Click New York Index for More Information

New York News & Views

 NY News & Views Archives

NEW!!! The "Robed Robber" -- Former Judge, Gerald P. Garson

Crooked Columbia County & Judge Paul Czajka

New York News & Views
Click headline for full story

January 2008

Wrapping Up The Year

By Mark Thompson

01-01-08 -- The Reversal Report takes a year-end look at the Appellate Division's record in 2007. . . . The two Appellate Division departments that cover the five counties of New York City handed down just over 1,300 decisions in 2007 that reversed a trial court ruling in whole or in part. Just 11 percent of the appellate reversals were in criminal cases, and a majority of those concerned errors in sentencing. Only about 45 of the criminal reversals handed down in New York City in 2007 (give or take a handful, depending on how you are counting) were reversals of the highest order – ones that overturned all or most of a conviction.

LexPress: Feeling the Heat

By Jesse Sunenblick

01-03-08 -- Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota says he won't retry vindicated parent killer Martin Tankleff. In other news, a Southern District magistrate bestows the right to protect confidential sources — traditionally the domain of journalists — on human rights groups like Amnesty International.

Continue reading "LexPress: Feeling the Heat" »

December 2007

Judge Liotti Legislates

New York Post Editorial

Gov. Spitzer may have ditched his disastrous plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, but Long Island Judge Thomas Liotti isn't giving up so easily. . . . Unfortunately for Liotti, his blatant judicial activism may only remind New Yorkers what was so troubling about Spitzer's license scheme to begin with. . . . Liotti, a village justice in Westbury, last week declared New York's licensing restrictions unconstitutional as he dismissed charges against a presumably illegal alien for driving without a license. . . . His rationale? Illegal immigrants "are driving without licenses anyway, and will continue to do so," he says. "If they are required to pass our driving tests, we will at least promote safety on our highways." . . . He goes on to lament America's history of racism and post-9/11 "xenophobia." . . . What this has to do with the law is never made clear, but Liotti telegraphs his true motives well: "Gov. Spitzer," he says in a press release, "had it right." . . . Liotti, of course, is entitled to his opinion - as a private citizen.

Panel Accuses Judge of Favoritism

WCAX, VT

A disciplinary panel in New York wants to remove a town judge in Clinton County. . . . The Commission on Judicial Conduct says Ellenburg Judge Dennis LaBombard should be removed for what the panel calls willful misdeeds and a blatant disregard for the high ethical standards. . . . The panel claims he gave his grandchildren lenient sentences, tried to get another judge to go easy on his grandson, and for agreeing to change bail outside of the courtroom.

Juror in Long Island Killing Says He Was Pressured
Into a Guilty Verdict

By Corey Kilgannon & Nate Schweber

At 8 p.m. on Saturday, a jury deciding the racially charged manslaughter case of a black man who shot a white teenager last year was still “hopelessly deadlocked,” to use the term the jurors used earlier in a note to the judge. . . . It was the 11th hour of the fourth day of jury deliberations, and a pack of news crews was waiting, as were lawyers, anxious relatives of the defendant and the victim and a racially divided gallery that had sat on separate sides of a courtroom in the Suffolk County courthouse for a month. . . . A mistrial seemed imminent. But Judge Barbara Kahn, who had given the jury the case on Wednesday, kept them deliberating late Friday night.

State Admonishes Judge For Threatening Letter

North County Gazette

12-21-07 -- The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has slapped the hand of Junius town justice Stephen H. Brown for sending a threatening letter in a landlord-tenant dispute in an attempt to enforce an oral settlement agreement although he had no authority to do. . . . Brown was admonished for sending the letter in December 2006, after the landlord told him that the tenant had not paid the agreed-upon amount.  The judge’s letter told the tenant, “I know where you live” and stated that unless she contacted the court with a payment plan, the court had “many options” including “warrants,” “wage garnish” and “jail.”  The judge had no authority to arrest the tenant for non-payment of a debt, the commission said.

In the Matter of Stephen H. Brown

N.Y. High Court Upholds 11-Person Jury's Verdict

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

12-21-07 -- New York's Court of Appeals on Tuesday abandoned one of its oldest precedents by deciding that a jury with fewer than 12 members can return a valid verdict in a criminal trial in New York state. . . . The 5-2 ruling upheld Winston Gajadhar's conviction for murder and attempted robbery by an 11-member Manhattan Supreme Court jury. Gajadhar requested that the 11 jurors decide his case after a 12th juror was hospitalized three days into deliberations, but he subsequently appealed his conviction as unconstitutional. . . . Tuesday's ruling is counter to the court's findings in the 1858 case Cancemi v. People, in which the court recognized the 12-member jury as the standard for criminal trials in New York. Cancemi came only 12 years after the formation of the court, and the issue had not been revisited until People v. Gajadhar, 166.

Going Through the Motions

The judge who let charges proceed against the Times Square sidewalk stander is reputed to be a smart guy, and he was following pretty standard practice. So why did the Court of Appeals reverse?

By Leah Nelson

12-19-07 -- . . . In June 2004, when New York County Criminal Court Judge Abraham Clott allowed charges to proceed against a man accused of obstructing sidewalk traffic in Times Square, it’s unlikely he imagined that his decision would land in the state’s highest court three years later. . . . Eric Dorsh, the Legal Aid Society lawyer who represented defendant at arraignment in Clott’s courtroom, said he didn’t anticipate such an outcome. He only vaguely recalled the case, and said there was nothing unusual about his argument to the judge that the charges were facially insufficient. . . . Nor, he said, was Judge Clott’s decision to uphold the charges erroneous. . . . “I can’t even tell you how many [disorderly conduct charges] I’ve handled,” he said. “They all look the same, they’re all boilerplate. Judge Clott’s a very smart judge — he’s one of the smartest Criminal Court judges. The only reason I would have made that argument is because it was in front of Judge Clott.” . . . Judge Clott declined to be interviewed for this story. 

+++In Reversal Report, click here, meet the family court judge who was overturned for the sixth time this year.

$14 Million Med-Mal Verdict Tossed Out due to Judge's Actions

N.Y. state appeals court orders a new trial before a different judge

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal 

12-14-07 -- A New York state appeals court has thrown out a $14 million medical malpractice verdict, holding that a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge's inappropriate conduct, including presenting the brain-damaged 4-year-old plaintiff with a box of candy in front of the jury, denied the defense a fair trial. . . . "[B]y virtue of the cumulative effect of the improper conduct of the trial court ... the jury could not have considered the issues at trial in a fair, calm and unprejudiced manner," the unanimous Appellate Division, 2nd Department, panel held in its unsigned decision, DeCrescenzo v. Gonzalez, 28828/01. . . . Plaintiff Patrick DeCrescenzo's family filed suit in 2001, claiming that Patrick suffered brain damage from trauma associated with his birth in January 2000. . . . The defendants, Dr. Orlando Gonzalez and Staten Island's St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, contended that an in utero stroke caused Patrick's injury. . . . The case went to trial before Justice Bernadette Bayne in December 2004. The jury awarded Patrick $600,000 on Jan. 19, 2005, one week after his fifth birthday.

Why Is Diamond Still on the Bench?

By Heidi Bruggink

12-12-07 -- Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Diamond has been investigated by the Commission on Judicial Performance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and (more than once) by the FBI. Should she still be sitting? How would we know?  . . . Not many judges in New York have been probed by the federal investigators. But State Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Diamond has had that honor — more than once. . . . From multiple conflicts of interest between her financial holdings and matters before her on the bench, to one charge of out-and-out estate manipulation, Diamond has come under repeated official scrutiny. . . . And at least one of those investigations might not be over, according to judicial reform activist Anthony DeRosa, who believes the feds might simply be waiting for the judge to “act out again” before pushing ahead with the investigation. . . . Both Justice Diamond and a spokesman for the FBI declined to comment for this article. . . . Of course, given the presumptive secrecy surrounding judicial misconduct hearings, it’s hard to find out much of anything on probes of a current judge. We only know, for example, about the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s (CJC) current inquiry into Queens Supreme Court Justice Duane Hart because the judge himself requested a public process. . . . Such proceedings are reportedly made open less than one percent of the time — and only if the jurist in question makes the request. The CJC would have it otherwise, but the New York Legislature has left the decision to the accused.

Judge may be charged in grandson's accidental shooting

Associated Press

12-10-07 -- (AP) - Authorities in Genesee County say charges may be pending in an accidental shooting involving the grandsons of Pavilion Town Justice Robert Westacott. . . . Investigators say Westacott's 12-year-old grandson accidentally shot his 6-year-old brother while in the care of Westacott and his wife, Virginia, Friday afternoon. . . . They say the boys were playing at the judge's home in Pavilion -- about 35 miles southwest of Rochester -- when the accident happened. . . . Genesee County Sheriff's deputies say the Westacotts tried to drive the boy to a hospital in Batavia, but their car broke down on the way. The child was flown to a hospital in Rochester, where he was reported to remain in stable condition last night.

Teen beer party lands judge ‘in trouble’

By Matt Coughlin and Ben Finley, The Intelligencer

12-10-07 -- Lower Southampton District Judge Susan McEwen said she's “in trouble.” . . . On Friday, she told the Courier Times, The Intelligencer's sister paper, that she's been “indefinitely suspended” from her post after her grandson held an underage drinking party last month at the judge's house while she was home. . . . “You have an 18-year-old, he has an underage drinking party, and you're punished for it,” McEwen said as she sat in her living room. . . . According to police, McEwen is not facing criminal charges in connection with the incident. Both Lower Southampton police and McEwen said the judge was asleep and unaware of the party, which was busted by police about 10 p.m. on the night of Nov. 20.

Judge Claiming Racial Bias Is Rebuffed in Bid to Block Misconduct Case

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

12-8-07 -- A black state judge who argued that a pending disciplinary action against him was tainted by the "racial bias" of Raoul L. Felder, chairman of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, lost his bid in federal court Wednesday to enjoin the proceedings. . . . Eastern District of New York Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled that Queens Supreme Court Justice Duane A. Hart failed to satisfy the elements of a preliminary injunction and that state court is the appropriate forum for his claim. . . . "State courts adjudicate federal rights every day of the week," Garaufis said. "I'm sure Justice Hart is aware of that." . . . The commission's proceedings against Hart on six misconduct claims will therefore go forward Friday afternoon at the commission's lower Manhattan office. . . . The commission previously voted to censure Hart for abusing his summary contempt power, a recommendation that was upheld by the state Court of Appeals.

NY Judge Defends His Conduct in Rare Public Hearing

New York Lawyer, By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

12-8-07 -- One day after Queens Supreme Court Justice Duane A. Hart unsuccessfully petitioned the federal court to stay misconduct proceedings against him, he asked the nine sitting members of the Commission on Judicial Conduct to spare his job. . . . Charged by the commission with six separate acts of misconduct, including threatening to place an attorney in jail for failing to move forward with a case and asking an attorney with a case pending before him to testify on his behalf at a previous misconduct hearing, Justice Hart yesterday contended that any errors he may have made did not rise to the level of sanctionable misconduct. . . . In the future, he assured the commission, he would likely handle similar situations differently. . . . "If I get into a situation like that, I won't hold them in contempt like that," Justice Hart said. "If I had it to do over again, I might not contact [the attorney]." . . . In Judicial Reports Reversal Report, click here, prosecutors must defend against a bias claim.

Federal Judge Lands at Center Of a New York Legal Mystery

By Joseph Goldstein, Staff Reporter of the Sun

12-03-07 -- The docket of Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn has long been a magnet for big lawsuits with billions of dollars at stake. In case after case involving guns, cigarettes, Agent Orange, breast implants, typing keyboards, asbestos, and pharmaceuticals, manufacturers have defended their products before the now 86-year-old federal judge. . . . Around the courthouse, Judge Weinstein is best known for his unpretentious courtroom manner — he rarely wears a robe and addresses convicted murderers with the same courtesy he extends toward partners at major law firms. Across the country, the judge is known for having "a big strike zone" for plaintiffs, according to an expert in mass torts, David Herr, a Minneapolis attorney. Judge Weinstein's willingness to shepherd class actions built on novel legal theories toward trial has made him a hero to trial attorneys and a foe to corporations. . . . The latest interest in Judge Weinstein doesn't stem from any of his Page 1-worthy rulings but the more arcane question of how some of his cases got assigned to the judge in the first place. At issue is how more than a dozen lawsuits brought against the tobacco industry — and several suits against firearm manufacturers — ended up before the judge.

November 2007

Judge Sanctioned For 4th Time, Not Removed

North Country Gazette

11-30-07 --For the fourth time in his 25 year tenure as a town and village justice, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct has determined that Edward J. Williams has been found to have engaged in judicial misconduct but despite three disciplinary actions against him, the commission has voted only to censure the justice rather than remove him from office. . . . Williams is a justice of the Kinderhook town and Valatie village court in Columbia County. . . . In a determination dated Nov, 13,  the commis­sion found that Williams engaged in an improper out-of-court communication regarding a pending case and should be censured, notwithstanding that he had been disciplined on three prior occasions and had been previously sanctioned for the same type of prohibited ex parte communications.

Judge to Appeal Removal Over Phone Flap

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

11-30-07 --The New York judge who ordered 46 defendants detained when no one would acknowledge owning a cell phone that rang in his courtroom intends to appeal his recommended removal to the Court of Appeals. . . . Attorney Terrence M. Connors said Wednesday that Judge Robert M. Restaino "deeply regrets and sincerely apologizes" for his actions on March 11, 2005. . . . The Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended Tuesday that Judge Restaino be removed, finding that his conduct had brought irreparable harm to the public's confidence in him.

Panel Rebukes Judge, Citing ‘Lunacy’ in Court

By Danny Hakim

11-28-07 -- The next time you pass through the city court system in Niagara Falls, N.Y., remember to turn your cellphone off. . . . Yesterday, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended the removal of a judge in Niagara Falls City Court who had what the commission’s chairman called “two hours of inexplicable madness” when a cellphone rang in his courtroom. . . . On the morning of March 11, 2005, the judge, Robert M. Restaino, was presiding over a slate of domestic-violence cases when he heard a phone ring. According to the commission’s report, he told the roughly 70 people in the courtroom that “every single person is going to jail in this courtroom” unless the phone was turned over. . . . A security officer was posted at the door while other officers tied to find the phone, but failed. . . . After a brief recess, Judge Restaino returned to the bench and asked the defendant who had been standing before him in the front of the courtroom when the phone rang if he knew whose it was. . . . “No,” said the defendant, Reginald Jones. “I was up here.” The ringing had come from the back of the room. . . . Nonetheless, the judge scrapped plans to release Mr. Jones, set bail at $1,500 and sent him into custody. . . . He was the first of 46 defendants to be sent into custody that day because of what could be called the case of the ringing cellphone. The judge opined at length about his frustration over the phone.

Famous NY Lawyer Jumps to the Defense of
Quadriplegic NY Judge

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

11-28-07 -- The State Commission on Judicial Conduct often fails to sufficiently take into account the "human condition" when it considers cases, the commission's chairman asserted in an opinion concurring with the commission's decision to censure an upstate justice. . . . Chairman Raoul Felder noted that Valatie Village and Kinderhook Town Justice Edward J. Williams in Columbia County is a quadriplegic facing "often insurmountable, sometimes humiliating" challenges in daily life. Mr. Felder chided the staff of the commission for seeking to take away an important portion of his life by seeking his removal from the bench after 25 years for the ex parte conversation he had in connection with a criminal case. . . . "We cannot claim to be a civilized and caring society, and yet, in our actions, not enfold into our judgments, where pertinent, the terrible burdens that others must bear in order to traverse the landscape of life," Mr. Felder wrote. . . . The rest of the commission, in a footnote to the majority decision released yesterday, found that Mr. Felder's concurring opinion "inappropriately relies on matters not in the record regarding Judge Williams' personal life." . . . Mr. Williams, who is confined to a wheelchair, appeared in person before the commission. . . . According to the ruling, the judge's memorandum of law included a reference to his disability, though it apparently was not used in a way to mitigate the penalty.

All heart, no justice

Albany Times Union

11-28-07 -- How many breaks will Kinderhook Town Justice Edward Williams receive before he is finally removed from the bench? That question arises after the state Commission on Judicial Conduct has reprimanded the judge, yet again, marking the fourth time since 1993. Yet the answer is baffling. Apparently, the majority of commission members see nothing egregious in the judge's conduct, and the commission's chairman doesn't have the heart to tell the judge, who is disabled, that it's time to go. . . . But compassion shouldn't rule in this matter. Justice should. That's justice for a defendant whom the judge convicted based on a conversation with a state trooper at the Columbia County Fair. And justice for the citizens of Kinderhook, and those passing through, who have a right to expect that their cases will be heard before a judge who knows the law and fulfills his duty to uphold it without fear or favor. . . . There's no way Judge Williams meets these criteria. As our staff writer Robert Gavin recounted in a story Tuesday, Judge Williams was censured by the state commission in 2002 for attempting to influence a judge in a case involving friends. The year before, he was publicly admonished for improper political activity, and in 1993 he was warned in a letter from the commission after being discourteous to an attorney. And now he has yet a fourth public rebuke, this time for convicting Daniel Wloch on a harassment charge on the basis of a conversation the judge had with Trooper Eric Leonard at the county fair.

Deli shooting case: Judge accused of improper conversation

By Rebecca Baker, The Journal News

11-28-07 -- Prosecutors today accused Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni of having an improper conversation with an attorney connected to the 1997 murder conviction of Richard DiGuglielmo and asked the judge to recuse himself from the case. . . . Assistant District Attorney Timothy Ward asked Bellantoni to step down from presiding over a hearing that seeks to overturn DiGuglielmo's conviction for shooting Charles Campbell to death, based on a witness' recently recanted testimony. . . . Ward accused Bellantoni of having an unethical conversation yesterday with Debra Cohen, a Dobbs Ferry lawyer who represents the Campbell family, by asking her to file papers voicing the family's concerns.

Hearing Loss

By Jason Boog

11-28-07 -- A recent murder raises questions about divorce court shortcuts. Is justice sped up, justice denied? . . . Divorce cases are never pretty, but this undoubtedly will be remembered as the ugliest divorce of Justice Sidney F. Strauss’s career. . . . In 2005, a Queens couple — Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova and Dr. Daniel Malakov — filed for divorce. The case landed in Justice Strauss’s busy courtroom (according to records from the Office of Court Administration, 126 divorce matters have been filed before him already this year), and negotiations stalled over issues of custody until this autumn. . . . In October, Strauss granted temporary custody of the couple’s 4-year-old daughter to Dr. Malakov. The mother’s attorney, Florence M. Fass, appealed but was denied a few weeks later. The girl was transferred to her father’s custody on October 22. . . . Six days later, a gunman shot and killed Dr. Malakov in front of his daughter at a Queens playground. Last week, an relative of Borukhova was arrested for the shooting; allegedly, his fingerprints covered the homemade silencer used in the killing. . . . In a New York Times article following the murder, attorney Fass characterized Justice Strauss’s custody ruling as “highly unusual” because he had reached the decision without a courtroom hearing. . . . Attorneys for both parties did not return repeated calls for comment, and Justice Strauss did not respond to an interview request. (He is now on vacation). . . . No matter what the result of the upcoming murder trial, the case raises a central question about courtroom efficiency and volatile divorce cases: Do crowded dockets encourage judges to skip proceedings that could defuse time-bomb cases? . . . The question is even more acute, given that Justice Strauss was twice reversed in the past year for leapfrogging the hearing process and skipping a motion to compel discovery.

One NY Judge Removed From Bench; Another Agrees to Resign

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

11-16-07 -- The Commission on Judicial Conduct yesterday recommended the removal of one town justice and discontinued its case against another who has agreed to resign as of Monday and never seek judicial office again. . . . The commission agreed 8-0 on removal for Charles P. Myles Jr., a justice in Esperance Town Court, Schoharie County. The action amounts to something of a formality since Mr. Myles resigned effective Nov. 18, 2006, following his conviction of a felony and three misdemeanors for tampering with his utility meter to receive electricity he was not paying for. He received five years probation. . . . Commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian said yesterday the agency did not know about his conviction and resignation until July 2007, when it started a formal proceeding against him. Removal will prohibit Mr. Myles, a nonlawyer who became justice in January 2004, from holding judicial office again in New York state. . . . The commission also agreed to conclude a proceeding against Pauline K. Ashbaugh, Cameron Town Court justice in Steuben County, for seeking to intervene on behalf of her nephew in a dispute he was having with his girlfriend in Delaware County. The commission said her behavior harmed the "integrity and impartiality" of the judiciary.

Concealed Witness, Part I

By Leah Nelson

11-14-07 -- The Constitution guarantees due process to criminal defendants. But in New York, the definition of due process is largely written by the DA — and the judge is editor. First of two parts. . . . It’s 2002: You’ve been accused of murder and held in jail. But then your lawyer says the prosecution has turned over a police report in which an informant said someone else confessed to the crime. . . . Trouble is, the District Attorney blacked out the informant’s name and contact information. Your lawyer doesn’t have much to go on. . . . Two years later, a jury finds you guilty, and a judge sentences you to 45 years in prison. Your lawyer never found the informant, and the judge excluded his reported statements to the cops as hearsay. . . . The jury never even learned that someone else confessed. . . . Legal Aid appeals your case on the grounds the prosecution suppressed exculpatory evidence by concealing the informer’s name. But the Appellate Division denies your appeal. . . . Sound like an over-the-top Hitchcock plot? . . . Not to Julio Alvarez, Green Haven Correctional Facility’s inmate number 04A1772.

LexMetrics, click here, calculates out how many judges were once prosecutors.

In Reversal Report, click here, speculative medical testimony is overruled.

Ex-Esperance justice can't serve

By Bob Gardinier, Staff writer

11-14-07 -- A former town justice in Schoharie County is now barred from returning to the bench, several months after he was accused of tampering with his home utility meter, state officials said today. . . . Charles P. Myles Jr., who took office as Esperance town justice in January 2004, resigned last year, said Robert Tembeckjian, administrator and counsel for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. . . . A jury convicted Myles of falsifying business records, petit larceny, theft of services and criminal tampering. He was sentenced in Schoharie County Court in January to five years' probation, according to Tembeckjian.

Frayed Judicial Robes

New York Times Opinion

11-14-07 -- Imagine a courtroom scene, maybe something out of “Law & Order.” Then ask yourself which official earns the least of all those important people sitting in front of the jury. If you guessed the judge, chances are you’re right. . . . Certainly the defense lawyer, if a private attorney, makes far more in hourly fees than the person with the gavel. Some district attorneys, in New York City at least, earn more than not only the trial judge but also the chief judge. There are even nonjudicial employees in the state judiciary system who can earn as much or more than the person who is up there making the most important decisions in the entire courthouse. . . . Thanks to lawmakers in Albany, New York judges have not had a pay raise for almost nine years. New York’s part-time legislators have made it their business to piggyback on the state’s full-time judges when it comes to salaries, refusing to approve a pay raise for the judiciary unless they get one themselves. . . . The judges are so angry that some are suing the state — there are two lawsuits already — for better pay. Others are demanding that Chief Judge Judith Kaye unilaterally award the judges a pay raise out of her state budget. The hitch there is that the state comptroller could refuse to cut the checks, which could mean yet another lawsuit. . . . As things stand now, there are still plenty of excellent judges in New York, but their caseloads are skyrocketing at the same time their salaries are losing ground to inflation. At some point, as good judges exchange their robes for the monetary rewards of private practice, few but the rich or less qualified will want to replace them.

Court Removes Cattaraugus County Judge

North Country Gazette

11-9-07 -- Leon town justice Jerome C. Ellis, on the bench for 17 years, has been formally removed from office by the state Court of Appeals. . . . In July, the state Commission of Judicial Conduct had issued a determination that Ellis should be removed from office for mishandling an eviction proceeding, presiding over the case despite being biased and using a religious ethic slur. . . . Ellis had filed a request for review with the Court of Appeals on Aug. 13 and on Sept. 4, the Court had suspended Ellis, with pay, pending disposition of his appeal.  However, Ellis did not perfect his review within 30 days of filing his request nor in the subsequent 20 days after the court issued a final notice for him to do so. . . . The judicial panel ruled that the conduct of  Ellis, a non-attorney, “suggests that he fails to understand basic concepts of fairness, impartiality and due process” and demonstrates, in its totality, that he is “unfit to serve as a judge.”

