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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
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