Metro

‘You can’t win!’

He’d be the hanging judge of Staten Island, if they gave him a rope.

Brian Levine stands as the toughest traffic-court judge in New York state, reeling in massive fines and posting such a sky-high conviction rate that even the boldest defense lawyers want to dodge him.

“If someone comes to me with a ticket in [Levine’s] court, I say, ‘Either fight it yourself or plead guilty. You can’t win,’ ” said traffic-court lawyer Matthew Weiss, who blogs at 888RedLight.com.

Levine, the senior judge at the DMV Traffic Violations Bureau in his borough, had the state’s top conviction rate for at least both 2010 and 2011, according to statistics obtained by The Post.

For the year just ended, his court posted a 77.8 percent conviction rate vs. a statewide rate of 63.1 percent and a citywide figure of 62 percent.

Levine generated more than $1 million in fines last year and $617,000 in surcharges — easily surpassing his peers around the state.

Levine declined to comment to The Post.

To cops, Levine is the Rolls-Royce of a system designed to punish the speeding, tailgating and broken-taillight set.

“Other judges want to let a certain number of people off to keep the system humming along and make it look like it’s all working,” said retired cop Joseph Wolff, past president of the NYPD Traffic Squad Benevolent Association. “But I’ve always gotten the impression from [Levine] that he believes in justice, and the excuses people give you are just ridiculous.”

When The Post recently visited Levine’s no-frills courtroom — in a strip mall, just off the West Shore Expressway — he was in typical form, talking as fast as a drag racer and barking his brand of highway justice.

“If you disagree with my decision,” Levine said dismissively, “we have an appeals process.”

Motorists who have gone before Levin all seem to have the same reaction.

“I don’t think the judge was listening at all,” said Yamilette Melendez, 31, who got a $600 fine for not wearing her seat belt and not having her kids buckled up.

“These cops are terrorists in blue, and they get away with blatant lying because, honestly, I don’t feel like the judge is listening.”

And Nelson Baldera, 45, a warehouse supervisor from New Jersey, said Levine “just ignored” his explanation before upholding his ticket for doing 75 in a 50-mph zone.

“I was speeding to get to the exit for my son,” Baldera said, explaining that his 6-year-old kid needed to go to the bathroom. “There was nowhere for him to go.”