In the Matter of Jerome C. Ellis

October 2007  

Judge who bribed party boss retires

By Nancie Katz, Daily News Staff Writer

10-24-07 -- A judge who busted open a Brooklyn probe into judgeships for sale by admitting he paid to get on the bench has retired - with disability pay, the Daily News has learned. . . . In secret testimony last year, Howard Ruditzky was the first judge to admit to a grand jury that he bribed deposed Democratic Chairman Clarence Norman to get to the bench, sources said. . . . Ruditzky, 67, took medical leave last June for an undisclosed ailment just before the Commission on Judicial Conduct ordered him to appear on charges he told a grand jury under immunity that he forked over at least $70,000 in 2001 to get the coveted Democratic nomination, sources said. . . . On Oct. 2, he asked the state Appellate Division for a "special disability retirement allowance" so he could get two-thirds of his $136,700 annual pay in exchange for his "unconditional resignation."

Party Line Judge

By Jason Boog, jasonboog@judicialstudies.com

10-17-07 -- Justice Gustin L. Reichbach logged his radical days of student activism, but it was his embrace of the party boss that put him where he is today. . . . An ex-radical turned political insider has begun overseeing Brooklyn’s most hardboiled courtroom drama of the year, a surreal mafia bench trial in which the storied judge might prove as fascinating as the case itself. . . . Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach was robeless on Monday, wearing civvies with a decided flair. Sporting a polka-dot tie and a powder blue handkerchief in his breast pocket, he leaned forward intently as attorneys delivered opening arguments. . . . After all, it’s not often that any venue hosts a trial involving an FBI agent accused of helping the mob make murder plans. . . . In an unusual move, the judge opened his courtroom to video and still cameras, filling the empty jury box with a pool photographer and videocamerman. A line of journalists sat in the row behind them, with every other seat in the courtoom filled.

In Reversal Report, click here, a judge ignores two psychiatrists.

Judge With A Grudge

Questions Jury Rules

By Stefanie Cohen

10-15-07 -- Controversial and highly regarded Judge Jack Weinstein has begun holding post-trial Q&As with jurors - in front of the defendant, the prosecutors and the press - to find out if understanding the mandatory sentences that charges carried would have changed their verdicts. . . . Legal experts say there's nothing technically wrong with the Brooklyn federal jurist's judge-and-jury show, just that it's a little on the unorthodox side. Not unlike the venerable Weinstein himself. . . . "It's certainly unusual for a judge to speak to a jury about their verdict," said Columbia University law Professor Dan Richman. "What's been a hallmark of his career is a readiness to do that which isn't standard." . . . Earlier this month, the 87-year-old judge created a stir when he interviewed jurors who'd convicted a man of possessing thousands of images of child pornography.

Email from a concerned friend of Judge John L. Phillips

NEW YORK ATTORNEY NEEDED FOR RETIRED JUDGE

10-14-07 -- “I am concerned about my friend, retired Judge, John Phillips who had over $10 million dollars stolen from him.  No one is being held accountable for this. He is 84 years old and has no immediate family in New York.  Judge Michael Pesce and others are in on ruining this man. I need help in finding a good lawyer to assist him in getting his property and money back and his name restored. . . . More on the story follows:”

Erasing the Kung-Fu Judge

by Christopher Ketcham, The Brooklyn Rail

The case of the plundering of the estate of retired judge John L. Phillips is the nexus where corruption and a rainbow coalition of cliché meet, Brooklyn-style: you have an Irish hack district attorney and an Italian magistrate who is either a greedhead or an imbecile, plus a Jewish money-man for the D.A. allegedly buying up property at fixed auctions, not to mention a viper’s nest of well-dressed blacks from the neighborhood getting their taste. Indeed, Kafka, Dickens and Scorsese together would have a hard time fictionalizing the web of courtroom criminality that has ensnared 84-year-old Phillips, himself retired from the very Brooklyn “justice system” that has presided over the dissolution of his affairs. . . . Phillips was once known as the Kung-Fu Judge for his habit of employing martial arts moves on the bench. He grew up poor on a Kansas farm, served in World War II, was the first black man to be admitted to the Montana State Bar, studied kung-fu in Japan, and eventually became a self-made millionaire buying up real estate in Bedford-Stuyvesant. When he ran for a judgeship in Brooklyn civil court in 1976 as the anti-machine candidate, his hired sound-trucks blasted the hit song, “Kung-Fu Fighting.” . . . Fast-forward a quarter-century: In 2000, Brooklyn D.A. Charles “Joe” Hynes, a master of the tricks of the law who had become one of the most powerful machine politicians in the borough, began a secret action to seal up Phillips’ assets and declare him mentally incompetent. Hynes claimed he was concerned about the old man’s health—Phillips was 77 years old at the time, long retired from the bench, and had no close relatives, and so Hynes sought to “help” him, according to public statements. But others wonder if Hynes’ concern was a calculation of the coldest kind: Phillips had tried to run for the D.A.’s seat in 1997—until Hynes’ election lawyers knocked him off the ballot—and the humiliating loss Hynes suffered in the 1998 race for governor suggested the D.A. was vulnerable again in 2001, when he was up for a fourth term. Phillips was thus considered a potential challenger to Hynes in 2001.

NY Judge Files Three Lawsuits Over Rivals' Endorsements By Minor Parties

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

10-12-07 -- Ninth Judicial District Administrative Judge Francis A. Nicolai filed three lawsuits Friday to nullify the minor party nominations of four rivals for Supreme Court. . . . Judge Nicolai - who named Conservative, Working Families and Independence Party officials and other candidates, including his two Democratic running mates - is running for one of three open seats in the five-county district. He claims the parties followed improper procedures that violated election law in deciding which candidates to back. . . . The endorsements are important because they carry extra ballot lines and votes. In tight contests, those votes can be the margin of victory.

Jokester Judge Jousted By Judicial Panel

North Country Gazette

10-12-07 --A judge who thought he was a jokester found out it wasn’t a laughing matter. . . . A Dutchess County town justice has been censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for “misguided humor”. . . . The commission found that Edmund V. Caplicki Jr., a lawyer and town justice in LaGrange since 1974, gratuitously reiterated and repeatedly joked about a defendant’s inappropriate comments about his female attorney’s physical appearance. . . .As found by the commission, after the defendant told the judge that his attorney was “cute” and “had a nice butt”, the judge noted the comments on the arraignment sheet and repeated them to the attorney 10 days later in a sidebar conference.  Judge Caplicki then repeated the comments in open court and asked the defendant if he still agreed with them, asked three other male defendants if they agreed with them, and rpeated them again when the attorney appeared before him the next day. 

10-10-07 --In Reversal Report, click here, read about a draconian sentence
that was chopped to a year.

U.S. Supremes Weigh NY Bench
Judicial Reports' comprehensive coverage includes:

1. What The High Court Won't Hear - By John Ennis.
Click here to read why SCOTUS won't learn about a third of NY's bench.

2. Signs Of A Silly System - By Scott H. Greenfield.
Click here to read one lawyer's takedown of our electoral absurdity.

3. Reform Resisters Hire Heavy Hitters - By Jason Boog.
Click here if you missed this report from earlier in the week.

And, click here for a new version of the Reversal Report, where a guilty plea was tossed by the Appellate Division.

Judge Jerky

New York Daily News Editorial

10-1-07 -- Charged by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct with being an ill-tempered wackadoo on the bench, Bronx Family Court Judge Marian Shelton went on the offensive. . . . She bought ads and charged she was the victim of a vendetta by the court officers union because she took no guff from its members. And she depicted herself as a tough New Yaaawk character, gutsy and willing to tell it like it is in a courthouse where a little grit goes a long way. . . . But yesterday, this would-be Judge Judy fessed up that, yes, in at least one case, she did get seriously carried away and violated the rules governing judicial behavior. Even Shelton had to admit that judges aren't supposed to order anyone incarcerated in a fit of pique. Oh, that.

Statement by Dean G. Yuzek, Attorney for
Judge Marian R. Shelton

10-1-07 -- (BUSINESS WIRE)--Dean G. Yuzek, attorney for Judge Marian R. Shelton, issued the following statement regarding the Stipulation first proposed to Judge Shelton by the staff of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and submitted to the Commission with Judge Shelton’s permission: . . . “It is important to recognize that seven weeks before the Commission on Judicial Conduct proposed a settlement to Judge Shelton, the Judge had become only the ninth Judge in the Commission’s 30-year history to waive her right of confidentiality. She did that so the public could have a full record of this matter. . . . “The admitted facts in the Stipulation (all as to Charge I) were either previously admitted by Judge Shelton in her Answer, annexed to the Stipulation as Exhibit B, or, while admitted, require context supplied in the Answer. . . . “Note that (a) the matter is discontinued without the imposition of any sanction on Judge Shelton, (b) she remains on the bench as a Judge through the completion of her term, (c) she had no intent of seeking reappointment to the Family Court and had not sought reappointment, and (d) she does not intend to seek another judgeship in the State Courts of New York. If she should, this matter may revert to status quo ante.

Reform Resisters Hire Heavy Hitters

By Jason Boog

10-1-07 -- On the eve of high court arguments, the judicial selection battle lines are redrawn. A new lineup of advocates includes the absolute best in the business. And that might not auger well for the reformers. . . . Opponents of New York’s opaque judicial nomination system had cause enough to be worried when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed earlier this year to review the decision that had found the backroom regime of judge picking unconstitutional. . . . Now their concerns should be heightened, because defenders of the status quo have enlisted some of the most successful high court advocates of all time in preparation for the oral arguments to be heard this Wednesday. And the new defense team is also shifting tactics by placing greater emphasis on the rights of political parties to make their own nominating rules, a change that some observers said might find credence with the current makeup of the court.

NYS Oaths Project To Survey State’s Judiciary

North Country Gazette

10-1-07 -- When The North Country Gazette and the NYS Oaths Project conducted a statewide survey of judges during 2003 and 2004, it was learned that over 90% of individuals claiming judicial office had never taken and filed their oaths of office and bonds as required by law. . . . Town and village justices across the state were illegally performing judicial duties without having legal title to the office but when it was brought to their attention, they poo-pooed the challenge, became defensive and said, so what. . . . The Association of Towns sent out a directive that confirmed that the Oaths Project was correct, that oaths and bonds of public officers, including town justices, have to be filed within 30 days of the commencement of their term—either elected or appointed—or else by matter of law they have vacated the office, in effect refusing to serve and they have no authority to perform the duties of the office or collect compensation. . . . The NYS Unified Court System also quietly concurred, sending out a memorandum to town and village justices across the state, informing them that pursuant to the Uniform Justice Court Act they had to file their oaths and bonds in three places—with the town or village clerk, with the county clerk and with the Office of Court Administration. 

September 2007

Judge Admits To Unlawful Contempt Act

By Heidi Bruggink

9-28-07 -- Family Court Judge will step down at year’s end. . . . New York City Family Court Judge Marian Shelton of the Bronx has agreed that she will not seek reappointment when her term expires on December 31 of this year, admitting to a violation of “certain stipulated ethical rules.” . . . Shelton admitted to the first charge in a Complaint filed by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct: ordering her intake clerk’s wife, Michelle Nusser, “handcuffed, placed in a holding cell, and detained [over the weekend] without abiding by any lawful contempt procedure and without cause” after an altercation beginning when Nusser entered the litigant-free courtroom and motioned to her spouse. . . . On June 1, 2007, the Commission served Shelton with its 13-point Complaint. Shelton’s June 25 answer called it “a misuse of the Commission’s limited resources” and accused the initiator, Dennis Quirk, President of the New York State Court Officers Association, of filing for personally motivated reasons.

*******************

To read this week's Reversal Report about an
appellate contract split, click here.

Retaliation—Warren County Style

North Country Gazette

9-24-07 -- Everything has its price and the wheels of retaliation in the criminal justice system are alive and flourishing—for the moment—in Warren County. . . . In July, three days after the publisher of The North Country Gazette was notified that the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity had referred her multi-faceted complaint on Glens Falls City Court Judge Gary C. Hobbs, the former special prosecutor against her, to the Committee on Professional Standards for alleged attorney misconduct including falsified affidavits and filings,  she was summoned by the Glens Falls City Court to respond to a three year old traffic ticket which had never been prosecuted.  . . . File a complaint against a judge and prepare yourself for the retaliation. On two occasions, June Maxam, publisher of The North Country Gazette, has been at the center of disciplinary actions against two Town of Chester justices resulting in the censure of one—E. Wendell Ross—on 21 counts of misconduct and his eventual “retirement” in the wake of a second investigation of alleged misconduct. . . . Ronald Robert, who replaced Ross, was removed from the bench in by first the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and ultimately in 1997  by the Court of Appeals who held that Robert was “unfit for judicial office”. . . . Within months after the Robert removal, dethroned Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland initiated the beginning of his seven arrests of the publisher, lodging 22 charges between August 1998 and November 2000.  At no time during did he consult with the district attorney’s office to determine the legal sufficiency of the charges.

Judge keeps license despite refusal to take drug test

9-14-07 -- (AP) - A State Supreme Court justice who was acquitted of driving while impaired will keep her license despite her refusal to take a blood test after her arrest in April. . . . Amy Jo Fricano was accused of driving into a power pole in April, causing a brief blackout in Lockport, Niagara County. She passed field sobriety tests but refused to take a blood test. She was later convicted of 2 traffic violations and paid $310 in fines. . . . After a two-hour hearing yesterday, a Motor Vehicles administrative law judge ruled that Fricano's driving privileges would remain intact. The law judge also questioned the police work, saying there didn't appear to be sufficient cause to have charged Fricano with impairment in the first place.

Judges From Four Groups to Sue N.Y. State for Pay Hike

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

9-12-07 -- Members of four New York state judges' associations will file suit today in Manhattan Supreme Court to force the governor and the Legislature to give judges a pay raise. . . . The long-discussed suit is being filed now because the judges have become fed up with the apparent inability of lawmakers to agree to convene in Albany and to take up the judicial pay increase bill they have had before them all year, Staten Island Civil Court Judge Philip S. Straniere said in an interview Tuesday. . . . A judge from the group Straniere heads, the Board of Judges of the Civil Court of the City of New York, as well as individual judges from the Family Court Judges Association, the New York City Family Court Judges Association and the City Criminal Court Judges Association will be plaintiffs in the suit. Straniere declined to name the plaintiffs. . . . He said there was some legal question whether the judges' associations themselves -- there are 13 statewide -- would have been deemed to have standing if they had formally joined the legal action. It was felt there would be no question as to the standing of individual judges, he said. . . . However, even though the four associations are not plaintiffs, they are all supporting the action.

Fallen Guardian Angels

A justice and four lawyers are referred to the IRS for allegedly mishandling an ex-judge’s estate.

By Leah Nelson

9-12-07 -- The guardianship imbroglio of a former Brooklyn judge has always been populated with enough shadowy facts and characters for a novel by Tom Wolfe. But now someone is trying to make a federal case out of it. . . . Four court-appointed fiduciaries and Kings County Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce have been referred to the Internal Revenue Service for alleged violations of tax law pertaining to their role in the guardianship of John L. Phillips, a former judge himself. . . . John O’Hara — a Brooklyn political figure known variously as a rabble-rouser, a crusader for justice, and a gadfly with a vendetta against Brooklyn’s courts and District Attorney — filed the Information Referrals on September 8. He did so under an IRS procedure that permits such actions by concerned citizens. . . . According to the filing: “From 2000 to 2007, four separate court appointed guardians — Harvey Greenberg, Frank J. Livoti, Ray Jones, and Emani Taylor — sold approximately $10 million of real estate for an alleged incapacitated person, retired judge John L. Philips. No tax returns were filed or paid; current estimates are $1.5 million in taxes are owed. All above said guardians are lawyers.” . . . As to the judge, O’Hara wrote: “Justice Pesce . . . has obstructed all attempts by current guardians to obtain records for tax returns.”

And in Reversal Report, click here, read about a new
Lowe in the Commercial Part.

Judge Found Guilty Of Misconduct For Third Time

North Country Gazette

9-10-07 -- The Tannersville village justice, twice privately cautioned for “ethical transgressions” by the state Commission of Judicial Conduct, has now been censured for mishandling a case in which the judicial panel said she had a professional and social relationship with a defendant. . . . The commission found that Noreen Valcich, a non-attorney who has served as village justice since 1991, failed to disqualify herself from a 2004 harassment case.  She granted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal notwithstanding her relationship with the defendant and notwithstanding that she had discussed the underlying facts with her.  . . . The judicial panel determined the judge also violated statutory requirements by granting the disposition without obtaining the unequivocal consent of the district attorney and by extending an order of protection without issuing a warrant.

State panel votes for censure of local judge

Mid-Hudson News Network

9-7-07 -- The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended a censure of Village Justice Noreen Valcich, saying she mishandled a case in which she had a professional and social relationship with the defendant. . . . In a determination dated Aug. 21, the commission said Valcich failed to disqualify herself from a harassment case in 2004 and granted an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal" despite her relationship with the defendant and that she had discussed the underlying facts with her. . . . The judge also violated statutory requirements by granting the disposition without obtaining the unequivocal consent of the Greene County District Attorney's Office and by extending an order of protection without issuing a warrant, the commission said. . . . In recommending censure, the commission noted that Valcich twice had been privately cautioned about her "ethical transgressions." . . . Two commission members voted against the censure - a low form of punishment - with one writing in his dissent that the appropriate disposition "might well be removal (from the bench) if all the facts were known."

Ousted NY Judge Loses Again in Court Fight to Get His Job Back

New York Lawyer, By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

9-7-07 -- A federal judge has thrown out the final remaining claim by former Supreme Court Justice Frank V. Ponterio against a group of top court officials who he claimed had retaliated against him by declining to extend his judicial certification. . . . Southern District Judge Harold Baer Jr. ruled that Mr. Ponterio's "class of one" equal-protection claim failed on two counts. Not only had Mr. Ponterio failed to satisfy the criteria for such a claim, Judge Baer held, but the defendants were also entitled to qualified immunity. . . . "In short, Ponterio points to no Justice like himself - past, present, or hypothetical - who had been denied certification or recertification on the merits and was subsequently treated differently than Ponterio," Judge Baer concluded in Ponterio v. Kaye, 06civ6289.

August 2007

Overeager to Suppress?

By Mark Thompson
8-31-07 --Judges in New York City rarely get reversed for going overboard in suppressing evidence in criminal cases. From the start of 2006 through this August, only nine judges citywide were called onto the carpet in published opinions for excluding evidence that, according to appellate panels, should have been let in. During that time period, two trial judges in the five boroughs were reversed more than once for granting suppression motions. Leading the way with three such reversals is Bronx County Supreme Court Justice Richard Lee Price. He was recently joined in the ranks of serial suppressers by New York County Justice James A. Yates. . . . The latest reversal for Yates, a finalist for last summer’s open seat on the state Court of Appeals, turned on his interpretation of the provision in the Vehicle and Traffic Law that covers “turning movements.” The statute states that turn signals “shall be used to indicate an intention to . . . change lanes.”

Fricano: Judge cleared on drug charges

By Rick Pfeiffer, The Tonawanda News

8-29-07 --After a nearly five-hour trial Monday, state Supreme Court Justice Amy Jo Fricano was acquitted of a driving while impaired by drugs charge while being found guilty of two minor traffic violations. . . . The justice smiled as the verdict was announced by Lockport Town Justice Leonard Tilney Jr., who heard the case without a jury. . . . “Truth happens,” Fricano said outside the courthouse. “In the end, the truth will always come out.” . . . Tilney said the special prosecutor handling the case needed to convince him that Fricano had taken prescription drugs, had operated her vehicle and that her ability to operate the SUV was impaired by the drugs she had taken. Fricano passed a number of field sobriety and breath screening tests, but refused police requests for a blood test.

Take your charges & stuff 'em

By Marian Shelton

8-27-07 -- Last week, it became front-page news that with a few months left in my 10-year term on the Family Court bench, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct was charging me with being "habitually intemperate." It is alleged that I was, on occasion, nasty to various individuals - including a woman whose profanity shouldn't be tolerated in a courtroom and a man who brutally beat his wife. . . . So that the public and press could hear the whole story and not just the commission's sound bites, I joined the tiny group of judges who have ever opted to make commission proceedings against them public. . . . But that isn't enough. I need to set the record straight now - because those who have made these charges would like people to think that Family Court is a tearoom and that judges work in a cocoon. Not so. Bronx Family Court is not a tearoom - it's reality. . . . Some people have asked, "Can a judge who calls someone a 'pig' be fair? Doesn't everyone, even a wife-beater, have the right to be treated civilly?" I agree, of course - except when the batterer is already subject to a protective order and is trying to use my courtroom to show his terrified wife that the court can't help her. . . . Is the commission telling the public that a judge must follow the Marquis of Queensbury rules, but the batterer is free to threaten, glare and use body language to make the woman understand he's still the boss?

Cut!

Televising court proceedings has a lot of appeal — as long as you ignore the reality of prosecutorial dynamics and forget the fundamental importance of preserving the right to a fair trial. 

By Scott H. Greenfield

8-24-07 -- The issue of cameras in the courtroom once again burns in the hearts of New York’s Legislators.  It's deja vu all over again, except this time the cameras have a very real chance.  Why the Legislature would consider, no less approve, such a measure is hard to explain, but it certainly appears that courts will soon be called to order with the words, “lights, camera, action.” . . . Rather than make you wonder, I’ll be clear up front. I don't want cameras in the courtroom, especially if I’m in the courtroom with them. It amazes me that anyone would willingly watch a trial, most of which is a crashing bore (unless, of course, I'm trying the case), but apparently they must, or the commercial interests that push such proposals wouldn’t waste their time. But having had the pleasure of being involved with high profile cases in which the poor, departed earlier incarnation of Court TV hoped to gain some free content, there is no doubt in my mind that televising trials is a very, very bad idea.

Roll!

The argument against cameras in court is based on the assumption that lawyers will grandstand, defendants will suffer, and judges will tailor their rulings to public taste. Which would be compelling — except it's not true.

"Cameras will come in over my dead body."  -Justice David Souter

By Barry I. Slotnick and Stuart Boyarsky
8-24-07 -- The debate over whether cameras should be permitted in courtrooms has been raging for  more than half a century. While the ban on cameras was at one time widespread, New York remains  the only state that maintains a complete ban on television cameras broadcasting from the courtroom. This outdated view, codified in section 52 of New York's Civil Rights Law, segregates New York from the rest of country and relegates our state, which prides itself on  being a progressive light unto the nation, to the scrapheap of the past, with an archaic law that has as much modern relevancy as prohibition. While the rest of country's state courts march headfirst into the 21st century, New York remains stuck in the past, and the people getting hurt are you and me. . . . Let me begin by refuting a myth: The push to get cameras into the courthouse is not a campaign waged by egocentric trial lawyers. Broadcasting trials will in no way make  attorneys famous or household names. What it will do is even out the playing field by making  certain that all participants in a trial, whether it be attorneys, judges or litigants, be aware that  others are watching what they are doing. Everyone in the court of a publicized or "T.V." trial is usually more prepared and acts in a reasonable and responsible manner. It is for these reasons that on January 22, 2007, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) introduced S. 344, a "bill to permit the televising  of Supreme Court proceedings;" an identical bill,  H. R. 1299, was later introduced in the House as well.

In Reversal Report, click here, read about the judge who gave
two bites at the apple.

