about the incident – and actually went on to boast about his actions in a college news article and to his colleagues “while repeatedly, and gratuitously, referring to the litigant’s race,” the decision reads.

The court said that Putorti further showed his “unfitness for office” when he fundraised for the local Elks Lodge on social media in 2021 – which judges are prohibited from doing.

“It is indefensible and inimical to the role of a judge to brandish a loaded weapon in court, without provocation or justification, then brag about it repeatedly with irrelevant racial remarks,” said Robert Tembeckjian – the administrator for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which brought the case against Putorti.

“The court’s ruling today makes clear that there is no place on the bench for one who behaves this way,” Tembeckjian’s statement continued.

In an interview with a Hofstra journalism student, Putorti said he took out the weapon pointing it at “someone” who came rushing toward him and said “woah, woah, woah, slow down,” according to the SCJC’s determination.

Putorti then gloated about taking out his gun in court to other judges on several different occasions, describing the defendant as an “agitated” “big black man” who was nearly seven feet tall and “built like a football player,” according to the commission.

In actuality, the man was only six feet tall and weighed 165 pounds, the SCJC said, finding that the judge had “exaggerated [the defendant’s] physical stature.”

The SCJC argued before the Court of Appeals panel of judges last month that Putorti should be removed, while Putorti’s lawyer Nate Riley argued for his client to be permitted to stay in his position, including because Putorti had been reelected in spite of the charges against him.

Putorti’s lawyer didn’t return a request for comment Thursday.