Judge in Myerson Scandal Quits

Hortense W. Gabel, the state Supreme Court justice whose dealings with Bess Myerson are at the crux of a scandal, resigned today.

In a letter to Chief Judge Sol Wachtler of the state Court of Appeals, Gabel, 74, said she suffered “serious health problems” but had thought they would not impair her effectiveness as a judge. Myerson, a former Miss America, was the city’s commissioner of cultural affairs until earlier this year, after it was disclosed that she had taken the Fifth Amendment while testifying before a grand jury investigating her lover, Carl A. Capasso. In the course of a city inquiry, an investigator found that Myerson had misused her position to influence Gabel, who was presiding over Capasso’s divorce case.