AG appeals lawyer ad restrictions

The Business Review (Albany) by Jodi Sokolowski

8-24-07 -- At the 11th hour, the state Attorney General's office filed a notice of appeal seeking to reverse a decision that found many of New York's attorney advertising guidelines to be unconstitutional. . . . The appeal was filed Wednesday, the deadline which is one month from the July 23 decision, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. . . . New rules restricting lawyer advertising in the state that took effect Feb. 1 cannot be enforced because they violate the First Amendment right to free speech, decided the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. . . . The case was brought by Public Citizen that represented its members, attorney James Alexander and Syracuse law firm Alexander & Catalano LLC. . . . "We'll keep fighting; we're not going to give up at this point," Greg Beck, an attorney who litigated the case for Public Citizen, said about the appeal. "I think the district court's decision was careful and well-reasoned and I have a hard time feeling it will be reversed on appeal." . . . However, Edward Cosgrove of Cosgrove Law Firm in Buffalo, said he's pleased the AG's office is filing the appeal to "protect the profession of law."

Courting fame

Tart-tongued Bronx judge courted as hot new TV find

By Jose Martinez, Daily News Staff Writer

8-17-07 --Hollywood is calling for Judge Marian Shelton, who could be the next New York jurist to go from robes to riches. . . . Tinseltown star-makers think the no-nonsense Bronx Family Court judge could be the next "Judge Judy" - even though she's under fire from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for her alleged courtroom antics. . . . A Los Angeles talent agency confirmed its interest after reading Tuesday's Daily News front- page exclusive - "Judge Gone Wild" - about Shelton's troubles. . . . A spokesman for Shelton said he's gotten calls from other TV types as well, but the Shelton show isn't going west just yet. . . . "Judge Shelton's priority is to her oath and the Bronx community she serves," said her spokesman, Adam Herbsman. "A third-generation lawyer, she intends to return to the practice of law at the end of her term."

Hidden Camera

By Heidi Bruggink

8-17-07 --The State Legislature has spent the past decade pointedly refraining from passing a bill to allow television into trials. That leaves a constitutional ban in place. Theoretically. . . . It was a startling image, one practically invented for the cameras. . . . Television stations throughout the region broadcast the vast “sea of blue” in New York Supreme Court Justice Richard Allman’s chambers in Brooklyn Criminal Court, showing a courtroom filled with uniformed New York cops mourning their late colleague, slain Brooklyn police officer Russel Timoshenko. . . . By all accounts, the July arraignment was an emotional event. The New York Times reported that “the courtroom was packed with officers who applauded” the three suspects’ arraignment on murder charges, and the televised image of Timoshenko’s sobbing mother was prominently featured in newspapers and television broadcasts throughout the region, giving New Yorkers an intimate portrayal of the many individuals devastated by the killing. . . . But according to many experts, it never should have been televised to begin with. . . .

Bronx judge scorn to be wild?

She faces ax for alleged rude cracks

By Jose Martinez, Daily News Staff Writer

8-15-07 --If you think Judge Judy has a big mouth, you ain't seen nothing yet. . . . Bronx Family Court Judge Marian Shelton allegedly yelled at a lawyer to "shut up," tossed a woman from court for wearing "inappropriate" clothing, told a Caribbean man to "take those stupid things out of your hair" and said a lawyer had "mental health issues." . . . Shelton, 52, who was appointed to a 10-year term by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1998, could get bounced from the bench for allegedly making rude cracks toward lawyers, court officers and people going before her on sensitive family matters. . . . Yet she isn't backing down from a bruising confrontation with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. . . . Shelton is going public with her case of disorder in the court - making her one of the few New York judges to voluntarily lift the veil of secrecy from disciplinary hearings. . . . "We can deal with each of these charges," said Dean Yuzek, a lawyer for the judge. "If we were concerned about this at all, we wouldn't have opened up the proceedings to the public." . . . Documents made public yesterday detail the charges against Shelton, portraying her as a blustery, Judge Judy-like crank who's not afraid to mix it up, or offend, in the courtroom.

Bronx Judge Is A Real @S$ Act

By Denise Buffa

8-15-07 --A Bronx judge had a court clerk's wife handcuffed and tossed in a cell for contempt - because she whispered "a- -hole" after her husband was kept late at work, a state panel has charged. . . . Family Court Judge Marian Shelton screamed at the woman, "He'll leave when he's finished his work, not when you tell him!" before ordering court officers to take her to a holding cell for the weekend, witnesses said. . . . The bizarre example of alleged judicial abuse, which occurred in 2004, is the first of 13 charges levied against Shelton. The state Commission on Judicial Conduct is considering bouncing her from the bench for bad behavior. . . . On Dec. 10, 2004, according to legal papers, Shelton was working late in her courtroom, signing documents at about 6:45 p.m. . . . The wife, identified as Michelle Nusser, was sitting in the spectator gallery, waiting for her husband, Ben, an intake clerk, to finish work. . . . Michelle Nusser stood up and motioned that she wanted to speak to her husband, prompting Shelton to scream at her to leave the courtroom, according to the court papers. . . . Nusser turned to leave, muttering "a- -hole" under her breath. An incensed Shelton then ordered a court officer to bring her back and found her in contempt. . . . "Shut up!" the judge allegedly screamed at the wife before telling the officers to take her to the holding cell for the weekend.

Statement by Judge Marian R. Shelton

8-15-07 --(Business Wire)--Judge Marian R. Shelton, of the Bronx Family Court, issued the following statement today to call attention to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct’s former senior attorney’s refusal to disqualify himself as an obviously less than neutral referee in Commission proceedings against her.

“Last year Dennis Quirk, the head of the New York State Court Officers Union, who has been chastised for bullying judges, used eight bogus complaints allegedly made by court officers to instigate the ethically challenged New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct to investigate my nine years on the bench.

All but one of the Quirk complaints have been magically dropped without explanation and the lone remaining officer’s name was curiously missing when the Commission filed its charges. Among the 40,000 cases I have handled, the Commission now alleges that I was not “patient, dignified and courteous” to several people, including one man who had brutally beaten his wife and a woman whose use of profanity wouldn’t be tolerated in any venue let alone a courtroom.

“I thought the above events were surreal enough, until I learned about the kangaroo’s latest hop. Despite its Administrator’s preaching about the "appearance of impropriety,” the Commission has now, without the faintest blush, chosen as its "impartial" referee in this matter someone who:

Rensselaer Judge Gets Hand Slapped For Delays, False Reports

North Country Gazette

8-15-07 --Although Rensselaer City Court Judge Kathleen L. Robichaud had a pattern of failing to timely render judgments and decisions on motions, adversely affecting litigants and then failed to file accurate and truthful quarterly reports with the administrative judge, resulting in a “dereliction of responsibilities as a judge”, she has been admonished, a slap on the wrist, from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, the lowest form of public sanction. . . . The commission found that Robichaud, city court judge since 1996 serving quarter time and who also maintains a private law practice in Rensselaer, had delayed rendering judgments in 10 cases, delayed rendering decisions on motions in 12 cases and failed to report the delayed cases as required. . . . In the nine small claims and one civil claim, the judicial panel found that Robichaud failed to render judgments within 30 days of the hearings, as required by Section 1304 of the Uniform City Court Act. She delayed in issuing her decisions for up to 23 months.

Harmony Judge Admonished For Case Delays

North Country Gazette

8-15-07 --Harmony doesn’t always exist in Harmony Town Court and the town justice has been admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for his delays in disposing of small claims cases, in one case not issuing a decision for nearly three years. . . . Brucs S. Scolton, an attorney who has been town justice since May, 1990, delayed scheduling hearings and, in two cases, delayed rendering his decision.  In one case, he issued a decision 33 months after the hearing was held.  The judge acknowledged that he had no excuse for the delays.

Judge, Accused of Buying Seat on Bench, Sees Libel Claims Against NY Post Trimmed

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

8-15-07 --Brooklyn Justice Francois Rivera has no libel claims against a local all-news channel for having referred to charges reported in two newspaper articles he had paid $50,000 for his judgeship and had testified before a grand jury under a grant of immunity about other allegedly "dirty" judges, a state judge has ruled. . . . Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rolando T. Acosta in Rivera v. NYP Holdings, 114858/06, however, rejected a request from the New York Post to narrow the claims against it to one for each of four allegedly defamatory articles rather than allowing for separate counts for each time the stories were published in different editions of the Post or on its Web site.

Judge’s Personal Attorney Must Decline Potential Client

North Country Gazette

Is an attorney who is prohibited from appearing before a judge due to a professional relationship between his firm and the judge required to decline representation of a client in a case pending before that judge, particularly if the case has been before that judge for nearly a year? . . . The answer is yes.  . . . North Country Gazette publisher June Maxam of Chestertown had filed civil litigation in March 2006 in state Supreme Court against Ginger Berlin of Albany, her former co-publisher in The Empire Journal, an online publication co-published by them for about two years. . . . The case was assigned to Saratoga Supreme Court Justice Thomas Nolan by mid-March 2006 and he had remained on the case into early 2007, ruling on several motions. . . . Although Berlin had repeatedly claimed since September 2005 that she was represented by an attorney, such was a false statement by her.  When she failed to properly and timely respond to interrogatories, refusing to provide copies of income tax returns for the business, canceled checks and other business records, a motion to compel was served on her in January.  She obtained several adjournments, telling the court that she was seeking an attorney to represent her after having stated for more than a year that she had counsel.

Carpetbagging or Sandbagging?

By Jason Boog

8-10-07 -- The appointment powers of a Surrogate make the post enormously attractive. And one of the two current contenders in the Brooklyn Democratic primary is likely to become the first African-American to hold that post in New York. Which might explain why this fight has turned into a bare-knuckled brawl. With a lot of paperwork. . . . Confronted with a nasty squabble between Brooklyn Surrogate candidates over election residency rules, Justice Joseph Levine on Thursday declared a pox on both their houses. . . . “Nothing good is going to come of this litigation,” said the 23-year Supreme Court veteran who helms Brooklyn’s Special Elections Part as he granted a motion to change venue to a new court to avoid “the appearance of impropriety.” . . . The justice concluded with an editorial aside: “I don’t want to be a part of what is about to happen.” . . . Later in the day, court administrators moved the challenge to the Queens Supreme Court — where a new judge will be selected on Monday, according to a source close to the case. . . . At issue was Supreme Court Justice Diana A. Johnson’s challenge against Civil Court Judge Shawn Dya L. Simpson. The challenge alleges that Simpson does not live at the Brooklyn address printed on her primary petitions, arguing that she really lives with her husband and children at a South Orange, New Jersey address.

And, in Reversal Report, click here, a JHO is overturned for ignoring a car wreck.

A Hire Calling

On their honor, it's politics as usual in Brooklyn

by Tom Robbins

8-8-07 -- Politicians often speak of answering "the call to public service." Usually, this is invoked to suggest enormous sacrifice, as in, "If I wasn't running for this crummy elective office, I could be making megabucks at a big law firm." . . . Like certain dog whistles, this call is not audible to most people. If it were, a lot of us might stop yapping like obnoxious little border collies, come to heel, and do some good in the world. Alas, it is out of our hearing range. But there is no denying the call's powerful pull on those who are tuned in to that wavelength. Here now, from the streets of Brooklyn, comes the latest example: a selfless young woman named Shawn Dya Simpson who is currently campaigning for a powerful city judicial post, even though it means forced separation from her loved ones. . . . Simpson, 41, is a former Brooklyn prosecutor who is already doing public service as a judge, having been elected to the bench in 2003. She is now running in a fierce election to see who will become the next judge of Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn (very complicated, it handles estates, details below). The problem is that Simpson's opponents have claimed that she doesn't live in Brooklyn, or even the city at all; hence she is ineligible to hold office. Another judge has been asked to consider these allegations, which he will certainly do later this month.

NY Judge Faces Removal From Bench Over
Anti-Semitic Slurs From Bench

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

8-8-07 -- An upstate town court justice made a "travesty" of a property dispute case and then compounded his errors by referring to one of the parties using a slur, the Commission on Judicial Conduct found when recommending his removal from the bench. . . . The commission unanimously deemed Jerome Ellis "unfit" to continue holding the Leon Town Court bench in Cattaraugus County. . . . Mr. Ellis, who is not a lawyer, has been a justice since 1990. . . . The commission determined that his impartiality was compromised by presiding over an eviction proceeding brought in 2004 by a man who was living with his ex-wife's daughter. . . . Mr. Ellis showed bias against defendants Allen and Lori A. Haskins through a series of procedural missteps that included a summons requiring Ms. Haskins to appear in court within three days, not the 22-day notice required for a small claims hearing, the commission found. . . . At a hearing in which the two sides said they had agreed to settle the dispute, the commission said Mr. Ellis turned off the court's tape recorder and told the Haskins to "stop jewing other landlords."

NY Judge Targeted for Removal From Bench Over
"Anti-Police" Bias

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

8-8-07 -- Newburgh is a hardscrabble city where jobs are scarce, income is low and crime is common. . . . A former police chief once referred to it as a "dirty, fetid little city." Its current state assemblyman, Thomas Kirwan, calls Newburgh "the South Bronx without the amenities." . . . It is a place, Mr. Kirwan insists, that needs a tough, no-nonsense judge on its city court bench and not Judge Peter M. Kulkin, whom Mr. Kirwan says should be ousted for allegedly displaying a pattern of decision-making that is sympathetic to criminal defendants and hostile to police. . . . Mr. Kirwan and Newburgh's police chief, Eric Paolilli, say they have written separately to the Commission on Judicial Conduct during the past month demanding that the agency investigate Judge Kulkin's rulings and determine whether he is biased against prosecutors. . . . "To call him a liberal would be a gross insult to liberals," Mr. Kirwan said. "He's an anarchist."

Bid Challenging Pet Supplies Retailer's Pet-Friendly Policy Fails

Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal 

8-8-07 -- A 5-year-old girl who was bitten by a Rottweiler puppy in a Petco store in Bayshore, N.Y., cannot sue the pet store chain because it has a policy of allowing its customers to bring their pets into its stores, an acting state Supreme Court justice has ruled. . . . Petco cannot be faulted for allowing pets into its stores, Justice John M. Galasso ruled in Anonymous v. Petco Animal Supplies Stores, 1670/06 (Nassau Co.), because its pet-friendly policy reflects "an industrywide standard" designed for the benefit of pet store customers. . . . Anthony LoPresti of Garden City, N.Y., who represented the young girl and her parents, Diane and David Christian, said that the decision would be appealed. . . . The summary judgment ruling also exonerated the owner of the Rottweiler, Kenneth Coughlin, finding he had no reason to suspect that the 8-month-old puppy had a "vicious propensity." . . . According to undisputed facts in the case, the incident occurred on Jan. 23, 2006, when Christian brought her daughter and her daughter's friend to the Bayshore store to shop. At the Petco they encountered Coughlin, who had his puppy, Lucy, on a leash, as required by store policy.

NY Judge Refuses to Recuse Herself in Suit
Over Co-op in Her Own Building

New York Lawyer, By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

8-3-07 --A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has refused to recuse herself from a lawsuit over an apartment in her co-op building. . . . In this dispute between a father and his daughter's former romantic partner regarding their relative interests in a Manhattan co-op, Justice Emily Jane Goodman (See Profile) rejected the father's argument that the judge's ownership of an apartment a few floors above the subject apartment presented potential conflicts of interest. . . . "I conclude, unambiguously, that there is nothing in the facts, circumstances or law that would cause me to be anything other than fair and impartial in this case," Justice Goodman wrote in Avery v. Caldwell, 108829/06. . . . Plaintiff Dennis Avery's daughter Halina (a non-party in the present suit) purchased a co-op apartment with her then-partner, defendant Molly Caldwell, a Manhattan real estate broker.

Civil Gridlock

By John Ennis

8-3-07 --New York State’s Office of Court Administration (OCA) allocates judicial resources according to local needs. Yet the backlog of cases in some boroughs consistently dwarfs their neighbors’. . . . It’s often said: ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ But at what point in time does delay become denial? . . . The answer to that is relative, of course. But a comparison of the civil terms in New York City’s Supreme Court (the main trial court) reveals one clear reality: The Bronx is getting burned.

**********

In Reversal Report (click here), learn which judge couldn't spot a frivolous litigant.

********

Two Capital District Judges Censured For Misconduct

North Country Gazette

8-3-07 --Two veteran town justices, both of whom have served more than 30 years on the bench, have been censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for missing court funds and improper handling of claims.  A censure is a low level sanction which results in a public reprimand. . . . The commission found that over a six-year period, Anthony J. Cavotta, a justice in Stillwater town and village courts in Saratoga County, failed to adequately supervise his court staff, resulting in a shortage of court funds. . . . As found by the commission, in 2004 a shortage of $315 in court funds was discovered, which Judge Cavotta attributes to malfeasance by a former court clerk.  Judge Cavotta and his co-judge contributed their personal funds to cover the shortage.  By law, town and village justices are personally responsible for monies received by the court. . . . Judge Cavotta acknowledged that he failed to discharge his administrative duties as required, notwithstanding that two reports from the State Comptroller, in 1997 and 2000, had identified deficiencies in the court’s procedures. -- http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/C/cavotta_(2).htm

In the second matter, the commission found that Wesley R. Edwards, a justice in Stephentown, Rensselaer County, had mishandled several small claims cases, engaged in unauthorized out-of-court communications and conveyed the appearance of bias.  -- As found by the commission, Judge Edwards’ handling of three small claims cases were “fraught with errors” and violated statutory requirements.  In one case, the judge ordered a defendant to complete allegedly defective construction work although the judge’s authority was limited to imposing a monetary judgment.  http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/E/edwards,_wesley_(2).htm

Benchwarmers

Everything you never wanted to know about picking judges for an important court you've never heard of

by Tom Robbins

8-1-07 --I was warned against writing this column. . . . "You might think twice about doing that judges story," were the exact, ominous words. . . . OK, the threat came from my editor, who added: "Nobody cares how judges get picked. Where is that S&M piece you promised?" I did not knuckle under. As you may know, this paper is currently owned and operated by out-of-towners and recent transplants, so I was able to convincingly argue that, aside from rent hikes and Alex Rodriguez, there is no subject New Yorkers get more passionate about than the selection of appellate judges. Please do not cross me up on this. . . . Here, then, is the unvarnished truth—which only the Voice will tell you—about how New York came to select a rookie judge with a powerful ally as the presiding justice for the busiest and most powerful appeals court in the state. . . . Already you're thinking, "Appellate court? Presiding justice? Alex Rodriguez?" Bear with me. Part of the problem here is the purposely obscure nomenclature employed by lawyers, who are the only ones who really do care about judges. They care so much that they see the judges' faces in their Grape-Nuts every morning. They address their cereal, practicing small, obsequious remarks like: "Heard Your Honor hit a par four last week. Nice."

July 2007

Critics ask state to clamp down on Judge Kulkin

By Oliver Mackson, Times Herald-Record

Document: Letter from police to Judge Kulkin

7-30-07 --City Court Judge Peter Maxwell Kulkin has a problem. He's been a judge for 2½ years, but sometimes he still talks like the pugnacious defense lawyer he used to be. . . . Exhibit A is the conversation that Kulkin had on July 13 with Newburgh city police Lt. Charlie Broe, which is almost certain to land Kulkin in front of the state agency that disciplines judges. . . . Here's the thrust of it: Broe saw Kulkin outside the police station after court and questioned why the judge released 19-year-old Ashley Garrett of Newburgh on her own recognizance after she was charged with felony criminal mischief that day. . . . She's accused of using a key to vandalize three police cars. . . . Kulkin could have responded with something like, "I can't discuss a pending case. You know that." . ..  Kulkin could have delivered the kind of lecture that judges are entitled to give because they're judges: "Lt. Broe, the purpose of bail is to secure the defendant's appearance in court, not to punish the defendant." . . . Kulkin could have explained that the suspect had ties to the area and no criminal record and didn't give any sign she was a risk not to show up for court. . . . Judges have those kinds of freewheeling conversations behind closed doors, in chambers or in passing, or sometimes in open court.

NYC DA Violated Grand Jury Secrecy, Judge Says

New York Lawyer, By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

7-30-07 --Brooklyn Supreme Court's chief administrative judge has ruled that the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office has repeatedly violated the confidentiality of grand jury testimony. . . . Although Justice Neil Jon Firetog declined to sanction Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Kagan for disclosing a woman's testimony regarding the death of her sister's newborn infant, he rejected the claim of the district attorney's office that the disclosure rules compel prosecutors to include such testimony in the publicly available Voluntary Disclosure Forms, as is customary among many Brooklyn prosecutors. . . . "In light of the determination by this court that the disclosure of the sum and substance of defendant's Grand Jury testimony was not compelled by the notice requirements of CPL §710.30, the conclusion must be drawn that the People violated the secrecy of the Grand Jury," Justice Firetog held in People v. Sergio, 3508/07. . . . Justice Firetog nonetheless denied all of the defense's requests, including the appointment of a special prosecutor and the dismissal of the indictment against the witness, Andria Sergio, who has been charged with hindering a prosecution, tampering with physical evidence and improperly disposing a dead body. . . . In the underlying matter, Ms. Sergio testified before the Brooklyn grand jury regarding the death of her sister's baby in April. Ms. Sergio was charged with helping to dispose of the body, which was discovered on the back porch of the sisters' parents' Bay Ridge house.

Judging the Judges

New York Sun Editorial

7-30-07 --It is no small thing that a federal judge had to tell the state's presiding administrative judges that they flubbed the First Amendment when drafting new rules about attorney advertising in the State of New York. It's always possible that the federal judge who ruled on the matter, Frederick Scullin Jr. of U.S. District Court in Syracuse, will himself get over-ruled, though it would be too bad. . . . The issue is lawyers advertising. Last year, the top judges of the four judicial districts across New York announced the end of the old days of attorney advertising, when attorneys could air television and radio, not to mention internet ads, pretty much as they wished, so long as the ad wasn't fraudulent. The new rule stated that no attorney advertising could "rely on techniques to obtain attention that demonstrate a clear and intentional lack of relevance to the selection of counsel." . . . The problem is that "techniques to obtain attention" are the hallmark of good advertising. This meant that an upstate personal injury firm like Alexander & Catalano, which won its suit challenging the restrictions, had to yank the ad in which its lawyers run so fast as to appear as blurs in an effort to reach a client. Footraces are not the basis by which lawyers are judged. But neither are a dozen other things likely to appear in even the blandest attorney ad.

Shackled to the Courthouse

By Emily Jane Goodman

7-27-07 -- Critics of the bench often refer to "black robe disease" — a syndrome of caprice and arrogance that afflicts certain jurists. But there's another malady suffered by many of those who wield a gavel. It's called loneliness. Here, a first-person account of the symptoms. . . . She’s alone, she’s isolated. She is overworked and underappreciated. She’s expected to be a perfect human being. Any error will be examined, re-examined, pored and obsessed over. She will be criticized, with no opportunity to explain. Express no personal opinions. Don’t say anything controversial. Compliments and thanks are rare. Rewards are nonexistent. No gifts allowed. There’s little cash and not much cachet. Every action is monitored; every word recorded. . . . The profile of a battered woman? Yes. But also the profile of a New York State Supreme Court trial judge. . . . The long and winding road to becoming a judge turns into the long and lonely road of being a judge. Once you reach the bench, you can go days or weeks without ever seeing a colleague or interacting with anyone other than your immediate staff, except at a proper distance.

In Reversal Report (click here), learn which judge has a problem with delinquents.

N.Y. Court System Seeks to Appeal Ruling
Faulting Some Ad Rules

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

The state of New York will appeal a federal judge's ruling that some new attorney advertising rules violate lawyers' free speech rights. . . . Michael Colodner, counsel to Chief Administrative Judge Ann T. Pfau, said Tuesday that court administrators have asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to appeal Northern District of New York Judge Frederick J. Scullin's decision in Alexander & Catalano v. Cahill, 07 Civ. 117. . . . Colodner said Cuomo's office will also be asked to move for a stay of a permanent injunction that Scullin issued prohibiting the enforcement of portions of the advertising rules he found unconstitutional. . . . The rules, unveiled by the four presiding Appellate Division justices last June and which took effect Feb. 1, are designed to dignify advertisements by lawyers and to prohibit them from promising to deliver monetarily for clients.

