JudgingJudges

New York Lawyer
12-28-06 -- Faced with a second round of charges that he sought favorable treatment for family members, Clinton Town Justice Daniel L. LaClair has resigned and agreed never to seek or accept judicial office in the future, the New York Law Journal reports. . . . The Commission on Judicial Conduct announced the agreement yesterday. . . . The judge had been censured previously for seeking favorable dispositions from other judges with respect to speeding charges against his wife and a neighbor. . . . The current charges allege that, after learning one of his relatives had been arrested, Judge LaClair arranged to have the case steered to a particular court, then called the judge of that court and identified himself as the defendant's relative.

Do justice to NY courts

An occasional series on the issues facing New York

12-21-06 -- Albany is at its most maddening when a critical mass of elected officials publicly agrees that something should be done, and then nothing happens. That's been the case with too many of the important reforms that state court officials have sought over the years. With a new governor about to take office, that indifference to court reforms must change. . . . Attention-getting criminal justice matters such as Megan's Law, civil confinement of sex offenders and drug-law reform never lack legislative attention - though not necessarily action. But when it comes to the day-to-day operation of the courts and the efficient administration of justice, critical issues are chronically ignored. . . . The strength of democracy is that hope springs eternal - or at least pumps anew every four years. That's particularly true this year. The reform-minded Democratic Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer, who has served eight years as the state's attorney general, is poised to take over from Gov. George Pataki. And the legislature has been juiced by growing public derision. . . . What should officials do to improve the state's courts? . . . No-fault divorce: New York is the only state that doesn't allow for no-fault divorce. The current system exacerbates and prolongs the pain of ending a marriage by forcing spouses to lay blame on one or the other for adultery, abandonment or cruel and inhumane treatment. The last thing distressed families need is the acrimony and expense of such prolonged litigation. "We need nothing short of a cultural revolution here," says Judith Kaye, New York's chief judge.

Disgraced judge won't be charged

By Nancie L. Katz, Daily News Staff Writer

12-21-06 -- A Brooklyn judge accused of looting his elderly aunt's fortune will soon be off the hook for criminal charges, the Daily News has learned. . . . State Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson, under indictment for grand larceny, gets to retire and go into private law practice under a deal with Brooklyn district attorney's office, according to several sources. . . . Garson earned the reprieve from District Attorney Charles Hynes because of the undercover work he did in Hynes' ongoing investigation into judicial corruption, the source said. . . . "His indictment gets dismissed and he gets to retire and get his pension," said a source familiar with the case.

Judicial reform is on the way

New system expected to change old boys club network of electing state Supreme Court judges

By Tom Wrobleski, Advance Political Editor

12-17-06 -- Who got your vote for state Supreme Court justice last month? . . . Can't remember? . . . Or didn't even bother because you didn't recognize the names on the ballot? . . . Well, the system is about to change. . . . And that might be good news for Staten Island's perpetually short-changed state Supreme Court system. . . . With the old way of electing judges deemed unconstitutional, state lawmakers have been tasked with coming up with a new system. . . . If the Legislature fails to act, a primary system could be instituted next fall.The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University believes its own plan would eliminate many of the geographic, ethnic and gender inequities that marred the old system, and would be a boon to the Island and other areas that share judicial districts with larger, more dominant counties. Brennan Center associate counsel James Sample told the Advance Editorial Board that the Island, which shares the Second Judicial District with Brooklyn, had been "grossly underrepresented" under the old system.

New York Turns Blind Eye to Lawyers
Cheating Debtors Out of Millions

HALT (An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform)

12-15-06 -- The glacial pace and toothlessness of New York’s attorney discipline system recently caught the nation’s attention in the infamous “Lenahan Law Office” case, as reported in the Buffalo News, in which a Buffalo law firm ultimately received little more than slaps on the wrist for swindling tens of millions of dollars from impoverished debtors across the country.

According to representatives from Upstate New York's Attorney Grievance Committee and the New York Lawyers' Fund, none of the dozens of victims have received a penny back.

