“[…An] appeals court has interrupted the work of the famed Condom Judge of Brooklyn,” the New York Post’s Andrea Peyser reports.

Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach earned that nickname a decade ago, when he handed out condoms to hookers and addicts from his bench in Criminal Court.

But it is Reichbach’s continued sensitivity toward more violent sorts that drives prosecutors to the Maalox and honest citizens to their homes. And it forced the Appellate Division this week to publicly spank the perp-loving jurist.

The case involves a confounding ruling last year, in which Reichbach turned loose one Omar Hills. Hills, 28, was caught by police as he allegedly ran through East New York late one night in 2000, armed with a 9mm handgun.

Who knows what mind-addling cleaning fluids they’re using in Brooklyn, but Reichbach threw out the gun and Hills’ confession as evidence, ruling that ‘four powerful and self-assured officers from the Street Crime Unit’ had improperly searched Hills.

This, after the cops insisted there was no search. Hills, not exactly the brightest bulb in his criminal class, had stopped to chit-chat with cops, one of whom saw the butt of a gun in his pants.

Upon arrest, Hills allegedly said, ‘You got me; I f- – – ed up.’

So? What’s wrong with a compassionate judge handing out condoms to filthy street hussies and protecting the rights of the weak and dim-witted (who just happen to be armed)?

Our legal system can be cruel sometimes — there’s no debating that point. Consequently, we need jurists who will prosecute their duties with solicitousness and an eye toward both rehabilitation and the innate goodness of those gun-toting drug addicts who roam city streets aimlessly.

I mean, what would Harry Stone do, for Godssakes…?

In a stroke of sanity, the appeals court reinstated the evidence. Now, DA Charles Hynes gets another crack at locking up Hills.

I’ve got to give Reichbach credit. He calls me back.

‘I thought [the ruling] was proper,’ he said yesterday, displaying contempt for the appeals court’s decision to side with cops.

‘The fact of the matter is that I saw everybody testify,’ he said. ‘I think being able to observe gives one a better means of judging than viewing things on the printed record.’

Michael Pulizotto, the young prosecutor on the losing end of Reichbach’s ruling, argued the appeal himself. This time, it was personal.

‘This was a violent person with an unlicensed, loaded handgun on the streets of Brooklyn, something that could do a lot of damage,’ Pulizotto said.

Back in 1968, when Reichbach was a student radical at Columbia University, he authored a tract called ‘The Bust Book: What to Do Till the Lawyer Comes.’

I can only imagine Chapter 1:

‘When in trouble, make sure to get a judge like me.’

Age hasn’t mellowed the Condom Judge. Let’s hope the higher courts continue to bring him down to earth.

Go ahead and be flippant, Andrea. But sometimes, Harry Stone would do magic tricks from the bench. That kept the court loose. You can’t tell me that such antics don’t make justice fun.

If I’m ever arrested, I hope my presiding judge does magic tricks, or hands out condoms, or throws out evidence because he’s a former student radical who mistrusts cops.

Or is named Lance Ito.