Linday Lohan's Deadbeat Dad Dressed Down by NY Judge

New York Lawyer, By Frank Eltman, The Associated Press

7-27-07 -- A judge on Friday chided Michael Lohan for his failure to make any child support payments to actress Lindsay Lohan's younger brother and sister since his release from prison earlier this year. . . . "The obligation to pay child support is absolute. ... It is not to be taken wily-nily," state Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Ross scolded Lohan in a brief proceeding inside a small, standing-room-only Long Island courtroom. . . . "Enough is enough." . . . The court appearance by the Lohan and his estranged wife Dina, who have been separated since 2005, attracted a brigade of photographers, reporters and camera crews eager for any snippet of Lohan news following the arrest earlier this week of their daughter in California. . . . "She's in a safe place and she's doing well," Dina Lohan said of Lindsay outside the courthouse; she did not speak in the courtroom. . . . Lindsay Lohan, 21, was arrested Tuesday in Santa Monica and released on bail for investigation of misdemeanor driving under the influence and with a suspended license and felony cocaine possession. She has insisted in an e-mail to an entertainment reporter that she is innocent of the latest allegations, which come just two weeks after she was released from her second stint in rehab this year.

N.Y. Federal Judge Strikes Down Many New Attorney Ad Rules

Finds state failed to prove that ban on certain content advanced goal of protecting public from misleading ads

Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

7-25-07 -- A federal judge has ruled unconstitutional most of the sweeping new restrictions on attorney advertising introduced earlier this year by the New York courts. . . . The restrictions, which went into effect Feb. 1, had barred lawyers from, among other practices, using nicknames that suggest an ability to obtain results or touting "characteristics clearly unrelated to legal competence." . . . Alexander & Catalano, the Syracuse, N.Y., personal injury firm that challenged the constitutionality of the advertising restrictions, had previously run ads calling its lawyers "heavy hitters" and showing them towering over downtown office buildings or sprinting at impossible speeds to help clients. . . . The four presiding justices of New York's Appellate Division, who are charged with overseeing attorney discipline, first unveiled proposed restrictions on attorney advertising last June to address concern that outrageous and aggressive lawyer ads were misleading the public as well as harming the image of the profession.

Kirwan says judge is an 'anarchist'

By Oliver Mackson, Times Herald-Record

7-25-07 -- Assemblyman Tom Kirwan thinks City Court Judge Peter Kulkin should be booted off the bench, and he says he'll lay out the case against Kulkin at a news conference today. . . . Kirwan is the highest-ranking official to publicly scorch Kulkin since the longtime defense lawyer was elected in 2004. . . . "No community can survive an anarchist on the bench, and that's what this guy is: He's an anarchist," said Kirwan, R-C-Newburgh. . . . Kirwan is a native of the city and a retired state police lieutenant. The state Legislature has no power to remove a judge; that power is reserved for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. . . . Kulkin's been in hot water since July 13, when he released a woman without bail after she was charged with vandalizing three Newburgh police cars. Judges have wide latitude to set bail, but the bail decision wasn't what outraged Newburgh police Chief Eric Paolilli.

Assemblyman Kirwan presses effort to remove City Court judge

By Oliver Mackson, Times Herald-Record 

7-25-07 --  Assemblyman Tom Kirwan read off a list of grievances against City Court Judge Peter Kulkin: releasing people without bail even after they'd already failed to show up for court; taunting a police lieutenant over assaults on cops; counseling people "not to store their drugs in the glove box because police can easily find them there." . . . Kirwan, R-C-Newburgh, who represents the city in Albany, held a news conference yesterday to condemn Kulkin and distribute a letter that urges the state's court bureaucracy to take "whatever steps are necessary to remove this man from the bench." . . . But Kulkin's not going anywhere any time soon. . . . Kirwan sent his letter to Administrative Judge Francis Nicolai, who has oversight of state and local courts in five mid-Hudson counties. . . . "It's not my role to tell judges to step down," Nicolai said. "Assemblyman Kirwan can always bring whatever matter he wants to the attention of the Commission on Judicial Conduct."

Cheaper to Keep Her:
NY Man Who Bribed Judge in His Divorce Headed to Prison

New York Lawyer, By Tom Perrotta, New York Law Journal

7-25-07 -- Avraham Levi, whose divorce case was the subject of ex-parte discussions between his attorney, Paul Siminovsky, and convicted ex-Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson, was sentenced yesterday to three months in prison and five months probation. . . . Mr. Levi, 53, pleaded guilty in June 2004 to conspiracy in the fourth degree and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. He admitted that he paid another man, Nissim Ellman, $10,000 to bribe Mr. Garson. . . . Mr. Garson, 74, began serving his 3-to-10 year prison sentence for bribery last month.

Judge Lends Accused Mob Boss Shirt and Tie for Murder Trial

The Associated Press 

7-23-07 -- He didn't get the nickname Vinny Gorgeous for nothing. . . . The accused mob boss and former beauty salon owner was ruffled when he ran out of fresh dress shirts to wear at his murder trial, so the trial judge offered one from his closet. . . . "I'm not sure if it's color-coordinated," said Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who came through with a blue shirt and yellow tie that he keeps on hand for just such occasions. . . . Vinny Gorgeous, whose real name is Vincent Basciano, gave the get-up high praise. . . . "I would do my shopping here," he told the judge. . . . Basciano had been forced to pair his gray suit jacket with a T-shirt after a jail dress-shirt drop-off went awry. He told Garaufis the informal ensemble made him feel "uncomfortable." . . . "I know what's appropriate to wear in court," explained Basciano, 47, the one-time owner of the Hello Gorgeous salon.

Surrogate Slugfest

By Jason Boog

7-20-07 -- An intense Surrogate Court battle is shaping up in Kings County, an off-cycle race that threatens to stall the Brooklyn Democratic machine. This battle could produce the first African-American Surrogate Judge in Brooklyn, and has already set up an explosive showdown among political leaders. . . . Currently, two judges and the chief attorney of the Surrogate Court are battling for a spot that opened up when Surrogate Frank R. Seddio resigned earlier this year. A Civil Court Judge and a Supreme Court Justice, both African-American, are the current frontrunners, and they are working hard to distance themselves from the corruption trials that befouled the borough judiciary this year. . . . Nevertheless, both those judicial candidates have party ties that go much deeper than they would like to admit. . . . Surrogate Judge is a honey-pot post, because the jurist decides the fortunes of individuals who died without wills. Surrogates must assign legal guardians and fiduciaries to handle myriad tasks: calculating the value of estates, selling properties, and settling accounts — each job with a neat paycheck for the lawyer handling the case.

Judge's rebuke prompts change at DA office

Staff writers Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Jennifer Patterson and Jimmy Vielkind

7-20-07 -- A month after a City Court judge harshly criticized Christian D'Alessandro, chief investigator for Albany County District Attorney David Soares, for a conversation with a defendant without the man's lawyer present, a new sign graces the DA's waiting room. . . . As Soares promised, the sign refers visitors with pending criminal cases to the offices of Public Defender Peter Torncello, Alternate Public Defender Thomas Dulin and the Commission on Judicial Conduct -- depending on the nature of the complaint. . . . The sign -- and Judge Thomas K. Keefe's stinging rebuke of D'Alessandro -- were prompted by an encounter last fall between the investigator and a man named Clyde Clark, who admitted going to Soares's office dissatisfied with his defense attorney and hoping to hammer out a better plea bargain for himself.

NY Judge Faces Prison Time in Mob-Linked
Gem Laundering Plot

by Associated Press

7-18-07 -- (AP) — A disgraced judge is facing time behind bars for conspiring with a reputed mobster to launder stolen diamonds, watches and jewelry. . . . Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have recommended a prison sentence of nearly four years for former Nassau County District Judge David Gross, who pleaded guilty Friday to money laundering conspiracy. . . . “Sworn to do justice, a sitting judge violated his oath as well as the law when he partnered with a member of organized crime to launder proceeds of criminal activity,” U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in a statement. . . . Gross, 45, landed in legal trouble in 2005 when he unknowingly crossed paths with an undercover FBI agent posing as an international trafficker in stolen African diamonds. . . . Prosecutors said Gross and alleged Genovese crime family member Nicholas Gruttadauria offered to help the agent sell a packet of 19 loose diamonds, and then outlined a broader scheme to launder thousands of dollars in proceeds from stolen jewelry through a Long Island restaurant owned by Kim Brady Land, who is also charged. . . . As part of his guilty plea, Gross agreed to give back a pair of diamond earrings, surrender a luxury car and return his $7,000 cut of the laundered money. . . . Gross, whose best known work as a judge was presiding over a drunken driving case involving Lindsay Lohan’s father, lost re-election to his judgeship after his arrest. . . . His attorney, John Carman, called Gross’s guilty plea a “tragic” but necessary act.

Misconduct Charges Lead to N.Y. Judge's Resignation

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

7-18-07 -- Former New York Supreme Court Justice Lawrence I. Horowitz used his status as a judge to seek preferential police treatment for his girlfriend and to have authorities investigate the woman's estranged husband, the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct said Tuesday. . . . The commission announced that Horowitz, who resigned on June 20, has signed a stipulation acknowledging that he could not defend himself against the disciplinary charges. He also agreed not to serve again as a judge or judicial hearing officer. . . . Horowitz, 56, was a Westchester County Supreme Court justice who has been assigned to Orange County for the past two years. . . . In a formal complaint also released Tuesday, the commission charged Horowitz with two counts of judicial misconduct, and it dated his wrongdoing to Jan. 1, 2004, when he joined the Supreme Court bench. . . . The commission contended that from the beginning of his tenure, Horowitz used Supreme Court stationery to write letters concerning personal or family business matters. The correspondence included letters to the schools his children attended to comment on school policies, to his house of worship to discuss his membership dues and to Verizon, contesting an unpaid bill of $14,707 for a phone number associated with his former law practice, according to the commission.

Click Below To View Exhibits.

Decision & Order

Exhibit 1:  The Formal Charges Lodged Against The Judge

Exhibit 2:  The Judge's Answer

Exhibit 3:  The Judge's Letter Of Resignation

Judge selection reform push gains support

By Carol DeMare, Staff writer

7-18-07 -- As the time approaches for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on how New York selects state Supreme Court justices, interested parties are lining up to make their voices heard. . . . Federal District Court Judge John Gleeson of Brooklyn ruled in January 2006 in a lawsuit brought by a Brooklyn civil court judge in conjunction with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law that the convention system imposed by the state's Election Law, a system that is unique to New York, is unconstitutional and fraught with partisan interference. The judge said voters should select judicial candidates in primaries until the state Legislature comes up with a new statutory scheme for Supreme Court candidates. . . . Last August, the federal appeals court for the 2nd Circuit upheld Gleeson. Then lawyers representing the state Board of Elections, which appealed Gleeson's ruling, were successful in a bid to have the nation's highest court hear the case. Arguments are set for October. . . . This week, New York City and three legal organizations filed a joint friend of the court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the existing convention system be struck down.

NY Judge Pleads Guilty to Diamond Deal

By Avi Krawitz

7-16-07 -- Former Nassau County District Judge David Gross pleaded guilty to charges of laundering stolen diamonds and jewelry on Friday (July 13, 2007) and is now facing jail time. . . . Gross teamed up with the Genovese crime family to launder more than $400,000 in stolen jewelry before he was caught in 2005 while trying to cut a deal with an undercover FBI agent. . . . Gross, along with Genovese family member Nicholas Gruttadauria, offered the agent, who was posing as a trafficker of stolen African diamonds, help in selling a packet of 19 loose diamonds. They also presented a broader scheme to launder thousands of dollars in stolen jewelry through a Long Island restaurant, The Associated Press reported. . . . In his guilty plea, Gross agreed to return a pair of diamond earrings, his $7,000 share of the laundered money, and give up the luxury car he used to transport the goods. . . . Gross faces a possible 20-year prison term but prosecutors are recommending a 4-year punishment when he is sentenced in October.

N.Y. Chief Judge Explains Her Deferral of Pay Hike Suit

Kaye calls continuing pay drought the most trying issue in her 14 years as chief judge

Joel Stashenko and Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

7-11-07 -- It can be a sign of strength to defer filing a lawsuit if doing so would weaken the position of judges who are advocating for a pay raise, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye has told the state's judges in an e-mail communiqué. . . . "I have no doubt that a lawsuit by me on behalf of the Unified Court System would not have helped us one whit had it already actually been brought," she wrote in the memo. "Indeed, given these players, it would have damaged our cause." . . . The commencement of a lawsuit trying to force the New York Legislature and Gov. Eliot Spitzer to grant the state judiciary its first pay raise since 1999 "chills our dealing with our partners in government, including -- most pointedly -- further informal communications regarding pay increases," the chief judge wrote in an e-mail dated Friday. . . . "As lawyers and judges, we have all spent our lives dealing with litigation, and know that -- rather than a sign of weakness -- sometimes real strength lies in deferring potentially counterproductive action," Kaye said.

See the full text of Chief Judge Kaye's memo.

Times Square Ad With Naked Derrières Faces a Judge’s Scrutiny

By Sewell Chan

The Times Square Church challenged the installation of a billboard featuring these images.

7-11-07 -- At what point do buttocks — no matter how cheerfully presented, and in the service of selling a bathroom fixture moreover — become too tasteless for public display? . . . That is the question facing a Manhattan judge, as Anemona Hartocollis reports today. The Times Square Church, an interdenominational congregation established in 1987, filed a lawsuit last month to block a billboard advertisement showing a row of naked derrières from going up on the side of 1657 Broadway, a Times Square office tower where the church is a tenant.

Dog Shooter’s Judge-Attorney In Prohibited Dual Role

North Country Gazette

7-11-07 -- Gary C. Hobbs, a part-time judge in Glens Falls City Court and a partner in the private law firm of Poklemba & Hobbs, seems to have a problem with ethics. . . . First he tried to be a prosecutor in Warren County courts at the same time that he was sitting on the bench and was forcibly removed by court order. . . . Now, according to an article in Newsday, he’s trying to be a defense attorney too in the same county where he’s a judge. . . . The thing is though, it’s prohibited and unethical. . . . According to an article published Tuesday in Newsday, Hobbs is continuing his long standing practice of representing police officers who run afoul of the law.

Evidence of Missing Funds From Retired Judge’s Estate

Latest Accounting Reveals Financial Mismanagement
By Charles Sweeney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

7-9-07 -- A retired judge’s former court-appointed property guardian may be on the hook for a considerable amount of money, if a recent accounting of her tenure as financial manager of his estate is accurate. . . . The most recent accounting of attorney Emani P. Taylor’s tenure as property guardian, prepared by Court Examiner Seth Cohen, has recently been filed with the presiding judge overseeing retired Judge John Phillips’ guardianship case. If the figures are correct, Taylor will have to answer for several expenditures — including $119,300 in disbursements she made to herself during 2006 and $49,813 she made in 2004.

Appeals Panel Splits Three Ways on Church-State Suit

By Joseph Goldstein, Staff Reporter of the Sun

7-5-07 --The city's policy of barring churches from holding Sunday services in public schools could provide the U.S. Supreme Court with its next big "establishment clause" case, given the fractured judgment rendered by a federal appellate court in Manhattan yesterday. . . . The three judges on the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel who heard a Bronx congregation's challenge to the policy each issued a separate opinion. One judge of Bronx House hold of Faith v. Board of Education ruled in favor of the church; another decided in favor of the Board of Education's anti-church policy; a third found the case was not yet ready for review. As a result, the church may continue to use the school building pending further appeal. . . . The case likely prompted such division because of the question, more theological than legal, at its center: What is worship? The legal significance of the question hangs on a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the court held that schools allowing use of their campus after hours by secular groups could not then exclude religious groups from conducting religious instruction or discussion on school grounds.

NY Judge Gives White-Collar Defendants Time to Show They Can't Pay Lawyers

New York Lawyer, By Beth Bar, New York Law Journal

7-5-07 -- Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in United States v. Stein, 05 Crim. 888, did not decide whether he would dismiss criminal tax fraud charges against 12 of 16 former KPMG partners. Instead, the judge gave the ex-partners until July 9 to submit under seal evidence demonstrating that they do not have the financial means to fund a defense. . . . He also told government attorneys to submit an estimate of how much reasonable legal services for the defendants would cost in this case. . . . Defense counsel yesterday reiterated their argument that the indictment should be dismissed because the government, in pressuring the accounting firm to refuse to pay the defendants' legal fees, committed a pattern of misconduct that "shocks the conscience" and deprived their clients of their due process rights.

"The Prison Was in Lockdown" Excuse For Tardy Filing About As Successful as "The Dog Ate My Petition"

New York Lawyer, By Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal

7-5-07 -- A prisoner who sought to excuse his tardiness in filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus by the fact that he had lost access to the prison law library during a facility lockdown has been rebuffed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. . . . Addressing a question of first impression in Belot v. Burge, 05-6875-pr., the circuit set the standard for reviewing a lower court's exercise of discretion to grant equitable tolling of the one-year limitations period for filing petitions. . . . The circuit ruled that the district court's finding that the prisoner had waited too long to begin preparing his petition was a reasonable exercise of that discretion. . . . Judges Ralph Winter, Pierre Leval and Jose Cabranes decided the appeal. Judge Leval wrote for the panel. . . . Jean Belot is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in the Auburn Correctional Facility imposed after his conviction of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and his designation as a persistent felony offender.

June 2007

N.Y. Court of Appeals Rules DWI Law Does Not Apply to Chemical Inhalants

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

6-29-07 -- "Intoxication" under New York's Vehicle and Traffic Law involves the disorientation caused by drinking alcohol, not the high produced by "huffing" chemicals from aerosol cans, the Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. . . . The state Legislature has been consistent since 1910, when it first made it a misdemeanor to operate a motor vehicle "in an intoxicated condition," in decreeing that intoxication is a consequence of ingesting too much alcohol, the court decided unanimously in People v. Litto, 94.. . . "Although, as the People argue, the goal of the Legislature may be advanced by including use of drugs in the definition of 'intoxication,' the Legislature has repeatedly and definitively concentrated on precise mechanisms to prevent deathly accidents related to alcohol and drugs," Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote for the court. "Including driving while under the influence of limitless 'drugs' as a violation of driving while intoxicated has not been part of that mechanism."

N.Y. Appeals Court Hears Death Case

By David Pomerantz, Special to the Sun

6-29-07 -- The federal appellate court in Manhattan heard its first death-penalty appeal in more than 40 years yesterday. The three-judge panel sharply questioned the government about its strategy during the trial of Donald Fell, who was sentenced to death in Vermont in 2002. . . . Fell, 27, confessed to killing his mother and her boyfriend with an accomplice on November 26, 2000, and the next morning, kidnapping a 53-year-old grandmother, Teresa King, in Vermont, and murdering her across the state line in upstate New York. . . . That death-penalty sentence was the first to come out of Vermont since 1957, but it was later commuted. . . . A defense attorney for the condemned man asked the judges to overturn the death sentence on the grounds that the jury should not have been allowed to hear testimony about Fell's interest in Satanism as a youth.

N.Y. Judges' Associations Prepare to Sue State for Salary Hike

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

6-27-07 -- Volunteer attorneys for judges' organizations are drafting a lawsuit to force New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state Legislature to give state judges their first pay raise since January 1999. . . . The complaint is being developed on a pro bono basis by Chadbourne & Parke partners Thomas Bezanson and George Bundy Smith, a former judge on the Court of Appeals. . . . "We are preparing a suit," said Chadbourne & Parke spokesman Andrew Blum. "We intend to go ahead with it as soon as it is clear that the Legislature has yet again abandoned responsibility to assure an appropriate pay raise for the judiciary." . . . Staten Island Civil Court Judge Philip S. Straniere said the group he heads, the Board of Judges of the Civil Court of the City of New York, is among the judicial associations backing the suit.

NY Civil Rights Lawyer, Wife's Claim of Police Abuse Triggers Probe at NYPD

New York Lawyer, By The Associated Press

6-27-07 -- A New York Police Department spokesman said the Civilian Complaint Review Board will look into a civil rights lawyer's claim that officers assaulted him last week during a confrontation in Brooklyn. . . . Attorney Michael Warren and his wife, Evelyn, were arrested in the Prospect Heights neighborhood on Thursday after confronting police who had captured a suspected car thief on the street.

NY Judge Abruptly Resigns Amid Reports of Ethics Probe

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

6-22-07 -- Supreme Court Justice Lawrence I. Horowitz abruptly resigned from the bench yesterday, according to Ninth Judicial District Administrative Judge Francis A. Nicolai. . . . Justice Horowitz, 56, who has reportedly been under investigation for intervening in a friend's traffic ticket, made his resignation effective as of today. . . . His lawyer, Deborah Scalise, a specialist in professional discipline matters at Jones Garneau in White Plains, said the judge resigned for "personal reasons" and declined to elaborate. . . . Justice Horowitz was appointed to an interim vacancy on the Westchester County Court in 2003, and elected to the Supreme Court in the Ninth District, which covers the five suburban counties north of New York City, later that year. For the past two years he was been sitting in Orange County.

NY Jurist Who Reportedly Testified on Sale of Judgeships Before Grand Jury Takes Leave

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

6-22-07 -- Brooklyn Justice Howard A. Ruditzky left the bench on medical leave on June 8, Office of Court Administration spokesman David Bookstaver confirmed yesterday. . . . Justice Ruditzky, 62, left on leave at his request, said Mr. Bookstaver, who declined to provide further details. . . . The judge had been widely reported to have received immunity when he testified before a Brooklyn grand jury examining whether Democratic nominations for Supreme Court judgeships were for sale. . . . According to several published reports, Justice Ruditzky confirmed for the grand jury that a supporter had paid more than $40,000 in cash and postage stamps to help him get a nomination in 2001.

Exclusive: Silver on separate judiciary: 'We're going to do it'

Staten Island Advance

6-22-07 -- After more than two decades of political battles, Staten Island is poised to get its own judicial district separate from Brooklyn. . . . "We're going to do it," Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told the Advance a short time ago. . . . The legislation, passed yearly by the state Senate, was allegedly stalled in the Assembly at the behest of Brooklyn political bosses who didn't want to cede power - which Silver denied. . . . It's not clear when the bill will come up for a vote - whether tonight, or tomorrow morning. . . . The sponsors of the bill, Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island) and state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), said they amended the legislation so Brooklyn wouldn't lose any of its judges - under previous legislation, they could have surrendered seats.

Expenditure Reports Proposed For Judiciary, State Agencies

North Country Gazette

6-22-07 -- Under a bill passed by the state Senate and passed on to the Assembly, biannual expenditure reports from State agencies, public authorities, and the Judiciary would be required that supposedly would ensure greater openness and responsiveness in state government. . . . The State Senate and Assembly have compiled and publicly released such expenditure reports since 1996. . . . The proposal builds upon new laws that the State Senate enacted in 2005 and 2006 designed to strengthen the State’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Since 1996, the Senate claims to have taken the lead in providing public information about its operations and expenditures through public expenditure reports.

Striking Distance?

By Jason Boog

6-22-07 -- Policymakers in Albany ended their session without resolving the judiciary's nine-year compensation stagnation, which means that some members of the bench are starting to whisper the "S" word. And they don't mean "suits." . . . As the State Legislature slouched toward adjournment late Thursday with no breakthrough on the issue of pay raises for judges, an infuriated judiciary began to contemplate an escalation in the salary wars. . . . For many that might mean new or expanded litigation. Some are even whispering “strike.” . . .  “Judges don’t need to hire lobbyists or public relations people, we need to hire an FBI hostage negotiator,” said Montgomery County Family Court Judge Philip V. Cortese in an interview — distilling the judges’ collective belief that the Legislature essentially held salary negotiations captive to other legislative priorities. . . . Cortese has a stack of email correspondence between furious judges on his desk, which he summarized pithily: “The judges are clearly at their wit’s end.”