Buffalo's attorney discipline system watched for more than two years while the Lenahan Law Office acted as debt collectors and threatened to jail people and seize their homes on the basis of poorly documented debts. Even after the discipline agency began its investigation, the Lenahan firm continued for 25 months to intimidate and reap money from unsuspecting debtors. Sixty-five individuals came forward with complaints. A South Carolina mother told the Attorney Grievance Committee that one of the firm’s collectors threatened her 14 year-old son that he would “put his daddy in jail if he didn’t pay his bills.” A New Mexico citizen said he was told he would face $35,000 in attorney fees if he did not pay debts already forgiven in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Threats like these continued as New York’s lawyer discipline system prevented public knowledge of the firm’s abusive debt collection practices. Many documents in the case remain hidden and we may never know why it took over two years to conclude discipline proceedings or the extent of damage caused by the fraudulent attorneys. Only three other states (Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri) join New York in keeping the entire discipline process under wraps until a final ruling.

“Closed proceedings undermine public confidence in the self-regulated attorney discipline system,” stated HALT Associate Counsel Suzanne M. Blonder. “And even worse, the Lenahan Law Office debacle demonstrates the practical danger of keeping consumers in the dark while a grievance committee broods over a case for two years.”

Ultimately, one of the firm’s principals was allowed to retire quietly after receiving a private warning letter while the other was given just a two year suspension and the opportunity to take new clients in 2008. “This tiny trickle of discipline sends the message that New York’s attorney discipline system cares more about protecting exploitative lawyers than safeguarding our most vulnerable citizens,” stated Blonder.

Changes considered for village, town courts
By Yancey Roy, Albany Bureau

12-15-06 -- Complaints against town and village judges are more likely to "have merit, warrant investigation and result in punishment" than complaints against judges of higher courts, a watchdog on Thursday told a legislative panel that is considering overhauling local courts. . . . Over nearly three decades, about 76 percent of the cases that resulted in a judge being kicked off the bench involved town and village justices, said Robert Tembeckjian of the state-run Commission on Judicial Conduct. Tembeckjian said local justices -- who don't have to be lawyers -- had more problems than state and city judges in three particular areas: *** * Handling court funds. Since 1978, when the commission was founded, 92 cases have resulted in some disciplinary action, virtually all involving local courts. **** Practicing law on the side in a way that created a conflict of interest. *** * Disregarding "fundamental rights" of those who appear in court. *** Tembeckjian, who has investigated and prosecuted hundreds of judicial misconduct cases, said the bulk of local judges do their jobs well. But he endorsed a plan -- issued by New York's Chief Judge Judith Kaye -- that calls for a dramatic increase in training and oversight of local judges. Among her suggestions: buy digital recorders for every court to create an official record of proceedings, wire local courts into the state court system and require local judges to undergo seven weeks of training rather than the current two. The plan would cost about $10 million to implement next year.

Village Justice Under Investigation

Keeseville Woman Charges Years Of Judicial Abuse

By: Andrea VanValkenburg, Staff Writer

12-15-06 -- A Village of Keeseville justice has become the focus of an investigation by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, based on mounting misconduct allegations. . . . Justice George Head has been under close scrutiny by state officials after several local residents filed documentation about what they claim is a wide range of unlawful rulings and inappropriate courtroom behavior. . . . EVICTION / One of the alleged victims is Karen Marie Adams, a local businesswoman who attempted to have legal action taken against a tenant in her 1709 Front St. business after a series of unpaid rent payments and contractual breaches. . . . As she attempted to file her second eviction request in Village Court, on the advice of counsel, she took the next step and lawfully locked the tenants out of the building for failure to make payments, pending future court action.

