By Frank Parlato
Complaint names judge’s prior professional ties to former DA
On January 7, 2026, John Rendina filed a formal ethics complaint with the Rochester office of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Judge J. Mark Gruber of the Town of Tonawanda Court.
The complaint asks for the judge’s removal from the bench.
Rendina is the uncle of Ryan Flynn, who has been held without bail at the Erie County Holding Center since October 21, 2025—more than eleven weeks—after accusing his cousin, former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, of sexually molesting him as a child.
The complaint asks why Gruber did not recuse himself, given that he and John Flynn spent six years in the same small-town government—Flynn as Town Attorney, Gruber as Town Justice.
The Two Men
John J. Flynn served two terms as Erie County’s 41st District Attorney, holding the office from 2017 until his resignation in March 2024, when he left government service for the law firm Lippes Mathias.
Before that, he was a Navy JAG officer, an Assistant District Attorney in Erie County’s Homicide Bureau, and a personal injury attorney. He became President of both the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York and the National District Attorneys Association.
But his roots were in the Town of Tonawanda—a suburban community in Erie County with a population of about 80,000, located north of Buffalo and south of Niagara Falls along the Niagara River.
The voters elected Flynn to the Town Board in 2003. In 2006, the town council appointed him Town Justice, and later voters elected him to a full term. In 2010, he left the bench and became Town Attorney. He held that job until he left for the district attorney’s office in 2017.
He continues to reside in the Town of Tonawanda with his wife, Debra.
Mark Gruber has spent 30 years as a medical malpractice defense attorney at Roach, Brown, McCarthy & Gruber in Buffalo. But he has spent even longer on the bench. He served as Acting Village Justice in Kenmore from 1983 to 1993, then as elected Village Justice from 1993 to 2008. In 2008, he became Town Justice for the Town of Tonawanda—the position he holds today.
The Town of Tonawanda justice position is a part-time, locally paid judicial post, with a salary set by the town board and typically falling in the roughly $80,000–$90,000 per year range, allowing the judge to maintain a separate legal practice.
The Overlap
From 2010 to 2016, John Flynn served as Town Attorney for the Town of Tonawanda. J. Mark Gruber served as Town Justice in that same municipality starting in 2008.
For six years, they worked together in the same small-town government—Flynn as the attorney, Gruber on the bench.
When Flynn became District Attorney in 2017, his office prosecuted cases in courts across Erie County—including Gruber’s.
Now, Gruber is the judge holding Flynn’s accuser without bail. In effect, a former town colleague of John Flynn is deciding whether Flynn’s accuser sleeps in a cell or in his own bed.
The Timeline
On September 8, 2025, two forensic psychologists evaluated Ryan Flynn. Both concluded he was not competent to stand trial. Nine days later, Christina Scott, Director of the Erie County Forensic Mental Health Service, formally notified Judge Gruber in writing: “Ryan Flynn does not have the capacity to proceed.”
Twenty-four hours later, Judge Gruber issued an Order of Protection barring Ryan Flynn from contact with John Flynn and his wife, Debra Flynn.
Five weeks later, Tonawanda police arrested Ryan for allegedly violating the order. The evidence: a screenshot of an anonymous Twitter post. No IP address. No device records. No metadata connecting Ryan to the account.
Judge Gruber remanded him without bail.
The Legal Trap
In practice, once evaluators determine that a defendant is unfit to proceed, the judge suspends the criminal case. At the same time, the court remands the defendant to a state psychiatric facility for restoration—not warehouses him in a county lockup.
CPL §180.80 gives prosecutors 144 hours after arraignment to hold a preliminary hearing, obtain an indictment, or secure a waiver. If they fail, the court must release the defendant.
Ryan’s attorney, Nicholas Texido, cited three appellate decisions—including People ex rel. Molinaro v. Warden, Rikers Island (2022)—holding that pending competency evaluations do not toll the 180.80 clock. The prosecution must still meet the deadline or release the defendant.
Prosecutors never held the hearing. The court never released Ryan.
Instead of a psychiatric facility, Ryan Flynn remains in the Erie County Holding Center. For more than twenty days, his cell had no running water—nothing to drink or wash with. He stayed there through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
The Competency Question
Ryan Flynn told this reporter that he has undergone two additional competency evaluations since September and has passed both.
“I also passed the mental health competency exams until they falsified just this one, but I’ve passed all the other evaluations,” he said during a recorded call from the Holding Center. “I don’t want it to seem as if I’m some not competent person because I have a 125 IQ. I own my own house that’s paid off.”
This claim could not be independently verified.
Flynn appears to remain in custody despite the absence of evidence typically required for bail-less detention under New York law.
The Complaint
Rendina’s complaint to the Commission states:
“On October 21, 2025, Judge J. Mark Gruber, Town of Tonawanda, NY, ordered my nephew to be incarcerated without his attorney present. The charge was for threatening (allegedly) to kill former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. This charge was placed after Ryan accused the former DA of molesting him as a child. Ryan is a cousin of the former DA.”
The complaint continues:
“Judge Gruber ordered a Psych Exam while holding him on a felony and never proceeded to the Grand Jury. His next court date was December 15, 2025. Judge Gruber then announced the Docket was delayed and therefore he would be held until January 15, 2026, which was past Christmas and past New Year’s.”
Since Rendina filed the complaint, Judge Gruber has delayed the docket a third time. Ryan Flynn’s next court date is now March 5, 2026, meaning Flynn will have spent by then more than four-and-a-half months in custody.
Rendina alleges Gruber violated constitutional rights, conducted an illegal arrest and incarceration, failed to provide release, and used coercive language and threats.
His conclusion:
“He held my nephew, Ryan Flynn, in custody to silence him for speaking out against the former DA.”
The complaint names the conflict directly:
“John Flynn, the former DA, and Judge Gruber maintain a long-standing professional relationship.”
Rendina requests that Gruber be censured or removed from office.
What Happens Next
Gruber’s professional overlap with Flynn—while real—is the kind of entanglement that exists throughout small-county legal systems.
The likelihood that the Commission will act is low. It is not a transparent body. It rarely explains its decisions. It routinely dismisses complaints against judges unless misconduct is extreme and undeniable. The Commission is unlikely to find it disqualifying.
Still, the complaint now exists. It identifies the judge, the conflict, the dates, and the decisions.
Ryan Flynn reports that he was assaulted once in custody, sustaining a head injury he describes as a concussion. A second inmate told this reporter he personally heard a guard offer commissary incentives to inmates who would attack Flynn.
The Erie County Sheriff’s office, which operates the facility, assigned Flynn to the Delta unit, the most restrictive section of the Erie County Holding Center—a facility so antiquated that county officials acknowledge it would be illegal to build today.
If something happens to Ryan Flynn—if an inmate attacks him again, or worse—this complaint becomes evidence that someone asked the state to intervene.
Ryan Flynn’s next court date is March 5, 2026. Jail maintenance finally fixed his sink after 20 days.