Sylvan Center Told to Refund Tutoring Costs

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal 

6-20-07 -- A Brooklyn judge has ordered the Sylvan Learning Center to refund more than $11,000 to a mother who claimed that the tutoring company failed to live up to its guarantee that her two children would "improve at least one full grade level." . . . Civil Court Judge Genine D. Edwards awarded pro se plaintiff Terrain Drew the $11,338 she paid Sylvan to tutor her second-grade daughter and fourth-grade son and $105 for Sylvan's violation of the General Business Law, as well as costs and interest. . . . "By taking advantage of a consumer who was vested in her children's academic success and who was desperate to have her children beat the odds, Sylvan presented itself as a viable recourse," Edwards held in Drew v. Sylvan Learning Center Corp., 35448/2003. . . . "There is absolutely no reason why a consumer interested in improving her children's academic status should not be made aware, prior to engaging Sylvan's services, that these services cannot, with any reasonable probability, guarantee academic success."

Judicial Panhandling

North Country Gazette Commentary

6-15-07 -- Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye continued on her campaign of threats, bullying and intimidation this week, trying to strong arm the state Legislature into giving her and her judicial cohorts a pay raise. . . . With the days of the current legislative session coming to a close, it appears that Judge Judy is getting desperate. . . . Once again she used her position and influence for personal gain as she got on her soapbox earlier this week before business leaders gathered at the New York City Bar. . . . Now she’s claiming that if she and her judicial buddies don’t get a raise, it will have a negative impact on the economic health of New York.  Yeah, sales of Audis, Mercedes and Jaguars might be down. . . . And Judge Judy isn’t content with just one pay raise.  She wants a commission created that will establish future judicial pay raises.  How about one for the private sector, for the working class too that will ensure a structured increase in the minimum wage every two years too?  The Legislature was elected to serve the people of the state, not the judges.

A Judge Cries 'Sue!'

Kaye's Silly Threat Exposes Disorder In N.Y. Courts

By Jim Copland

6-15-07 -- NEW York's top jurist, Chief Judge Judith Kaye, has a long and distinguished career on the bench. So her threats to sue the state with a frivolous claim over judicial pay raises have been disappointing, to say the least. On Tuesday, she told a group of business leaders, she claimed, "We are prepared for full-scale litigation against the state of New York if nothing happens by the time the Legislature adjourns." . . . Kaye is understandably irked that the salaries of the states' judges haven't increased in some nine years. But the power to set judicial salaries clearly rests with the Legislature's appropriations power, as spelled out in the state Constitution, which says that judicial pay "shall be established by law." . . . The Constitution constrains the Legislature not to lower judges' salaries over the term for which they have been elected or appointed - an important safeguard to preserve judicial independence - but hardly compels lawmakers to increase judicial pay.

Click here to learn which judge locked out a landlord in
Judicial Reports' “Reversal Report.”

NY Judge Who Reportedly Offered to Wear Wire to Set Up Colleague Sees Plea Deal Evaporate

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

6-15-07 -- With plea negotiations at a standstill, Acting Justice William C. Donnino yesterday set Oct. 1 for the start of the trial of former Brooklyn Justice Michael J. Garson on charges that he stole $287,500 from his elderly aunt. . . . Sources report that Mr. Garson, who did not seek re-election last November, had entered into a cooperation agreement which provided that he would, at most, be required to plead to a misdemeanor if his cooperation produced an indictment. . . . Those sources said Mr. Garson wore a wire in conversations with Justice Howard A. Ruditzky in an effort to prove that Justice Ruditzky had bought the Democratic Party nomination for his judgeship. . . . Mr. Garson's lawyer, former Brooklyn Justice Ronald J. Aiello, however, was reportedly angered because the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office allowed Justice Ruditzky to claim immunity, thereby blocking Mr. Garson from producing the indictment needed to fulfill his end of the cooperation agreement. . . . Prosecutors had insulated Justice Ruditsky from indictment, sources said, by allowing him to testify before a grand jury without a waiver of immunity.

Camera politics

Times Union Editorial

6-15-07 -- New York's 10-year experiment with cameras ended in 1997, with resounding success. Yet 10 years after that experiment, New York still has a law prohibiting cameras in state courtrooms, unless a sitting judge decides otherwise. It's time, past time, that New York move into the 21st century and join the 35 other states that now allow cameras to record court proceedings as a matter of routine. . . . New York's experiment was intended to test whether cameras would, as the trial lawyers lobby argued, lead to miscarriages of justice. Yet at the end of the experiment, there was no evidence to suggest that witnesses would refuse to testify, judges would indulge in grandstanding, or potential jurors would refuse to serve if they knew they would be on camera. Indeed, if the experiment proved anything, it was that cameras posed no threat to courtroom decorum or the accused's right to a fair trial.

One NY "Expert"'s Filching Shows Vulnerabilties in Court System

New York Lawyer, By Thomas Adcock, New York Law Journal

6-13-07 -- The case of a court-assigned expert alleged to have billed New York for $61,000 worth of work he did not perform has revealed "significant vulnerabilities" in the city's Assigned Counsel Plan, according to a report released yesterday by Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the Department of Investigation. . . . Plan administrators already have taken steps to tighten procedures. Ms. Hearn recommended additional changes, including criminal background checks on lawyers and experts who register with the plan and random audits of vouchers. ****** Mr. Gottfried, who is not an attorney, was disqualified from Philadelphia's Assigned Counsel Panel in 2002 for "misrepresenting his educational background and training." Later, a Philadelphia court found Mr. Gottfried guilty of submitting "hundreds of fraudulant vouchers" to that city's assigned counsel system. . . . On March 19, he was sentenced to a maximum of 23 months in prison and ordered to pay $302,000 in restitution. Ms. Hearn said there were "similar allegations of fraudulent activity" in Mr. Gottfried's affiliation with New York's system.

Free Judges’ Pay

By Judith S. Kaye Op-Ed Contributor

6-08-07 -- SINCE Gov. Eliot Spitzer reappointed me chief judge three months ago, fair pay for our judges has been the consuming issue. In these critical, final days before the Legislature adjourns, New Yorkers deserve a frank explanation of why raising judicial pay and replacing New York’s broken system of compensation matter — and why so much is at stake if Albany fails to act now. . . . As our country’s founders warned centuries ago, the independence and quality of the judiciary is what keeps this democracy prosperous and free. Only when judges serve without fear or favor can rights be enforced, powers balanced, debts recovered, promises kept and justice done. Diminish confidence in the quality and independence of judges, and our cherished liberties suffer too.

Kaye, other judges should appreciate salaries

Jerry Moore, Esq.

6-08-07 -- Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's incessant advocacy for higher judicial pay is becoming an embarrassment to the legal profession. . . . Only 5 percent of U.S. workers earn salaries of more than $100,000. Some 85 percent of U.S. households, with a median of two wage earners, have incomes less than $100,000 (U.S. Census Bureau). General trial court judges in New York have average salaries of $136,700 (Institute for Judicial Studies). . . . At what point do judges tarnish the high public offices they hold by repeatedly imploring the Legislature to take more from those who earn less to supplement their generous, if not lavish, salaries and benefits?

Guardianship Juggling Act

By Jason Boog
6-08-07 -- The systems governing both the appointment of law guardianships and the oversight of judicial campaign donations are replete with often demanding protocols. But the recent conviction of an ex-judge and the intimacy of relationships in the small jurisdiction of Staten Island raise questions about the precision and effectiveness of those regulations. . . . During the sentencing of disgraced Supreme Court justice Gerald Garson earlier this week, one divorcee blasted the jurist for accepting bribes from her ex-husband’s divorce attorney. “Money and cigars are what determined your custody decisions,” Sigal Levy told the court in her angry victim’s statement. . . . Levy had told the Brooklyn District Attorney about Garson’s bribery and ex parte conversations with Paul Siminovsky — her ex-husband’s attorney and one of Garson’s favorite appointees for lucrative private law guardianships — during her divorce proceedings in 2003. Her testimony initiated a sting operation that landed Garson a three-to-ten-year prison term. . . . It also generated tougher public scrutiny of court arrangements in the Second Judicial District, which comprises Brooklyn and Staten Island courts.

In Judicial Reports click Reversal Report,
to learn which judge has a prevalent plaintiff problem.

NY Senate Passes Initiative And Referendum

6-6-07 -- The New York State Senate today passed a constitutional amendment (S.1370) that would give New Yorkers a more direct role in the legislative process by empowering them to enact and amend laws through initiative and referendum. . . . "Initiative and referendum is one of the most powerful reform tools in politics because it gives the people the ability to make informed decisions to directly change the powers and priorities of their government," Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said.  "It gives people the power to directly decide on  ideas that have strong public support, yet have not been acted on by their state or local government." . . . "Government is truly the voice of the people, so it just makes sense that voters should have a say in how their government operates and works for them," Senator Nick Spano (Westchester), said.  "New Yorkers want more power over their public policy decisions, and this legislation will enable and empower them to do just that." . . . "Initiative and referendum is a fundamental reform that will give New Yorkers more power to make decisions on public policy issues.  It will also allow us as lawmakers to obtain a better view of the concerns of the citizens," said Senator Serphin R. Maltese (Queens).  "As President Andrew Jackson said, 'the people are the government.'

Judge Judy Rants

North Country Gazette Commentary

6-02-07 -- Judith Kaye, chief judge for the State of New York, is obsessed, almost maniacal, and using the prestige of her office to try and intimidate the Governor and the state legislature into giving the judges in the state a pay raise.

She took the stage again this week, stomping her feet, claiming that New York State is in a “judicial pay crisis”, boohooing that judges are having to take loans on their pensions because they can’t live on the $136,700 annual salary that they have. . . . We all have that problem, but not that kind of salary.  Perhaps she and her cronies should curb their lifestyle. . . . There’s a real crisis in this country that people are going hungry and being forced to try and get by on the food stamps allotted to them.  Food stamps have declined in value for more than a decade and more than 1.8 million New Yorkers receive food stamps in order to put food on their table. 

Convictions Overturned Due to Appearance of Judicial Partiality

North Country Gazette

6-02-07 -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that a federal judge should have recused himself from adjudicating a fraud case because of an appearance of partiality. . . . The court vacated the fraud convictions of Robert and Richard Amico in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York because Judge Charles Siragusa’s  “handling of, and reaction to, his prior dealings with the government’s main cooperating witness concerning a mortgage application for the judge created the appearance of partiality”. . . . The matter has sent back for retrial before a different judge. . . . Robert Amico Jr. and Richard Amico had appealed their convictions on charges arising from an alleged mortgage fraud scheme in which more than 100 homes were purchased with false documentation.  Robert Jr. was convicted of a variety of financial crimes including mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.

May 2007

Hamden Town Justice Censured For Bias, Improper Contacts

North Country Gazette

5-31-07 -- A town justice of the Hamden Town Court has been censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for making biased statements and making improper out-of-court contacts in two impending matters.  . . . In addition, the commission ruled that judge presided over numerous cases in which his former attorney appeared. . . . Duane R. Merrill, who is not an attorney, has been town justice since 1989. . . . The Commission concluded that Judge Merrill’s comments in the two matters conveyed the appearance of bias of bias and prejudgment.  In one of the cases, the judge presided with the consent of both sides.  In the other case, the judge’s former attorney, Terence P. O’Leary, represented a party, and the judge disqualified himself.

Cameras in the courtroom?
By: Joleene Des Rosiers

5-30-07 -- Judge James Tormey said, "I think it is long overdue, and I think it's very important, and I think it will pass." . . . The Honorable James C. Tormey, the 5th Judicial District Supervising Judge, has always been an advocate of allowing the public inside a courtroom using technology. . . . Tormey said, "Remember, these are public trials. And the courtrooms, the most they can hold is 100 people. With modern technology, that doesn't translate to a public trial."

NY Judge Should Have Walked Away From Case Involving Fellow Claiming He Fibbed to Get Judge a Mortgage

New York Lawyer, By Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal

5-30-07 -- The appearance of partiality should have led a federal judge to recuse himself from a criminal case that ended the fraud convictions of two men in the Western District, an appeals court has ruled. . . . In vacating the convictions of Robert and Richard Amico, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit cautioned that it was not implying that Judge Charles Siragusa had committed any misconduct and said that he had shown "considerable skill and professionalism." . . . Nonetheless, the circuit said Judge Siragusa's "handling of, and reaction to, his prior dealings with the government's main cooperating witness concerning a mortgage application for the judge created the appearance of partiality." . . . Judge Barrington Parker wrote for the panel in United States v. Amico, 03-1737-cr. He said that "as problems surrounding the application evolved, an appearance of partiality arose that made it inappropriate" for Judge Siragusa "to continue to preside."

Former B’klyn Judge Now Faces Trial in Ga. Child Support Case

Mason, Removed from Bench in ’03, Was Pioneer Caribbean-American Jurist
By Samuel Maull, Associated Press

5-30-07 -- Several people in court cheered when a judge ordered sheriff’s deputies to jail Reynold Mason, a disgraced former judge accused of failing to pay more than $250,000 in child support. . . . Mason was taken from a courtroom in handcuffs and jailed Thursday after being arrested on a warrant. The warrant for Mason, a former Brooklyn judge now living in Hampton, Ga., was valid, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis said. . . . “At this point I have no alternative but to direct that the order of arrest be executed,” Lobis said. The cheers came from people who had accompanied Mason’s former wife, Tessa Abrams Mason, to court. She said she was very surprised that her ex-husband had shown up. . . . Mason, a native of Grenada and reportedly the first Caribbean-born judge on the Brooklyn Civil Court, was elected in 1994. He was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1997. Soon afterward, he left his pregnant wife and their two children, Abrams Mason said, and she has been chasing him for child support since.

NY Lawyer With a Fool for a Client Has Fees Slashed by Cranky Judge

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

A federal bankruptcy court judge has slashed the fees sought by an attorney for representing himself in an action against the Internal Revenue Service. . . . Northern District Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Littlefield Jr. last May took the unusual step of allowing Paul S. Hudson to seek attorney's fees for his successful pro se efforts. Shortly afterward, Mr. Hudson submitted a bill for $21,206. . . . But in a recently completed review of Mr. Hudson's application, which Judge Littlefield described as "replete with deficiencies and problems," he reduced the fee award to $6,831. . . . In fact, Judge Littlefield suggested in In re: Hudson, 00-11683, he was so frustrated with the application that he considered exercising his discretion to deny it entirely.

Federal Judge Loses Jurisdiction In KPMG Dispute Over Legal Fees
By Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal

 5-24-07 -- A federal judge lacked jurisdiction to hear state contract claims brought by 16 former KPMG employees and partners to force the accounting giant to pay their attorneys' fees in the government's massive criminal tax shelter case against them, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled this morning. . . . The circuit found that Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan - who has blasted the government for using its leverage over KPMG under a 2006 non-prosecution agreement to pressure the company into withholding or stopping payment of the fees - should not have taken ancillary jurisdiction over the issue in conjunction with his handling of the criminal case. . . . The circuit dismissed the complaint against KPMG in Stein v. KPMG, 06-4358-cv.

The Jury Scold

By Mark Thompson

5-18-07 -- Championing jury service is laudable. Exercising one's own intuition to discipline apparently recalcitrant jurors is something else again. Justice Edward T. McLaughlin has done plenty of both. . . . For more than two decades, the appellate court that oversees Manhattan and the Bronx has repeatedly advised trial judges not to use a certain phrase when explaining to jurors the tricky concept of reasonable doubt. . . . In a 2004 decision, People v. Johnson, the Appellate Division’s First Department quoted from eight different rulings that warned that the wording in question could undermine the presumption of innocence, leading jurors to believe that they could convict if the scales were even slightly tipped against the defendant. . . . “The lesson apparently has gone unheeded in at least one courtroom,” the court said. . . . The trial judge that the Appellate Division was referring to, with an unmistakable note of irritation, was New York County Supreme Court Justice Edward J. McLaughlin. At the close of the trial of Abdul Johnson, McLaughlin used the disfavored phrasing in his instructions to the jury, forcing the appellate court to reverse Johnson’s conviction on two counts of robbery and vacate his nine-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

LexPress: Screening Panels Too Little Too Late?

By Jesse Sunenblick

5-18-07 -- The court system's new judicial screening panels are having a tough time getting off the ground, the City of New York abandons its appeal of a judge's order to turn over secret documents about NYPD surveillance before the RNC convention, and a judge waaay upstate is sanctioned for using his title to help a woman he was dating, among other news. [more]

ETHICS: Carlton judge cited for improper conduct

Commission rules in favor of public criticism for Kevin Hurley’s judicial misconduct

By Miranda Vagg/

5-17-07 --Carlton Town Justice Kevin Hurley was put in the hot seat after introducing himself as a judge to the wrong person. . . . Hurley was admonished by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct after an investigation stemming from an incident in May 2005, in which Hurley called the New York State Police on behalf of a woman he was dating at the time. Hurley identified himself as a judge and acted as his friend’s advocate in reporting an alleged violation of an order of protection, said Robert Tembeckjian, administrator for the Commission. . . . “The commission found that Judge Hurley lent the prestige of his judicial office to advance the private interests of a woman whom he was dating,” Tembeckjian said. . . . The ruling made in March was for Hurley to be chastised for his actions, the equivalent to a “public reprimand,” Tembeckjian said.

Court Orders Release of Retired Judge from Nursing Home,

OKs Transfer to Park Slope Assisted Living Facility

By Charles Sweeney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

5-14-07 -- After spending just over two years living in a cramped, foul-smelling room in a bleak nursing home at the outer reaches of the Bronx, a beloved, retired Brooklyn judge is finally being transferred to an assisted living facility closer to his Brooklyn home. . . . At a guardianship hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, a judge ordered retired judge John Phillips’ release from East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in the Bronx, where he’s languished for more than two years while court-appointed lawyers haggled over his mismanaged estate. . . . State Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce ordered Phillips transferred to Castle Senior Living on Prospect Park, an assisted living facility close to the retired jurist’s Bedford-Stuyvesant home neighborhood. There, Phillips will reside in a private room, in a facility with many of the amenities of home — while simultaneously receiving the proper care he requires for his Alzheimer’s condition. Calling his decision “a milestone moment” given the travails that Phillips suffered due to financial mismanagement in the past, Pesce called the transfer “a step that will be much better for John Phillips, and a considerable improvement from where he’s at currently.”   

N.Y. Judge Admonished for Failure to Pay Off Debt

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

5-11-07 --Acting Supreme Court Justice Alan L. Honorof of Nassau County, N.Y., has been admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for failing to pay $21,000 of a settlement he entered into before he joined the bench. . . . The commission decided 8-1 in an opinion released Wednesday that Honorof "violated the high ethical standards required of judges, both on and off the bench" during a long-standing disagreement over payments to men the judge once represented as a practicing attorney. . . . The decision drew strong objections from commission member Richard D. Emery who chided the other members for being "manipulated" by Honorof's creditors into acting as a debt collector. . . . However, the commission majority noted that judges "are held to stricter standards than 'the morals of the market place,'" and suggested that the judge had not been candid with the court in his attempts to avoid the judgment. . . . Honorof faced further disciplinary action if he did not act to settle the debt, according to a stipulation reached with the commission. The judge acknowledged that his conduct violated the ethical rules and agreed to pay the judgment by May 15, according to the commission.

At long last, please set Judge Phillips free

By Christopher Ketcham for The Brooklyn Paper

5-11-07 --Could the tragic, six-year-long saga of retired Brooklyn Civil Court judge John L. Phillips finally be nearing a conclusion? . . . In 2001, Phillips was placed under a county-run guardianship program because he was declared to be “mentally incompetent” and needed the aid of government. . . . Now, six years later, this self-made multi-millionaire who served honorably for 13 years, is destitute and confined against his will to a Bronx nursing home. He is barred from receiving visitors or mail or even phone calls without permission of the court. His property has been sold off in unpublished and possibly illegal auctions. Millions in assets have disappeared.

• • •

Judge Phillips’s epic troubles began when Assistant District Attorney Steven Kramer, who worked for DA Joe Hynes, sought to have a guardian appointed for Phillips, claiming concern about the safety of the old man’s considerable assets. Phillips was 77 years old at the time and had no family, and Hynes sought to “help” him, according to letters his office has written to The Brooklyn Paper and elsewhere. A question exists, however, that Hynes may have had another concern — after all, Phillips had tried to unseat the DA in 1997 and was gearing up for another run.

Judging Judge-Pay Judgments

By Jason Boog
5-11-07 --New York judges suing New York policymakers over New York judge salaries. Now how do you adjudicate that? . . . The most surreal New York trial of the year opened in a quiet Mineola courthouse this week. . . . Three state judges sued the New York Legislative and Executive branches last year, hoping to force them to grant judges a pay raise that they say was promised to the judiciary in the 2006 state budget. That suit has put three judges on the other side of the bench and immediately raised an essential question: How can any state judge possibly adjudicate a case about his or her own salary? . . . The short answer to that question resides in a rarely invoked doctrine of jurisprudence, the so-called "rule of necessity." But members of the bench should take note of a cautionary tale on the use of such extraordinary intercession, which recently cost a judge in a neighboring state his re-election.

Prosecutors’ Pal
By Mark Thompson
Queens County Justice Arthur Cooperman, who has had criminal judgments corrected three times since November, picked up an outright reversal on the first of this month for letting a rogue prosecutor set up a flagrantly unfair ambush of a defense attorney in a murder trial. The prosecutor in the case, Claude Nelson Stuart, was subsequently suspended from the practice of law for three years by a 2005 ruling of the Appellate Division for lying to another judge about the whereabouts of a witness in a murder trial. Cooperman was untroubled by Stuart’s conduct in the case in his court. Cooperman’s prosecution-friendly stance in the case appears to lend credence to both fans and detractors of the veteran jurist, who will be under intense scrutiny in coming months as he presides over the manslaughter trial of the three police officers involved in the shooting of Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club last November.

NY Judge, Facing Ethics Probe, Quits After Just
18 Months On the Bench

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

5-11-07 --Brooklyn Surrogate Frank A. Seddio will leave his post today after less than 18 months on the job, the Office of Court Administration has confirmed. Surrogate Seddio had been facing a probe by the Commission on Judicial Conduct into whether he violated rules limiting the amount of contributions judicial candidates may make. . . . He also had reportedly told associates he was bored with the job and concerned about the low pay.

Surrogate Seddio did not return calls for comment.

'Fear of AIDS' Award Vacated by N.Y. Court

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

5-9-07 --The New York Appellate Division, 1st Department's 3-2 decision to vacate a jury's $75,000 post-traumatic-stress award in a "fear of AIDS" case has drawn a scathing dissent from Justice James M. Catterson. . . . Catterson criticized the majority for adhering to a judicially created six-month limit for emotional damages in AIDS-phobia cases rather than allowing a jury to determine whether the plaintiff's distress was "genuine" or "substantial," as required by prior precedent. . . . "Traditional negligent infliction of emotional distress claims should not be limited by a judicially imposed reasonableness period that takes from the jury the determination of the extent of a plaintiff's damages," Catterson wrote in his dissent in Sims v. Comprehensive Community Development Corp., 111. . . . "Given its departure from common-law principles of tort liability, the six-month rule should be discarded as meaningless," he said. "The 'window of anxiety' approach is nothing more than a recently contrived 'compromise between the harshness of precluding total recovery for the fear of AIDS and allowing a fearful plaintiff a windfall.'" . . . Justice E. Michael Kavanagh joined the dissent.

Ex-judge to recount mental health struggle

By Carol DeMare, Staff writer 

5-2-07 -- Sol Wachtler was the state's chief judge when he was arrested in November 1992 for the stalking, harassment and extortion of his former lover and threatening to kidnap her 14-year-old daughter. He traced his downfall to mental illness. . . . On Tuesday, in recognition of Mental Health Month and Unity House's 35 years of service, Wachtler a Long Island Republican once considered a possible candidate for governor will share his story with a gathering at Bush Memorial Hall on the Sage College campus in Troy. . . . Wachtler's presentation at 6:30 p.m. will be preceded by a reception an hour earlier. In promoting the event, the sponsors said the former chief judge will talk about his personal struggle with mental illness and his determination to redeem his reputation and make a contribution to society.

