Judge arrested after 'breaking into neighbour's home and stealing her underwear'

A judge who allegedly broke into a neighbour’s home and stole a young woman’s underwear has been charged with burglary.

Robert Cicale a Republican district court judge in Suffolk County, New York, was found with pairs of soiled women’s underwear, police said.

A 23-year-old woman who had spotted a man matching his description when she was alone in her house and called her mother, who in turn phoned the police.

Minutes later officers caught Cicale a few streets away.

“He was found to be in possession of soiled female undergarments that we believe were either proceeds from today’s burglary or proceeds from a prior burglary at the same location,” Suffolk County acting police commissioner Stuart Cameron told NBC New York.

Mr Cameron said it was unclear if the 49-year-old, who lives across the road, knew the young woman.

“It turns my stomach, because you look at the judge and you expect a kind of figure to look up to," a neighbour told NBC, adding: “It’s disturbing.”

Cicale, a married father of three young children, was elected a judge in 2015, having previously served as a town attorney for East Islep.

“He’s a family man,” another neighbour told ABC 7. “He’s always outside playing basketball with his kids, he’s always jogging, he’s always friendly to everybody in the neighbourhood.”