April 2007

Ex-judge law unto himself

Worked system to evade parking tickets - his own and his clients'

By William Sherman, Daily News Staff Writer

4-30-07 -- Glenn Caldwell was a citywide administrative law judge who ruled on thousands of cases involving parking tickets. . . . But he hated paying his own. . . . When Caldwell left the bench, switching sides to earn $20,000 a month as a parking ticket defense attorney for thousands of clients, he pulled out a novel basket of tricks to evade tickets and avoid paying 167 summonses. . . . Caldwell kept his judge's parking placard on his dashboard, even though he was no longer on the bench. He also ordered vanity plates with a special combination of letters and numbers he knew from experience would provide him with a technical defense against summonses, among other moves, the documents detailed. . . . During a two-year period, Caldwell ran up $12,000 in fines, not including interest. . . . Caldwell, 58, is also one of the lousiest licensed lawyers in the New York area, according to a Daily News probe.

Shocked Judge Allows Disabled County Employee's Abuse Claims to Proceed

Mark Hamblett., New York Law Journal

4-30-07 -- A disabled man who claims he was mocked, physically abused and ultimately fired from the Westchester County Parks Department will be able to proceed to trial and possibly recover damages from the county and three of its employees. . . . Southern District of New York Judge William C. Conner expressed shock at the allegations of mistreatment made by Anthony Costabile and rejected several of the defendant's arguments as absurd as he denied the bulk of the motions to dismiss in Costabile v. County of Westchester, 06 Civ. 3329. . . . Costabile, 24, charged that Roberto Alancarta, his supervisor at Glen Island Park in New Rochelle, bound him with shrink-wrap more than once and doused him with cold water. On one occasion, after he had shrink wrapped Costabile to a chair, Alancarta allegedly ignited the shrink-wrap. On another, Costabile claimed that he struggled to escape and suffered a hernia injury that required surgery.

Retired Brooklyn Judge Close To Release from Nursing Home

Presiding Judge To Seek Niece’s Approval for Transfer
By Charles Sweeney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

4-30-07 -- A state Supreme Court judge took matters into his own hands yesterday in the guardianship matter of retired judge John Phillips, who has been languishing in a Bronx nursing home for two years while a battery of attorneys wrangle over his mismanaged estate. . . . At a hearing yesterday, state Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce gave his tentative approval of plans for Phillips to move into Castle Senior Living, an assisted living facility on Prospect Park West in Park Slope, Brooklyn — pending approval from Phillips’ niece and personal guardian, Symphanie Moss. Pesce yesterday asked attorney Ezra Glaser for the mailing address of his client, Moss, stating he would “write to her today” and ask if she approved of Phillips’ transfer.

New York Governor Spitzer Proposes Sweeping Court Reforms

Proposes Streamlined Court System; Judicial Selection Reform; Pay Equity for Judges

4-27-07 --New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Lieutenant Governor David Paterson today announced reforms to modernize the state’s unwieldy court system, significantly limit the influence of money and closed-door politics in the selection of state court judges, and enact a long-overdue salary boost for state judges. . . . The Governor is proposing constitutional amendments to restructure New York State’s arcane court system and establish a merit-based appointment system for selecting state court judges and justices, and in the interim, statutory change to reform the current selection process for Supreme Court Justices. . . . “The legislation and constitutional amendments I am proposing today will bring long-needed reform to our court system, which is one of the most convoluted, politicized, outdated and expensive in the nation,” said Governor Spitzer.

N.Y. DA Says Former Judge, Assemblyman Hold Keys to Probe of Buying and Selling Judgeships

Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal 

4-23-07 -- With the bribery conviction of former Justice Gerald P. Garson in hand, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said Friday that "the end game" of his office's four-year probe into the buying and selling of judgeships is about to begin. . . . Hynes said Garson and former Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic county Chairman Clarence Norman hold the "keys" to proving allegations that candidates have had to pay $50,000 or more to obtain judgeships, stories that "have been around longer than you or me." . . . "Clarence Norman and Gerald Garson have information about the system that they are concealing" and their failure to reveal it has cast "a pall of scandal over the honorable and decent men and women who sit as judges in Kings County," Hynes said. . . . Lawyers for both men have insisted that they have nothing to disclose about alleged corruption.

What Price Judging?

By Dirk Olin

4-20-07 -- First, a quartet of judges filed suit to get a raise. Then, the deal that would have made that moot fell through. Next, one plaintiff dropped out. Last, the Chief Judge took her colleagues' case to the microphones. Is an interbranch donnybrook around the corner?  . . . As Judicial Reports explained last week (“Backdoor Pay Push” by Jason Boog), a trio of New York judges has become so frustrated with Albany’s failure to address the gnawing issue of judicial salaries that they are pursuing litigation against the state. . . . The judges’ lawsuit was filed in Nassau County Supreme Court at the end of Governor George Pataki’s administration. . . . Governor Eliot Spitzer adopted a roughly 25-percent raise and included it in the 2007-08 state budget that he sent to the Legislature earlier this year. But at the 11th hour, that was sacrificed on the altar of politics (read: legislators wanting to link it to their own belated pay raises). . . .The judges’ lawsuit was suddenly the only game in town. . . . Or was it?

NY Judge Disciplined for Using His Position With Cops on Girlfriend's Behalf

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

4-20-07 -- The "gratuitous" reference Kevin T. Hurley made to himself as a town justice when calling state police on behalf of his girlfriend has prompted the Commission on Judicial Conduct to admonish him. . . . Mr. Hurley contacted state police in May 2005 to report that his girlfriend's ex-husband had approached her that day in apparent violation of an order of protection. The commission said in its ruling yesterday that the justice identified himself to a state police sergeant as "Kevin Hurley, Carlton town justice."

N.Y. Governor Criticizes Judicial Conduct Commission Chairman Over Humor Book

Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

Gov. Eliot Spitzer Monday criticized Raoul Felder for making comments in a book he co-wrote with comedian Jackie Mason as not fitting "neatly, or at all" with his duties as chairman of the 11-member Commission on Judicial Conduct. . . . Spitzer said at a press conference that some of the comments in the book -- "Schmucks!" -- if made by judges would "certainly create the possibility of their being subject to some form of sanction." . . . Spitzer did not explicitly call for Felder to resign or say that he should be removed if he fails to do so. But the governor's press secretary, Christine Anderson, said late Monday that the governor condemns Felder's remarks and thinks he should resign, not from just the chairmanship, but from the commission. . . . On Friday, the commission voted "no confidence" in Felder, a matrimonial lawyer, who has represented many celebrities including former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, actress Elizabeth Taylor and boxer Mike Tyson.

Judge's Accident: Ex- Erie County ADA, DWI expert, names special prosecutor

By Rick Pfeiffer, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

4-19-07 -- A veteran Erie County prosecutor has been assigned to take over the impaired driving case against State Supreme Court Justice Amy Jo Fricano. . . . Leonard Krowczyk was appointed to the post of Niagara County special prosecutor by State Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch on Monday. . . . “I got a call (Monday) afternoon to tell me about the appointment and I was expecting to get the (court) order today,” Krowczyk said from his downtown Buffalo office on Tuesday afternoon. . . . Krowczyk was an assistant district attorney in Erie County from 1989 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000, he was the chief of the Erie County District Attorney’s DWI Unit, handling that county’s felony drunken driving cases.

N.Y. Judiciary's 1992 Lawsuit Recalled as 'Painful Episode'

But former chief judge says courts emerged in 'good shape'

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

4-19-07 -- Filing a lawsuit to win pay raises for state judges, even if necessary, would be a "sad day" for New York, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye said at an April 9 news conference. . . . But such a step would not be unprecedented. . . . Former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler and former Gov. Mario Cuomo squared off in a nearly four-month legal dispute in late 1991 and early 1992 that represented what former Cuomo special assistant Howard B. Glaser called the "most severe constitutional crisis" in state history. . . . It was also, according to those who were involved, among the most disagreeable experiences of their lives. . . . "It is a horrendous step," Wachtler said in an interview. "First of all, it is a step of constitutional dimension when you have the two branches of government in the midst of a lawsuit. The irony is that there is only one place to sue, and that is in the New York state courts." . . . A suit by the judiciary "kind of paralyzes your relationship with the other branches of government," said Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan S. Lippman, who was assistant administrative judge in 1991.

Paying the Tab of Rogue NY Lawyers: Misconduct Fund Braces for Surge

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

4-13-07 --Dishonest attorneys prompted the awarding of $7.1 million in 2006 from the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, which warned yesterday that the fund is likely to start seeing claims from the largest case of lawyer theft in its 25-year history. . . . Last year, the fund paid out $1 million less than the $8.1 million awarded in 2005. The average awarded annually over the last five years has been just over $6.3 million. (The report is available at www.nylawfund.org.) . . . See the 2006 Annual Report and highlights from the report. . . . Officials say the fund's finances are "very strong," but claims for reimbursement from clients defrauded by Andrew F. Capoccia and two attorneys working for him in his debt-reduction practice could total $5 million to $6 million alone, although the claims might be spread over more than one year, said Timothy J. O'Sullivan, executive director and counsel to the fund. Several hundred, and possibly thousands of clients, may seek help once federal authorities distribute restitution payments, he said in an interview yesterday. . . . "These catastrophic losses will challenge the New York Fund's ability to be able to continue to serve as a model for effective law client protection in our nation," the fund's 2006 report warned.

Monroe police say town justices are courting late-night trouble

Village of Monroe — To snooze or to serve?

By John Sullivan, Times Herald-Record 

4-13-07 --Every municipal justice faces that question at one time or another, when late-night arraignments are sometimes the price they pay for getting elected. . . . But Monroe village police claim that Monroe Town Justices Morton Marshak and Jack Rosenthal are sleeping too much and coming out too little. . . . When they do respond at night, the justices sometimes wait as long as an hour to call back.They also fail to return messages on their answering machines, police said. . . . Marshak would not comment, and Rosenthal did not return calls to his home and office. Each is paid $32,101 a year. . . . The controversy has put village police behind a proposal to revive a village court system independent of the town's. . . . The measure is necessary, police said, because suspects not arraigned end up in their holding cell, requiring officers to keep watch. That, in turn, sometimes means bringing in off-duty officers on overtime, which then leads to fewer officers on the street at night in a department already strapped for resources, police say.

Backdoor Pay Push

By Jason Boog

4-13-07 --As most observers focus on the judicial salary imbroglio in Albany, a trio of judges — fed up with the state Legislature's foot-dragging — have taken matters into their own hands. Whether that takes it out of the Chief Judge's hands is the big question now. . . . On April 1, the New York Legislature snubbed state judges for the second year in a row, scrapping a promised judicial pay raise during last-minute budget negotiations. . . . The state had earmarked $111 million of the 2007 budget for increasing judicial salaries around the state, which would have been the first raise since 1999. (The proposed plan would have raised the paycheck of a Supreme Court justice from $136,000 to $165,000.) . . . The reversal sparked newspaper stories, speeches, editorials, and press releases, but in the entire hullabaloo, most commentators overlooked four judges who had already abandoned negotiations and taken the Legislature to court. (Click here to see a LexMetrics comparison of state judicial salaries.)

Judicial Pay - Part II

By John Ennis

4-13-07 -- Earlier this year, LexMetrics took its first look at the issue of judicial pay (click here), which focused on the federal bench. Given the current controversy in the state legislature (click here for our lead story on the issue), we thought an analysis of New York State judges was due. . . . According to The National Center for State Courts, as of July 1, 2006, the average New York State general jurisdiction trial judge earned $136,700 — placing them 11th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. When adjusted for the cost of living, New York falls to 37th [Note: Judicial Pay, Part I used January 1, 2006 figures].

Judge Arrested For Drugged Driving

© 2007 North Country Gazette

4-12-07 --State Supreme Court Justice Amy J. Fricano has been placed on administrative leave after being charged late Monday afternoon with driving while her ability was impaired by drugs and leaving the scene of an accident. . . . She was also charged with moving from a lane unsafely and failure to keep right.

No-fault divorce shakes the foundations of all marriages

By Gary Ciesla

4-12-07 --Imagine yourself as a defendant in a lawsuit. In court, the judge carefully considers statements made by the plaintiff, but disregards even your most passionate defense. You are presumed guilty. Is this a court found in some foreign country? No. This is how no-fault divorce courts operate in 49 American states, and I'm writing to oppose Judge Judith Kaye's recent support for bringing this travesty of justice to New York. . . . New York is the only state in America without no-fault divorce. Critical legal protections safeguarding marriage contracts remain in place in the Empire State, while divorce courts in all other states operate in a profoundly unjust and unconstitutional manner.

Top Judge In Bench Pre$$

Raise Our Pay - Or Else

By Kenneth Lovett

4-10-07 -- The state's top judge yesterday threatened to either ram through a pay raise for jurists on her own or sue the governor and Legislature if they don't increase judicial salaries by the end of the legislative session in June. . . . "However uncomfortable I may be, personally or as head of the third branch, with unilateral action to increase judicial salaries, I feel I must leave no stone unturned," Court of Appeals Chief Justice Judith Kaye said. . . . Kaye said she will seek advice from state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on the "feasibility" of her imposing raises - including for New York City civil and criminal court judges - without permission from the governor and Legislature. . . . She did not say where the judicial system would find the money. . . . As for a possible suit, Kaye called it a last resort.

Torts Off Track

By Mark Thompson

4-6-07 -- The Reversal Report: A weekly compendium of state Supreme Court rulings that appellate jurists have decided were unwise, unsound, or otherwise unacceptable. . . . Four personal injury plaintiffs in Brooklyn got bad news from the Appellate Division’s Second Department on the same day last week. Twelve appellate judges teamed up in groups of four to issue unanimous rulings reversing the pro-plaintiff decisions of four Kings County Supreme Court judges. In the process, the appellate panels knocked a diverse quartet of tort suits off track.

Public Integrity Of Albany DA Soares At Issue

Commentary © 2007 North Country Gazette

4-6-07 -- "While he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones", the Prosecutor's Creed says that is posted next to the beaming David Soares at the website for the Albany County District Attorney's office. . . . "It is a much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use legitimate means to bring about a just one", DA Soares' proclaimed creed continues, a landmark Supreme Court ruling in Berger v. US, 295 US 78.. . . But it appears that Soares has embraced the Creed only in words, not in practice. . . . David Soares needs to take a real hard look at that Prosecutor's Creed and reread "Berger" after Albany County Court Judge Stephen Herrick ruled Wednesday that one of Soares' assistants withheld evidence and shielded a prosecution witness from arrest, ordering a police officer to withdraw an outstanding arrest warrant against the witness.

Holocaust Fee Dispute Continues

U.S. survivors' lead settlement counsel asks them to drop objections to his fee request

Tom Perrotta, New York Law Journal

4-6-07 -- The fee dispute between Burt Neuborne and the Holocaust survivors he has represented for more than a decade continues, despite the urging of a federal magistrate judge for a truce. . . . In papers filed in the Eastern District of New York last week, Neuborne said he would accept Magistrate Judge James Orenstein's recommendation that he receive $3 million, provided the U.S. Holocaust survivors who oppose his fee request also agree to the magistrate judge's terms. . . . The objecting survivors, in a separate filing, disagreed with the magistrate judge's findings and reiterated their position that Neuborne -- a professor at New York University School of Law and legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice -- was working pro bono and should not be paid.

NY Judge Censured for Sloppy Bookkeeping and Carelessness With Cash

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

4-5-07 -- A Town Court judge in Lansing, Tompkins County, has been censured for not handling court funds expeditiously, the Commission on Judicial Conduct said yesterday. . . . The agency said that from January 2004 to May 2005, Town Justice William F. Burin, who is not an attorney, failed to deposit about $153,400 in court funds within 72 hours, as required by the Uniform Civil Rules of the Justice Courts, §214.9(a). Instead, the deposits were made monthly, the commission found. . . . It also determined that the judge was forwarding court funds to the state Comptroller's Office up to three months later than the monthly remittances required under §§2020 and 2021 of the Uniform Justice Court Act and §1803 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.

N.Y. Judge Orders Wilson Elser to Disgorge Fees Over Ethics Breach

Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

Insurance defense giant Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker has been ordered to disgorge millions of dollars in legal fees paid by an insurance client who accused the firm of helping another client set up a competing business. . . . In a March 29 decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marcy S. Friedman granted summary judgment to trustee liability insurer Ulico Casualty Co. on its claim that former counsel Wilson Elser breached its fiduciary duty by participating in a scheme to transfer Ulico policyholders to another insurer. . . . The judge ruled that there was "no triable issue of fact" about Wilson Elser's breach of its duty to Ulico and said the law firm had failed "to perceive its ethical obligation to Ulico." . . . "While Wilson Elser had the right to represent competitors ... it did not have the right to represent competitors in setting up a competing business to which it was contemplated that Ulico's accounts would be transferred," Friedman wrote in Ulico Casualty Co. v. Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, 602229/99. . . . "Put another way ... Wilson Elser did not have the right to prefer one client over another when the clients' interests diverged," the judge continued.

N.Y. Bar Delegates Approve of Certification for Judges

Delegates also act on recommendation about law firms' mandatory retirement ages

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

4-4-07 -- Court of Appeals judges should not be exempted from having their physical and mental fitness certified if they want to remain on the Court past age 70, the New York State Bar Association's House of Delegates determined Saturday. . . . The delegates amended a proposal made by a committee chaired by E. Leo Milonas, former chief state administrative judge, which had recommended that the age limit for judges on the Court of Appeals -- New York state's high court -- be extended to 76 from 70 and without recertification. (State Supreme Court justices may serve until age 76 with recertification every two years after turning 70.) . . . Milonas argued that recertification is not necessary for Court of Appeals judges because they are the most scrutinized and "self-monitoring" in the sense that fellow judges would insist their colleagues step down if they are no longer able to handle the work.

Judge: District Can't Ban Student Speech

N.Y. School District Violated Student's Rights by Banning Fliers About Jesus, Judge Says

By William Kates

4-4-07 -- (AP)— A school district violated a fourth-grader's constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow her to distribute "personal statement" fliers carrying a religious message, a federal judge has ruled. . . . The Liverpool Central School District in upstate New York based its restrictions on "fear or apprehension of disturbance, which is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression," Chief U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue wrote in a 46-page decision Friday. . . . "School officials had no right to silence Michaela's personal Christian testimony," attorney Mat Staver said Monday. . . . Staver is executive director of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando, Fla.-based conservative legal group that represented Michaela Bloodgood and her mother, Nicole. . . . Liverpool school district lawyer Frank Miller said the school district was studying the decision and "reviewing its options."

NY Firm Sanctioned for Suing Ex-Client in Two Courts at Once

New York Lawyer, By Rosamaria Mancini, New York Law Journal

4-4-07 -- A Mineola law firm cannot sue a former client over unpaid legal fees in both state Supreme Court and District Court if the causes of action are the same, a Nassau judge has ruled. . . . In Shaw Licitra v. Hahn, 039977/2006, District Court Judge Andrew M. Engel dismissed a suit brought by Shaw, Licitra, Gulotta, Esernio & Schwartz against Chris R. Hahn. . . . "The court finds that such conduct was frivolous, being completely without merit in law, unable to be supported by any reasonable argument for an extension, modification or reversal of existing law, and undertaken primarily to harass or maliciously injure the defendant," Judge Engel wrote. . . . He imposed a $1,000 sanction against the firm and ordered it to deposit the funds in the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection. A hearing will be held April 27 to determine how much the firm will pay in attorney's fees to Mr. Hahn.

Judges Decry Failure To Approve Pay Hikes
By Daniel Wise and Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

4-3-07 -- As the news sunk in over the weekend that once again raises - which just weeks ago looked like a done deal - were not to be, New York's state judges lashed out at every available target. . . . In dozens, if not hundreds, of e-mails to each other, judges directed their anger at Governor Eliot Spitzer, leaders in the Legislature and even their own leaders, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman. . . . With Supreme Court judge's pay, for example, stalled at $137,600 since 1999 and first-year associates at some major firms earning $190,000, anger was palpable in the e-mail chatter.

NY Court Makes Accommodations to Allow Deaf Juror to Serve

New York Lawyer, By Rosamaria Mancini, New York Law Journal

4-3-07 -- Henry Barba of Merrick was happy to be called for jury duty. . . . "I was not hoping to get out of it," said Mr. Barba, who was born deaf but is able to speak. "I wanted to try it." . . . Mr. Barba, 32, was picked, but Nassau County court officials had to make special arrangements before he could take his place on the panel. . . . Without help, Mr. Barba could not have followed the testimony in Bitetto v. South Nassau Communities Hospital, 016456/2001, a medical malpractice case before Supreme Court Justice Edward McCarty involving an alleged injury at childbirth. . . . To accommodate Mr. Barba, a court reporter transcribed the proceedings during trial and the transcripts appeared in real time on the laptop Mr. Barba used to keep track of testimony.

Lawyers debate the "S" word

by Eric Durr, Special to Business First

4-3-07 -- A new proposal being studied by the New York Bar Association would allow lawyers to call themselves specialists in a particular field. . . . The rules that currently govern New York's lawyers ban "the use of the 'S' word," says the association's president, Mark Alcott, a partner in the New York City firm of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP. . . . "We are not allowed to say we specialize," Alcott says. "But lawyers do in fact specialize, and clients are very interested in this information. It is important to them in making a choice of counsel." . . . Lawyers generally talk around the issue by saying that their practice "focuses" on a specific kind of law, or that most of their cases are in certain areas.

NY Judges Denied Pay Raises in Last-Minute Budget Wrangling

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko and Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

4-2-07 -- Governor Eliot Spitzer said Friday the budget agreement he has negotiated with the state Legislature does not contain money for the judicial pay raises he proposed in January, nor allows for the creation of a commission proposed by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye to set future judicial salary increases. . . . "There is no judicial pay raise," Mr. Spitzer told reporters as he gave more details about what is in the $121 billion budget for fiscal year 2007-08. "I wish there were."

Fast cars, slow justice: Plea bargain ban bogs down courts, cops

By Patricia Doxsey, Freeman staff

4-2-07 -- SEVEN MONTHS after the New York State Police stopped offering plea bargains on the traffic tickets they issue, critics say the concerns they had about the new policy have come to pass. . . . Judges are conducting significantly more traffic trials than ever; it's taking months longer than it had to adjudicate tickets; and, perhaps most disconcerting, there is an unequal application of justice, opponents of the policy say. . . . SINCE Sept. 1, 2006, state police have been unable to offer to motorists they ticketed an opportunity to resolve the case without trial by pleading to a reduced charge. . . . That means, in most counties across the state, a speeding ticket stays a speeding ticket - at least if it's issued by the state police.

March 2007

Justice Moneybags

By Jason Boog
3-30-07 --The U.S. Supreme Court's grant of review in the New York judicial selection reform case gave Albany an excuse to stop working to change the state's antiquated system. This year was supposed to see the same empty exercises is ceremonial electioneering as years past. So why is Justice Joseph Teresi sitting on a cool one hundred thou? . . . Judicial candidates around the state rejoiced in early March when federal judge John Gleeson, reacting to a U.S. Supreme Court decision to review, stayed his judgment that overturned New York’s judicial convention system and mandated open primaries until the state legislature could find a better solution. . . . It appeared that 2007 would see another ceremonial election cycle with party bosses essentially picking members of the bench. . . . So why have two Supreme Court candidates from the Third Judicial district raised over $151,000 for the 2007 race?

Disbarred NY Lawyer's Refusal to Release Files Leaves Ex-Client in Limbo

New York Lawyer, By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

3-27-07 -- A half-dozen sheriff's deputies raided a disbarred attorney's office last week in search of the 43 boxes of files he has refused to hand over to the law firm that has taken over his biggest case, a wrongful-death action filed by a Bronx woman on behalf of her husband, a ship-rigger who plummeted to his death at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. . . . For all practical purposes, the deputies came out of Kenneth Heller's office empty-handed. . . . "None of the records we've been seeking [were] there," said Michael S. Feldman, a partner at Jacoby & Meyers, who, with Terry D. Horner, now represents the plaintiff, "No trial notes, no photographs, no witness statements, no pleadings. The only thing that was there was the record . . . generated as a result of my efforts to obtain the file." . . . The dispute over the case files began in the summer of 2004. . . . Three years earlier, Mr. Heller had won a $25 million jury award in Ms. Emanuel's case, which Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Leland Degrasse reduced to $7.6 million in Emanuel v. Sheridan Transport Corp., 82725-02. . . . Then in May 2004, an Appellate Division, First Department, panel threw out the verdict and remanded the case to the Supreme Court. . . . Exactly 50 days later, another First Department panel disbarred Mr. Heller for a pattern of improprieties predating Ms. Emanuel's case. (Two judges, Justices David Friedman and George D. Marlow, sat on both First Department panels.) . . . In Matter of Heller, 05529, a unanimous panel held,

"In light of the cumulative evidence of respondent's 24-year history of sanctions, his perverse and persistent refusal to accept adverse rulings, reflective of an utter contempt for the judicial system, and his consistent, reprehensible, unprofessional behavior, which has included screaming at, threatening and disparaging judges, adversaries and experts, intentionally defying court rulings, and disrupting and thwarting proper legal process through both physical and verbal aggression, we are of the opinion that the appropriate sanction here is disbarment."

Judge Not

By Jesse Sunenblick

3-23-07 -- Ira Gammerman won widespread admiration and respect during his many years as a Supreme Court Justice. Since reaching retirement age and become a hearing officer, however, some of his rulings have been a bit more judge-like than allowed. . . . Just before Christmas in 2004, Manhattan Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman called attorney Adria De Landri to say he would grant her request for an adjournment in the suit on behalf of her client, Duane Reade, Inc., against a former employee. . . . But when De Landri next appeared in the court’s Calendar Part, where Gammerman has presided since retiring from the bench in 2004 — and where he sends out cases for trial — the attorney received a rude awakening: The JHO reneged on his former offer, ordering De Landri to proceed that day before Justice Marcy Friedman. . . . According to her appellate brief, De Landri objected to Gammerman: “The judge [Gammerman] called me and said that today’s appearance would not be for trial but for a date to set a firm trial [date].” . . . Gammerman’s reply: “All right. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is your trial date. If you feel that I backed off my commitment…. Be here with your witnesses tomorrow. I’ll have a judge for you.”

Ready for Your Close-Up? NY Pols Back Cameras in the Courtroom

New York Lawyer, By Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

3-21-07 -- A bill to allow video coverage of criminal and civil trials in New York cleared the state Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday amid a new push by media companies hungry for electronic content for their Web sites. . . . The legislation, sponsored by Committee Chairman John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, would revisit a subject that has been largely dormant in the Legislature for almost a decade. Mr. DeFrancisco's counterpart in the state Assembly, Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, said movement of the DeFrancisco bill would prompt her to begin canvassing members in her chamber to see how they feel about the issue. . . . "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure where people stand on that anymore," she said yesterday. "It's not an issue that we've really looked at since '98."

Judge 'Booty'

Mobster 'Paid For' Justice's 80g Pad

By Alex Ginsberg with Additional reporting by Susan Edelman

3-19-07 --The judge wasn't just married by the mob. They put a roof over her head, too. . . . Jailed Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso claims he paid $80,000 during the 1980s for an apartment for future-acting Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan, the daughter of his pal, Burton Kaplan. . . . In documents he wrote in federal prison in Florence, Colo., Casso is also said to have confirmed reports that he lent Burton Kaplan - the star witness in the Mob Cops trial - $150,000 for the future judge's 1985 wedding. . . . And, in a shocking twist, Casso claims that he has twice recently written to the Manhattan judge to enlist her help in preventing her dad from evicting Gaspipe's son from his childhood home. . . . That eviction case, a bizarre postscript to the Mob Cops trial, began last October when Burton, a longtime drug trafficker and Casso buddy, started proceedings to boot Casso's son from his Mill Basin, Brooklyn, home.

Contractual Obfuscation

By Lily Henning

3-13-07 -- Justice Walter Tolub is by most accounts a smart and fair jurist. Which makes his recent spate of seemingly easily avoided reversals all the more puzzling. . . .He has gotten the law correct when ruling against fellow judges, largely quashing a jury’s verdict against Leona Helmsley for damages bigger than the hotelier’s reputation, and slapping Spike TV with a cash-draining injunction. . . . Why then when it comes to straightforward contracts and lease provisions, does Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub seem to hit a snag? He has been reversed 10 times in the last six months on cases that seem simple enough for a law student to find an answer that would stand up on appeal. Time and again, on a streak from September through February, the Appellate Division has said the 66-year-old jurist misinterpreted what appear to be largely uncomplicated agreements. . . . Take for example a December decision involving the plain language in a lease. Tolub ruled in Sterling National Bank v. Eastern Shipping Worldwide, Inc. that even though the lease agreement in question clearly states that any future lawsuits involving the lease had to be filed in New York court, the suit could move to New Jersey instead.

Shaken Justice 
By Mark Thompson

3-13-07 -- Brooklyn Family Court Justice Nora Freeman had “grave misgivings” about how a baby named Jacob ended up with a fractured rib and collar bone, and seizures caused by bleeding on the brain. That didn’t stop her from ordering the baby released from foster care and sent home with his parents, pending a resolution of a case charging them with child abuse.. . . Never mind that the doctors who performed emergency surgery to treat the seizures concluded that the brain injuries “were life-threatening, caused by non-accidental trauma, and consistent with shaken baby syndrome.” And never mind that the father didn’t even bother to testify at the hearing in which the parents pleaded with Freeman to give their baby back to them, leaving her in the dark about his credibility. Freeman was “apparently swayed by the testimony of the mother, who had complied with the directives [of the Administration for Children's Services] concerning counseling,” the Appellate Division incredulously said. . . . As the appellate panel summed up the Family Court proceeding in its ruling in the case, Matter of Jacob P. v. April B.  (February 27), Freeman suppressed those “grave misgivings about the cause of the child's injuries,” which were both old and new, and on different parts of the body. She also hinted that she was leery about the father’s refusal to testify.

Justice calls for more Family Court judges - Pol says move would help avoid more Nixzmary tragedies

By Thomas Tracy

3-13-07 -- It seems that one of the messages of the Nixzmary Brown tragedy has reached the highest jurist in the state – Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who recently demanded more Family Court Judges during her State of the Judiciary address. . . . Her demands were applauded by Park Slope City Councilmember Bill de Blasio, who said that more Family Court jurists was one of two ways that the city could ensure the survival of its most innocent victims – its children. . . . “The Chief Judge emphasized that with the heightened attention brought on by the tragic Nixzmary Brown case, filings in abuse and neglect cases in New York City Family Courts have greatly increased, and the court’s resources have been stretched dangerously thin,” de Blasio said in a statement. “The Chief Judge also noted that the volume of work in Family Court throughout the State has risen significantly, and we need an infusion of new judges to handle this increased workload.”

Soares---Prosecutor Or Phony?

Commentary North Country Gazette

Let's see if we've got this right. . . . If Albany County District Attorney David Soares decides that drugs are coming into Albany County from Paris or Brazil, he can load up his camera crews and zoom off to those countries to effect search warrants and make arrests on the dime of the Albany County taxpayers? That is, of course, after he first notifies the Albany Times-Union. . . . Something wrong with that scenario, when you're undertaking law enforcement for the sake of media coverage. . . . Apparently David Soares is fantasizing that he's with the U.S. Attorney's office, maybe he thinks he's Alberto Gonzalez's deputy, jetting off to Florida in his "nationwide" probe of alleged illegal sales of steroids. With his grandstanding tactics of the last two weeks, now hob-knobbing with major league athletes and their agents and owners, he seems to think he's leading the drug war by himself. This guy has delusions of grandeur, loves that media. Wonder if he's asked any of those professional athletes and celebrities that he claims are involved for their autographs? For sure no one asking for his. Maybe that's the problem. He likes to be the center of attention.

The purpose of this website is to help the public become better informed about the judges who may be presiding over their case. This site puts a mirror to those public servants who make-up our courts. Judges can also become better informed about how others (particularly, lawyers) view them. Robeprobe serves as a report card that lawyers and litigants can use to grade the best performing judges and the worst performing judges.

N.Y. Judges Advised Not to Link Recusals to Pay Dispute

Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

3-9-07 -- The New York court system's Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics has concluded that judges should not recuse themselves from cases where state legislators or members of their firms are representing parties before them solely because of the "long-standing issue of judicial salary increases pending before the Legislature." . . . As judicial morale sagged after the Legislature failed to enact a pay increase in December, several judges around the state began to take themselves off cases handled by legislators or members of their firms. . . . Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman said in an interview that he had requested an opinion from the committee because he had gotten "a lot of inquiries from judges who had been asked by other judges to recuse themselves."

North Hudson Judge Sanctioned For Political Activity

© 2007 North Country Gazette

3-6-07 -- A town justice in southern Essex County has learned that politics and judicial office don't mix. . . . John C. King Sr., North Hudson town justice, has been admonished by the state Commission of Judicial Conduct after the panel found that King had engaged in prohibited political activity while he was a candidate for town justice in 2005. The commission said that King violated the ethical rules by continuing to serve as chairman of the North Hudson Republican Party while he was a judicial candidate, attending a political meeting and publicly endorsing other candidates. The ethical rules generally prohibit judicial candidates from engaging in political activity except in connection with their own campaigns for judicial office. / http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/K/king,_john.htm

NY Judge Admonished for Political Activity

New York Lawyer

3-5-07 -- The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished an upstate town justice for engaging in prohibited political activities during his 2006 campaign, the New York Law Journal reports. . . . It said that North Hudson Town Justice John C. King had remained Republican Party chairman during the campaign, worked for and endorsed candidates for other offices, conduct barred under the state's Rules for Judicial Conduct. . . . Mr. King, a nonlawyer, did not engage in any prohibited partisan activity after he became a judge and said he was unaware of the ethical rules restricting the activities of judicial candidates. The commission said Mr. King had an obligation to inform himself about the rules, but the admonition he received was the least serious discipline available.

N.Y. Federal Judge Rebuffs Recusal Motion Citing Clients of Husband's Firm

Beth Bar, New York Law Journal

3-5-07 -- A federal judge has rejected a request that she recuse herself from a high-profile litigation involving the music industry on the ground that her attorney husband and his firm have represented some of the defendants in other matters. . . . Lead attorneys for plaintiffs in the case expressed concern that because Southern District of New York Judge Loretta A. Preska's husband, Thomas J. Kavaler, and his firm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, represented several of the music company defendants in other litigation, she might be inclined to tilt toward the defendants. . . . But Preska rejected the argument in In re Digital Music Antitrust Litigation, 06 MDL 1780, finding that the plaintiffs' motion for recusal was not only time-barred, but was wrong on its merits. . . . "Courts have uniformly rejected the argument that an appearance of impropriety exists in the following situation: (i) a judge's spouse is a partner in a law firm that represents a litigant in other matters before the judge; and (ii) the spouse did not perform any work at the law firm for the litigant or worked for the litigant on unrelated matters," she said.

Wielding a Mean Gavel

By Jesse Sunenblick

 3-2-07--Is Carol Berkman the least popular Supreme Court Justice in Manhattan? We know a slew of attorneys who have put her at the top — or perhaps that's the bottom — of their lists. . . . To say that Acting Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman of Manhattan is unpopular among litigators would be an understatement. More than a dozen lawyers recently cited her penchant for extraordinary verbal abuse of counsel. . . . One called her “ornery.” Another said “nasty.” Still another opined that she was “vindictive.” . . . In 1999 the Legal Aid Society took the highly unusual step of publicly petitioning against Berkman’s reappointment to Criminal Court. The society wrote a letter to the Mayor’s Committee on the Judiciary that accused the justice of “systematic rudeness and mistreatment of both defense and prosecution lawyers and defendants (and occasionally even belittlement of other judges)

Breaking News: Reform Stayed

By Jason Boog

 3-2-07--Seventeen incumbent Supreme Court justices breathed a sigh of relief Thursday afternoon as federal Judge John Gleeson stayed his landmark ruling, Lopez Torres vs. NYS Board of Elections, until after the 2007 election. . . . Early in 2006, Gleeson’s opinion overturned the state’s boss-dominated convention method for selecting judges, ordering the state Legislature to build a new system. The judge prescribed primary elections in the absence of timely reform — a remedy that many feared would raise the price tag on judicial elections by hundreds of thousands of dollars. . . . The stay comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to review the Gleeson ruling. The case is slated for the October 2007 term, and has stalled the efforts of reformers around the state who had hoped to create a new judicial selection mechanism.

Busted On A Hunch
By Mark Thompson

 3-2-07--No judge in the city is reversed more often for suppressing evidence in criminal cases than Bronx County Justice Richard Lee Price. It happened again this week. . . . Price had ruled that prosecutors couldn’t present evidence that Yury Padilla possessed the keys to an apartment that he had rented in a building at 305 East 166th Street in the Bronx, where police found a high tech marijuana growing operation going full tilt. The Appellate Division, however, wasn’t troubled in the least by the somewhat circuitous chain of events that led to the drug bust. Padilla’s attorney, Robert Laureano, said in an interview he couldn’t believe that not even one of the five judges on the appellate panel was willing to go out on a limb with Price and pronounce the search and seizure illegal. . . . It all began at a neighborhood meeting where an elderly woman alerted police about the suspicious comings and goings of a Hispanic male in a blue BMW. A week later, a couple of officers in plainclothes happened to be nearby when Padilla, a Hispanic male, stepped out of a blue BMW and entered the building on 166th Street.

LexPress: Surrogates Behaving Badly

By Lily Henning

 3-2-07--One surrogate gets censured, another gets recused, sex offenders are now facing perpetual confinement, and the Daily News gets out its judge bashing club.

'Deceptive' Judge Ripped

By Dareh Gregorian

3-1-07--Bill Clinton had legal problems? . . . A state disciplinary panel says an Albany judge should be reprimanded for "evasive and deceptive" testimony in which she claimed not to know the former president had been impeached. . . . The Commission on Judicial Conduct said Surrogate Cathryn Doyle "violated her duty to be forthright, candid and cooperative" when she testified about her involvement with a legal defense fund for another judge. . . . The fund was referred to as a "Clinton fund" because it was modeled after the type the ex-president used to help pay his Sexgate legal bills. The commission found that Doyle said she didn't know what a "Clinton fund" was - and that she didn't know Clinton had been impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate.

February 2007

Sitting judge faces contempt over his divorce case

By Oliver Mackson, Times Herald-Record 

2-28-07 -- A state Supreme Court justice who hears cases in Orange County could find himself on the wrong side of the bench if he's held in contempt over his divorce case. . . . Judge Lawrence Horowitz is representing himself in a contempt-of-court motion filed by his ex-wife, Alexis Furer. Their divorce was finalized in June, but Horowitz was accused earlier this month of failing to make repairs to their house in Westchester County and to list it for sale. . . . Justice Arthur Diamond hasn't set a date for a hearing to decide whether Horowitz should be held in contempt. A court clerk said that Diamond will first review written arguments that will be submitted by Horowitz and a lawyer for his ex-wife. . . . Horowitz declined to discuss the dispute, citing state regulations that gag sitting judges from talking about pending cases — "including my own case," he said.

No Puppy Love in School: Judge Upholds Decision to Bar Service Dog

New York Lawyer, By Rosamaria Mancini, New York Law Journal

2-28-07 -- A deaf East Meadow high school student cannot bring his service dog to school, a federal judge ruled yesterday. . . . Eastern District Judge Arthur Spatt denied John Cave Jr.'s motion for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the East Meadow School District to allow Simba, his Labrador retriever, to attend classes with Mr. Cave at W. Tresper Clarke High School. . . . Judge Spatt said Mr. Cave, 14, and his family had not exhausted all of the remedies afforded to them by the school district, including requesting a hearing or meeting with the state's Committee on Special Education. Instead, they filed a $150 million discrimination suit.

Chief Judge Wants More Money, More Power

© 2007 North Country Gazette

2-28-07 -- If the Legislature won't give the judiciary a raise, then the judiciary will legislate from the bench to submit legislation that would give themselves annual pay raises through cost-of-living adjustments, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye said in her annual state of the judiciary address. . . . "If our current plight proves anything, it's that we need to put an end to a system that requires our judges, every five, or six, or seven, or eight, or soon nine years, hat in hand, on bended knee, to beg and plead even for cost of living increases", Kaye said. . . . "I have never known the frustration, or the despair, that I now see among my colleagues - and understandably so. They are demoralized not only by inaction on our compensation, which would be bad enough, but also by the fact that our interests are used to promote other agendas in Albany. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong." . . . (State of the Judiciary – pdf file).

Justice Isn't That Blind

New York Post EDITORIAL

2-27-07 --In a city that has seen its fair share of bizarre judicial shenanigans, Manhattan Family Court Judge Sheldon Rand may have set a new standard for black-robed dementia. . . . In a ruling to be released publicly Thursday, Rand has concluded that taxpayers must pay for a sex-change operation for a 21-year-old transsexual seeking to become a woman. . . . Why? . . . Because Brian Lopez - who now dresses as a woman and goes by the name "Mariah" - was in the custody of the Administration for Children's Services as a child. . . . Apparently, that means Lopez is to be a ward of the city for life. (Which, in a way, may well be the case - more on that below.) Rand determined that Lopez has a "gender-identity disorder" that - despite six years of hormone therapy - can only be cured through surgery. . . . The procedure costs $15,000 to $20,000 - on top of other cosmetic procedures for which the city is already paying. . . . The city is appealing. . . . Lopez is not. . . . Appealing, that is. . . . He's a young, umm, man with a past.

Two NY Attorneys Charged in Mortgage Scheme

New York Lawyer, By Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

2-23-07 --Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown has filed criminal charges against two lawyers who participated in a scheme to sell a house out from under a Rosedale woman who believed she was refinancing her mortgage. . . . John D. Lewis and Angelyn Johnson, both of whom maintain law offices on Court Street in Brooklyn, allegedly posed as the lawyers on sham transaction by which homeowner Dale Noray was induced to transfer the deed to her home. . . . Ms. Noray had been seeking to refinance her mortgage but was told her credit was poor and she needed another party to co-sign the mortgage. But the refinance was actually a sale, and Ms. Noray's name was removed from the deed.

NY Judge Admonished for Implied Threats

New York Lawyer, By Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

2-22-07 -- The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished a non-lawyer town justice for making an implied threat to lower court-imposed fines if his demand for a salary increase was not met. . . . Last November, John R. Tauscher, a town justice in Alabama, N.Y., Genesee County, requested salary increases for himself, another town justice and a clerk. At a public hearing on the town budget, Mr. Tauscher pointed out that justices had great discretion when it came to fines, and said another town that had denied its justice a pay increase "lost $20,000 in revenue because they didn't cooperate or didn't even consider asking him why he wanted an increase." . . . The town approved a small increase for the clerk but not for either justice.

Supreme Court won't review NYC ban on biblical scene

Menorahs OK for Christmas, but not Nativity

(AP) 2-21-07 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided not to review a New York City policy that bans public school displays of nativity scenes but allows Santa Claus, reindeers, Christmas trees and symbols of Jewish and Islamic holidays. . . . The nation's highest court chose not to re-examine an appeals court decision against the claim filed by Andrea Skoros, a Roman Catholic mother of two sons who attended public schools. She first filed the case in 2002 in Brooklyn federal court. . . . Skoros had claimed that the city's policy promoted and endorsed the religions of Judaism and Islam and conveyed a message of disapproval toward Christianity. . . . The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded last year that no objective observer would believe it was the city's purpose to denigrate Christianity, even if the Department of Education erred in characterizing a Jewish menorah and an Islamic star and crescent as secular symbols. . . . Instead, the court said, the actual and perceived purpose of the holiday display policy was to use holiday celebrations to encourage respect for the city's diverse cultural traditions.

Upstate judge admonished

2-21-07 -- The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has determined that John Tauscher, a justice of the Alabama Town Court, Genesee County, should be admonished. . . . In a determination dated February 5, 2007, the Commission found that Judge Tauscher made public statements in which he implicitly threatened to reduce fines in future cases unless the Town Board approved a proposed salary increase for himself and his co-judge. . . . The judge’s statements were made in November 2005 at two public hearings before the Town Board on the next year’s budget.  In asking the Board to reconsider his request for a $200 raise, Judge Tauscher repeatedly referred to his discretionary ability to set fines and thereby increase or decrease town revenues.  When asked directly if he was threatening to reduce fines in future cases, the judge stated:  “I have that right.”

Suit Over Fees for Inmates’ Phone Calls Is Revived

By Danny Hakim

2-21-07 -- The State Court of Appeals said on Tuesday that a lower court must hear a suit alleging that the state had illegally placed exorbitant charges on collect phone calls made by prison inmates. . . . The 4-to-2 ruling overturns decisions by lower courts that dismissed the case. It also comes a few weeks after Gov. Eliot Spitzer reversed the Pataki-era policy of adding state fees that more than doubled the rates charged to people who receive collect calls from inmates in the state corrections system. . . . The suit, brought by families and lawyers of inmates, alleges that the State Department of Correctional Services overstepped its authority by essentially imposing a tax without legislative approval. The suit also contends that the fees violated state constitutional provisions related to taxation, free speech, due process and equal protection.

The Marriage Lasted 10 Years. The Lawsuits? 13 Years, and Counting.

By Ray Rivera

It’s a drizzly afternoon and the brightly lighted records room at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan is mostly empty save for a disheveled older man in sweat pants and a raincoat poring over documents. . . . The man, Michael Melnitzky, 69, has become something of a fixture here, as he has in courthouses across the city, busily preparing his next case. . . . Balding, with just a fringe of unwieldy gray hair, Mr. Melnitzky was once a recognized art expert. He was the principal art conservator at Sotheby’s for nearly 30 years and had a client list that included Hollywood celebrities and denizens from high society. When Greta Garbo died, he was called on to examine her art collection. . . . But when his wife filed for divorce in 1994, Mr. Melnitzky became something else: a litigator. A prolific one. And although he has no law degree and only himself as a client, he has never been busier. . . . Through a series of self-fashioned lawsuits and appeals, issues that might have been settled with his divorce have gone on for 13 years, 3 years longer than his marriage.

Brooklyn's D.A. Gets a Warning Over Office's Ethics Procedures

By Bradley Hope Staff Reporter of the Sun

The fact that the Kings County district attorney is dealing with two cases of possible ethics lapses by his staff is eliciting warnings from specialists that the prosecutor in the city's biggest borough may need to review internal protocols and training. . . . In one case that surfaced this week, a detective investigator began a romantic relationship with a potential witness in an organized-crime case and allowed the potential witness to break the conditions of his temporary release. A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office, Jerry Schmetterer, said the investigator has since retired from her position, but that the FBI is investigating the case. . . . In the other case, an assistant district attorney allegedly leaked sensitive documents to her fiancé, a criminal defense attorney. She was suspended last week and the Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown, has been asked to act as a special prosecutor, Mr. Schmetterer said.

NY Prosecutor Suspended For Allegedly Leaking Docs to Defense Lawyer Fiancé

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

An assistant district attorney in Brooklyn was suspended last week for allegedly giving sensitive documents from her office to her fiance for use in a criminal case he was defending, sources said. . . . Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, confirmed that a request had been made for the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the matter. . . . The sources identified the assistant district attorney as Sandra Fernandez, and her fiancé as solo practitioner Douglas G. Rankin. . . . Mr. Rankin said that neither he nor Ms. Fernandez would comment on the matter.

Legally Blind

By Lily Henning

2-16-07 -- In the controversy about how New York should go about choosing its state judges, there remains the enduring question of cash — where it comes from, how much candidates should raise, and whether they end up beholden to their donors. However the Legislature reforms the primary and convention systems, it’s clear that under the newly competitive system that money is going to play a bigger role in judicial elections in New York, at least for the foreseeable future. And that presents the danger of at least the appearance that judges and their decisions might be influenced by a swell in campaign donations. The fight to keep dollars from tilting the scales of justice is on. . . . One possibility is a blind trust, a system of shielding names of donors to judicial candidates. While some form of this system exists in at least a half dozen states that hold judicial elections, none have gone all the way toward what Yale Law School professors Ian Ayres and Bruce Ackerman have dubbed the “secret donation booth."

Ruling Favors Grandparents Seeking Visitation

By Joseph Goldstein, Staff Reporter of the Sun

A ruling by the state's highest court yesterday will give a boost to grandparents seeking court orders allowing them to visit their grandchildren over parental objections. . . . State courts across the country have been grappling with grandparent visitation cases since the U.S. Supreme Court issued six opinions in a single grandparent visitation case in 2000. Taken together, the opinions offer states little guidance on the issue. . . . Yesterday's unanimous ruling, by the New York Court of Appeals, places New York among the states that require grandparents to overcome a relatively low standard before a judge can override a parent's wishes and grant grandparents access to a child. . . . The ruling is the first by the Court of Appeals to uphold the constitutionality of New York's grandparent visitation statute since the fractious Supreme Court case, Troxel v. Granville. Under New York law, a grandparent is allowed to ask a judge for court-ordered visitation rights if at least one of the child's parents is dead or under circumstances when "equity would see fit to intervene." . . . Critics of grandparent visitation laws say they encourage courts to intrude into family matters.

NY Judge Accused of Demeaning Litigants, Lawyers and Officers Can't Block Probe

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

2-15-07 -- A Bronx Family Court judge's bid to block a state Commission on Judicial Conduct investigation into complaints that she demeaned litigants, lawyers and court officers in her courtroom has been rejected by a Manhattan Supreme Court justice in a decision that was unsealed yesterday. . . . In addition to reviewing complaints from third parties, the commission has initiated its own investigation into whether Family Court Judge Marian R. Shelton was discourteous to two other Bronx Family Court judges and whether she violated the Rules of Judicial Conduct by refusing to preside over the part that hears newly initiated cases, allegedly because a court officer had been reassigned from her courtroom. . . . Judge Shelton's attorney, Dean G. Yuzek of Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, said "we are disappointed" with the decision of Justice Joan Madden "to allow this investigation to go forward without reasonable and legally-appropriate limits" and "will appeal the ruling immediately." . . . He added that the allegations received by the commission, as well as those it has issued, are "either erroneous, distort the record or mischaracterize what is actually reflected in transcripts of proceedings." . . . In refusing to enjoin the probe, Justice Madden in Shelton v. New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, 118283/06, relied on precedent giving the commission broad authority to investigate matters bearing "a reasonable relationship" to issues raised in complaints.

NY Lawyer Cannot Sue State Court Which Suspended Him

New York Lawyer, By Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

A Manhattan federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a lawyer who alleged that New York's Appellate Division, Second Department, violated his due process rights when it sanctioned him and later suspended him from practice. . . . Solomon Abrahams was sanctioned by Westchester County courts in 1999 and 2001 for filing frivolous motions and ordered to pay a total of $8,000. He failed to comply, incurring a criminal contempt charge. The Second Department suspended him in 2003 for 13 charges of frivolous conduct, ignoring court orders and showing "disrespect for the courts and the judicial process." . . . In his lawsuit, Mr. Abrahams claimed the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to suspend him and its actions had deprived him of due process and subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment. . . . But Southern District Judge Stephen Robinson said his court had no jurisdiction over the matter in Abrahams v. Appellate Division, Second Dept., based on both the Rooker-Feldman doctrine barring most federal review of state court decisions and the Eleventh Amendment's prohibition of suits against states in federal court.

AG Expands Civil Rights Bureau

2-14-07 -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a historic expansion in the size of his Civil Rights Bureau and outlined what he says will be an aggressive agenda for pursuing cases at a meeting with members of New York's leading civil rights, social justice, and public advocacy organizations. . . . Cuomo said that the Civil Rights Bureau, which enforces laws protecting New Yorkers from discrimination, will double in size to become the largest Civil Rights Bureau in the history of the Office of the Attorney General. He said the office is in the process of adding 10 assistant attorneys general to the bureau which currently consists of a legal staff of 10. . . . "It is an unfortunate truth that discrimination is alive and well in New York State and throughout the country," Cuomo. "In some cases it is easy for all to see; in others, when it has become entrenched in our economic and social systems, only the victims can feel the terrible effects. But discrimination, in any form and against any victim, is not just immoral - it is illegal. Our newly expanded Bureau will have the tools and the resources to attack discrimination and to defend the civil rights of all New Yorkers."

Courts In Crisis, Part 5: Low Salaries Challenge Judges' Morale
- Sandra Endo

It is the biggest problem facing the courts -- judges leaving the bench because of low morale. Chief Judge Judith Kaye says fighting for a pay raise for judges is her number one goal, an issue which has demoralized the bench for years. NY1’s Sandra Endo takes a look at the problem in her final installment of her exclusive series, Broken Gavels: Courts in Crisis.
2-12-07 -- Talking to E. Leo Milones it is easy to see his passion for the law. . . . “If it wasn't for the courts we'd have open warfare,” said Milones. . . . At 35 the aggressive Harlem-bred lawyer worked at a small firm. He was urged by a colleague to become a judge. Making a sacrifice for public service, he took a pay cut to take the bench
“It's the best work I've ever done, it’s spectacular,” Milones said. . . . But after more than 25 years on the bench, touching many people’s lives, Milones faced a stark reality. . . . “I was at point where either I had to go out because I was young enough to be economically viable to get into a law firm and to dramatically increase my income,” he said. . . . He made a difficult decision to step off the bench to work at a high-powered law firm in order to pay the bills.

Statewide Judicial Screening Panels Named

© 2007 North Country Gazette

2-12-07 -- Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman have announced the appointment of the members of the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions, the newly established statewide network of screening panels to review the qualifications of judicial election candidates. The 15-member, independent commissions were named by the Chief Judge, the presiding justices, the New York State Bar Association and local bar associations. . . . Beginning April 16, a commission in each judicial district will evaluate local candidates for elective judicial office to ensure they possess the qualities necessary for effective judicial performance. Assessments of candidates will be based on crucial judicial values, specifically, professional ability; character, independence and integrity; reputation for fairness and lack of bias; and temperament, including courtesy and patience.

Courts In Crisis, Part 4: Judges Allowed To Remain On Bench While Under Investigation
- Sandra Endo
Scandals have marred the state's court system, with a few corrupt judges grabbing headlines for bribery and severe lapses of judgment. In part four of her exclusive series, Broken Gavels: Courts in Crisis, NY1's Sandra Endo looks at how judges are held accountable, how they can be kicked off the bench and how there are calls for changing the disciplinary system. . . . Attorney Marc Dittenhoefer has tried case after case in front of a slew of different judges, including three who were later removed from the bench for wrongdoing. . . . "It came as a shock to people," says Dittenhoefer. . . . He didn't know it at the time that some judges he appeared before were facing formal ethics charges by the state's Judicial Conduct Commission. . . . "You always feel badly when someone who is relied upon in a system such as the justice system doesn't do what we all rely upon them to do," he says. . . . And high profile judicial scandals in Brooklyn have rocked the system, from judges taking bribes, to paying off associates. The state's Judicial Conduct Commission is responsible for holding judges accountable.

Top State Judges Move To Bolster Public's Confidence

By Juliet Lapidos, Special to the Sun

New York State's chief justice is signaling that she will spend her last two years on the bench fighting to improve the public's confidence in the judiciary, which has been plagued by scandals. . . . Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman announced yesterday the appointment of 12 independent commissions charged with reviewing the qualifications of candidates in judicial elections. . . . The screening committees were created in response to a report last February issued by the Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections, which found that the public's trust in New York's judiciary has been damaged by how judicial elections are conducte

Half-Baked Fix

By Jason Boog

The latest trial of Clarence Norman, Jr., has revealed all the nasty machinations of the ex-party boss's judge-picking apparatus. Judges have taken the stand to hammer the very system that created their careers. That means they have also offered a warning to judicial selection reformers whose proposals fail to address nomination systems in the lower courts — from which judges for the upper tier are often plucked. . . . Last week, former Civil Court Judge Karen B. Yellen nearly broke down on the witness stand, recalling how Democratic Party leadership undermined her re-election bid in 2002. . . . Dressed in a bright red blouse with her black hair trimmed short, Yellen described the financial train wreck that effectively ended her contested campaign. Brooklyn’s Democratic Party leadership had demanded $9,000 more from her depleted coffers, she said, threatening to withdraw its support for her if she failed to come up with the dollars. . . . “There wasn’t enough money left in my campaign finances for it. This was a fight for my career,” she said.

Courts In Crisis, Part 3: Simplifying Court System Could Help Litigants
– Sandra Endo

2-8-07 -- New York has one of the most complex court systems in the nation, which is why it often times takes years to get a divorce or settle many other legal matters. In part three of her exclusive series, Broken Gavels: Courts in Crisis, NY1 reporter Sandra Endo looks at the heart-wrenching tale of one woman's struggle though the courts and a proposal to simplify the state's legal maze. . . . It's a story of pain and anguish. The story of a woman we'll call “Susan.” Just a month after getting married in 1998, her nightmare began. . . . “He hit me on my nose, the blood coming from my nose. Hit me on my ear, the blood came out of my ear,” says Susan. . . . Susan was a victim of domestic violence. After years of abuse from her husband, she finally said enough is enough. . . . “I had no food, no money, nothing,” says Susan. “By the time I have to go to court and get all my rights, I don't know if I'm going to be starving, dying or what.” . . . Little did Susan know, the fight would take years – a legal battle she's still fighting today. . . . “For Susan it was often bewildering and exhausting,” says Dorchen Leidholdt of Sanctuary for Families, an organization that provides assistance to victims of domestic violence. “At one time she had cases in criminal court, multiple cases in family court before different judges and support magistrates and then she ended up before a judge in Supreme Court.”

Warren County Government---One Lies, Others Swear To It?

Commentary © 2007 North Country Gazette

2-8-07 -- Where's lawyer and part-time judge Gary Hobbs? . . . That's what the U.S. Marshal's Service wanted to know. . . . His Glens Falls law office isn't accepting mail for him. . . . What's even more intriguing, spurring allegations of altered business records in the county clerk's office and false statements by county officials, is that an oath of office for Hobbs that he claims he filed seven years ago but that two county clerks have previously certified didn't exist has now suddenly surfaced. . . . After steadfastly affirming since 2004 that no oath and no appointment is on file in the Warren County Clerk's office for Gary C. Hobbs as special district attorney, including as recently as last month, now that a criminal complaint has been filed against Hobbs for making an alleged false statement with the intent to defraud the county and state, Warren County Clerk Pamela Vogel now claims a time-stamped oath for Hobbs exists. . . . Her predecessor, Caryl Clark, had stated in writing since 2001 that there was no oath on file for Gary Hobbs.

Courts In Crisis, Part 2: State Under Pressure To Find New Way To Select Judges

– Sandra Endo

2-7-07 -- New York State’s way of selecting judges was ruled unconstitutional in a federal verdict last year and the state legislature is under pressure to act soon with open primaries for judicial candidates coming up this year. . . . There are various solutions being proposed and the debate is shaking up the judicial system. NY1’s Sandra Endo explains in part two of her series, Broken Gavels: Courts in Crisis.
They decide the most important matters in people's lives: the judges you voted for. . . . But many voters don’t know who those judges are and often have few real choices. Last year a federal court ruled the way New York selects judges is unconstitutional and deprives candidates of the opportunity of getting on the ballot. . . . “New York has slipped, and I think that's a kind word to say,” said Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. of the Brennan Center for Justice. “New York has become at the hind end of reform.” . . . The federal ruling found the election process for electing state Supreme Court judges was illegally dominated by political party bosses. If the legislature doesn't come up with a way to fix the system, this year there will be open primaries for judges – meaning they'll have to vie for the spot like any political candidate, fundraising and all.

N.Y. Justices Group Opposes Role in Screening

Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

2-6-07 -- In a controversial move, the association representing New York Supreme Court justices has passed a resolution calling upon the judiciary to refrain from any involvement in the screening of candidates for elective judgeships. . . . The resolution was adopted unanimously by more than 100 justices who attended the association's Jan. 27 annual meeting, held in Manhattan as part of the New York State Bar Association's convention. . . . The resolution puts the 325-member association on a collision course with Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and the four presiding justices of the Appellate Division who are in the process of implementing a court rule adopted last February deeply involving the judiciary in the screening of all candidates for elected judgeships. . . . The proposal comes at a particularly sensitive time because the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last August affirmed a decision by Eastern District of New York Judge John Gleeson ordering the state to reform its 86-year-old convention system. The court ordered that primaries must be held this year if the legislators did not adopt an acceptable alternative.

A gag order on parents?

Judges may be going too far when they force divorced adults to watch what they say around their children.

By Eugene Volokh, EUGENE VOLOKH (volokh.com) is a professor of constitutional law at UCLA.
2-6-07 --MEET DANIEL P. and Allison B. and their children, Mujahid Daniel and Mujahid David, ages 13 and 11. Not your typical American family, but their situation may affect your right to speak to your children. During their marriage, according to court documents, Daniel and Allison followed a "quasi-Muslim philosophy." They also "amassed a large quantity of weapons," and Daniel was imprisoned for illegal weapons possession and for making threats. Allison testified that Daniel abused her and that she went along with his actions only because she was afraid of him. The couple divorced in 1997, when Daniel was in prison. . . . Daniel, now out on parole, wants to see his children. Allison objects, based on Daniel's "violent felony conviction record … domestic violence … extremist views regarding religion, including … jihad; and the letters written to the children while he was incarcerated, lecturing about religion and reminding the children that their names are Mujahid." ("Mujahid" means a soldier fighting for Islam; "mujahedin" is the plural.) . . . In December, a New York appellate court held that Daniel should be allowed supervised visitation after his parole expires this summer. But the court also upheld, in the name of "the best interest of the children," the trial court's order that Daniel not discuss with the children "any issues pertaining to his religion."

Black Judge Dissed

Norman: 'Can't Win'

By Alex Ginsberg

2-6-07 --Disgraced Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman would not back a black judicial candidate in 2002 because he didn't believe an African-American could win a boroughwide race, according to bombshell testimony offered yesterday. . . . But Delores Thomas proved Norman wrong then by winning the Civil Court primary, and now she's telling jurors that the former assemblyman was anything but the crusader for racial equality that his lawyers have claimed. . . . Thomas, now a sitting Supreme Court justice, testified that she first approached Norman five years ago to ask for the county organization's support in the upcoming Civil Court contest. . . . She said Norman's first response was to tell her how much work it would be and how much money it would cost and, most important, to remind her that no black candidate had ever won a countywide race in Brooklyn.

Courts In Crisis, Part 1: State Court System Is Overloaded, Inefficient
– Sandra Endo

2-6-07 --New York state courts are at a crossroads. The system is overloaded with 4.3 million cases, low morale is forcing some judges off the bench, and a federal court deemed the way judges are selected is unconstitutional. . . . Those are just some challenges facing the court system, exposed in a special NY1 series, “Broken Gavels: Courts in Crisis. Political reporter Sandra Endo has the first her in her five-part series. . . . Paulette Forbes wanted justice. Her once-beautiful apartment complex in Brooklyn was now covered with mold. Graffiti marked hallways and broken windows were common. The owner of the complex wanted to run hundreds of tenants out and the building became a symbol of neglect. . . . “We had no choice,” said Forbes. “It was like stay and fight.” . . . It became a five-year battle with just as many different judges. . . . “Sometimes we were in court every week,” said Forbes. . . . Forbes and other tenants were bounced from housing court, to state Supreme Court, to an appellate court and finally federal bankruptcy court. Paulette says she would have to take days off work to plead her case as often as three times a month. . . . “My household suffered; my income suffered, because if I took three days off from work – three days with no pay in one week. What was my check like?” said Forbes. . . . Forbes and the other tenants eventually won their case. . . . But her odyssey is similar to many of the 4.3 million cases sitting in New York’s court system and tension on the system is great.

Disgraced Dem boss faces judge... again - Norman starts fourth trial on corruption charges

By Thomas Tracy

2-2-07 -- After constant delays and a game of musical lawyers, embattled Assembly member and former Kings County Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman is about to immerse himself in his fourth and last criminal trial. . . . But that doesn’t mean that Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes is through with him yet.  . . . As prosecutors and Norman’s defense team select a jury for the coercion trial about to be presented, rumors are swirling that the DA will soon be filing more charges against the disgraced legislator. . . . Over the last two weeks, there have been two “exclusives” in the Village Voice and the Daily News that Judges Reynold Mason and Howard Ruditzky both “bought” the judicial benches they sat behind by showering Norman and his cronies with cash.

The Power Behind the Bench

By Jesse Sunenblick

2-2-07 -- When is a judge not a judge? When he's a law secretary who has gained enough power — and earned enough respect — to pitch judicial relief. Whether the citizenry wants stand-in jurists, of course, is another question. . . . In 2005, defense attorney Stuart London faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. He was defending New York City police officer Bryan Conroy, who faced manslaughter charges for his role in the shooting death of African immigrant Ousmane Zongo. . . . Before the trial started, Judge Daniel P. Fitzgerald of the Manhattan Supreme Court faced a crucial question: Would Conroy be the first New York City police officer in history to be charged as the “initial aggressor,” a statute normally reserved for civilian defendants accused of instigating a crime that subsequently became violent?

NY Firm Sues to Block New Attorney Ad Rules

New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal

2-2-07 -- A high-volume, heavy-advertising personal injury law firm and a Washington, D.C., advocacy group are apparently the first to challenge the new attorney advertising restrictions that took effect yesterday. . . . On the same day the new rules were implemented, Alexander & Catalano, with offices in Syracuse and Rochester, and Public Citizen Inc. filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District alleging the restrictions violate the constitutional right to free speech and impose anti-consumer limits on lawyers' ads. . . . The suit, filed yesterday in Albany, seeks injunctive and declaratory relief in an attempt to prevent enforcement of the new rules by the disciplinary committees. Click for Amendments to Rules Governing Lawyer Advertising.

January 2007

Lawsuit against Wallkill Town Justice Shoemaker dismissed

By Oliver Mackson, Times Herald-Record

1-31-07 -- Wallkill Town Justice Ray Shoemaker may have been wrong to dismiss 60 traffic tickets last fall, but a higher judge ruled yesterday that suing Shoemaker isn't the way to decide. . . . Acting state Supreme Court Justice Nicholas DeRosa tossed out a suit filed by Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips, who said last year that he wanted to send a warning to other local judges not to follow Shoemaker's example. . . . DeRosa said that an appeals court could decide if the judge was wrong to dismiss the tickets issued by state police. Many of the tickets are already being appealed to the Appellate Term of state Supreme Court, an appeals panel that sits in New York.

Pay Raise for NY Judges Gets Boost in Spitzer's First Budget

New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal

1-31-07 -- Governor Eliot L. Spitzer today included over $111 million in his executive budget to provide all of New York judges with a pay raises retroactive to April 1, 2005. The bold and apparently unprecedented initiative of including a judicial pay raise in an executive budget would result in an average pay hike of about 25 percent for judges who have not had so much as a cost-of-living increase in eight years. . . . Under the proposal, which mirrors one first advanced by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, the salaries of all judges - including Housing Court judges who were excluded under a Pataki Administration proposal - would see an initial pay hike of roughly 23 percent. The remaining approximately 2 percent would kick in April 1, assuming Congress approves a cost of living increase for federal judges. If so, as of April 1, the pay structure would be as follows (current salary in parenthesis):

Court of Appeals, Chief Judge - $191,800 ($156,000)
Court of Appeals, Associate Judge - $185,900 ($151,200)
Appellate Division, Presiding Justices - $181,400 ($147,600)
Appellate Division, Associate Justices - $177,000 ($144,000)
Supreme Court Justices - $168,000 ($136,700)

Appointed Court Reformers Not Legally In Judicial Office

© 2007 North Country Gazette

1-30-07 -- Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman has announced a number of new judicial and administrative appointments which he claims will improve operations of New York's nearly 1,300 town justice courts, often known as the local injustice courts. . . . But two of the alleged reformers aren't even legally in judicial office, according to documents obtained from Lippman's own agency and a legal opinion from the Attorney General's office which was solicited by Lippman himself. . . . The issue of judicial officers throughout the state, particularly in the town and village court system, failing to take and file their oath of office and thereby vacating their offices ipso facto, has made any proposed reform by the court system to verge on pure hypocrisy. . . . Lippman says his new appointments are the first step in the implementation of the State Judiciary's Action Plan for the Justice Courts, a broad-based initiative designed to improve the efficiency and quality of local town and village courts, which adjudicate as many as two million cases each year.

Too Much of a Good Judge?

By Jason Boog
1-27-07 -- By most accounts, Martin Marcus is one of the finest judges on the state bench. . . . For years, he has occupied a spot on the Bronx County Supreme Court’s “special wheel,” from which the administrative judge selects one of five or six elite jurists to preside over the borough’s most controversial criminal cases. . . . Most recently, Marcus’s superiors took him out of the Bronx and dropped him into Brooklyn to oversee one of the smelliest scandals in the New York judicial history — the trial of disgraced party boss Clarence Norman, Jr. . . . This sprawling criminal prosecution was divided into four separate trials, each addressing different aspects of the Assemblyman’s actions. The proceedings involve some of the most powerful individuals in Brooklyn and continue to generate plenty of bad publicity for the court system. Despite the pressure, Marcus helmed each trial with a stately courtroom manner.  . . . And yet, some worry: Is this too much of a good judge?

Truscello’s power corrupted absolutely

Delco Times Editorial

1-27-07 -- There’s an old saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Case in point: Folcroft Borough. For years, anyone in the tiny town would tell you that Folcroft was Tony Truscello’s town. You wanted something done, he was the man to see. Anthony Truscello ran Folcroft. For decades he was literally the law in Folcroft, sitting as the local district justice, meting out justice as he saw fit. Not everybody liked the way Truscello ran his town, but very few spoke out against him. At least in public. . . . That was then; this is now. . . . "Tough" Tony Truscello, the self-proclaimed wizard of Folcroft, today has another title: Convicted felon. Soon he will add still another: Inmate. . . . Truscello this week was sentenced to three to 23 months for his role as the mastermind of a surveillance scheme that targeted Folcroft police.

'Threat' By Judge

By Dareh Gregorian

1-25-07 --  A Manhattan Supreme Court justice threatened and intimidated a lawyer for bringing a legal malpractice case against another attorney who's now a judge, explosive court papers charge. . . . The unidentified jurist "lashed out, in tone, words, gestures and fiat" as she warned Ravi Batra that he would never win another motion or case in Manhattan again because of his lawsuit against now-Judge George Silver. . . . Batra made the accusation in a motion to move his case to Staten Island. . . . His malpractice suit was filed on behalf of a woman named Margherita Merola, who's suing Silver and his former law partner, Steve Santo. She accused them of fumbling a lawsuit and then trying to cover it up with faked court documents.

Trimming NY Judge's Pay Seen as Abuse of Power

New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal

1-25-07 --  In a powerful declaration of judicial independence, an appellate panel in Albany reluctantly yet forcefully ordered an upstate town board to increase the salary of its town judge. . . . The Appellate Division, Third Department, took offense with a town board that set the salary of a newly elected judge at $500, or $7,000 less than the town's other justice, and suggested that it would increase the pay if the novice's performance was satisfactory. . . . "Permitting the governmental branch holding the purse strings to evaluate the performance of the judiciary and dole out pay based on those evaluations is particularly disturbing," Justice Anthony T. Kane wrote for the 5-0 panel. "A real threat strikes at the heart of judicial independence if the judiciary must cater to the ideological whims of the legislature or personally suffer financial consequences for rendering legally correct but unpopular decisions."

Ousted NY Judge Sees Most Claims Tosssed, But Can Depose Former Colleague

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

1-25-07 --  Southern District Judge Harold Baer Jr. has dismissed most of former Justice Frank V. Ponterio's claims that court officials had retaliated against him in denying him certification, but Judge Baer ordered Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman to submit to a deposit