Small-Town Judge’s Personal Justice Stirs Concern

By William Glaberson

12-14-06 -- Like many teenagers in this bleak old mill village near Lake Champlain, Michael C. Burrell had been in trouble before. But when an attempted assault case landed him at age 19 in the courtroom of the village justice, the experience was unlike anything he had faced before. . . . He said the justice, George J. Head, insisted that they meet each week outside court, in what people around here call his “judge’s probation” program. . . . There is no such thing as judge’s probation, and private sessions between a judge and a defendant facing jail violate the rules of judicial conduct. . . . But Justice Head seems to have stretched the rules in a number of ways. When he sentenced young men to regular probation, he sometimes drove them to their appointments. One young man was discovered driving the justice’s car, and others say they met with the justice at his home. One said he even wound up moving in for eight months. . . . “He’s the judge,” said Mr. Burrell, who said he met privately with Justice Head several times last year. “He tells me to do something, I’m going to do it.” . . . One of the bedrock principles of American law is that judges are supposed to be impartial toward the people who come before them. They are to be decision makers, not participants, in cases. They are not to befriend defendants, and are barred from meeting with them outside the presence of their lawyers or prosecutors, or outside court. At very least, they are required to avoid any personal involvement that may make it appear they have taken sides.

Justice and mental illness

Berkshire Eagle Editorial

12-14-06 -- The sad case of William Demagall, who was convicted of murder last Friday in Hudson, New York, shines a spotlight on issues of mental health and crime in our society, and whether we are drawing the lines between the two in the right places. It takes tremendous effort to see through the horrible details of what he did to understand what caused it. But to understand the truth, to draw the correct conclusions for the future, and to preserve our system of rights and values, we must try to do so. . . . Mr. Demagall's criminal case history raises many concerns. Foremost is that the prosecution and the defense had agreed to a not guilty by reason of insanity plea, which was rejected by Judge Paul Czajka, sending the case to a jury trial. Three out of four psychiatrists that had assessed him — two for his defense and one for the prosecution — believed he could not be held responsible for his actions. . . . Pleading insanity remains shrouded in a thick layer of assumptions and prejudices many of us hold about crime and about mental illness. But facts show a much different picture than one might expect. Not only is an insanity defense attempted very rarely, but it almost never works. According to a 1994 study by the National Institute of Mental Health, less than 1 percent of cases involved such a defense, and only a quarter of those were accepted, almost always through a plea agreement.

Pataki Goes Far Afield to Find Political Allies for the City Appellate Bench

By Sam Roberts

12-11-06 -- Three weeks ago, Gov. George E. Pataki reached nearly 100 miles north of Manhattan to find just the right judge to fill the last vacancy on New York City’s most prestigious state court. . . . But when that judge, E. Michael Kavanagh, a former district attorney in Ulster County, arrived at the Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department, which encompasses Manhattan and the Bronx, he might have felt right at home. Ten of the 13 judges appointed by Mr. Pataki to the court, including 8 of the present members, were originally from outside the department, some from as far away as Albany and Utica. . . . Importing judges from outside the district has enabled the three-term Republican governor to give coveted assignments in Manhattan to political allies and alter the ideological makeup of the court. . . . The practice can also be expensive. Since April 2005, the start of the last fiscal year, through Oct. 31, the court system has spent at least $212,000 in the First Department to feed, house and transport the transplanted judges and their staffs. . . . Previous governors have occasionally imported judges from other districts to fill pressing shortages, but none in modern times have done so as consistently as Mr. Pataki and nowhere as conspicuously as in the First Department. . . . The practice has angered some leaders of the city’s legal establishment. Last month, after Mr. Pataki appointed Justice Kavanagh, Barry Kamins, president of the New York City Bar Association, said: “The courts of a community should have an understanding of the people they serve, and a connection to their life experiences and their culture. The governor continues to show his disregard for this basic principle.”

Appellate Judge Troubled by Bias on Bench

Victor Inzunza
12-6-06 -- The judiciary has an inherent and insidious bias in favor of legal procedures and solutions that has led to an expansion of judicial influence over nearly every sector of society from schools and prisons to religion and medicine, said Chief Judge Dennis G. Jacobs of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York at a lecture at Fordham Law School on Nov. 20. . . . Jacobs, delivering his first speech since becoming chief judge as part of the Law School’s John F. Sonnett Memorial Lecture, said that the bias displayed by judges is not a political one, but one that places legal thought and solutions above all else in society. . . . The “inbred” preference by judges to find solutions to public policy and other issues through the legal process is infused with a kind of smugness that such procedures “produce the best results,” he said, and called on judges to exercise self-restraint and discipline in order to ward off a bias that often goes overlooked in the legal profession. . . . “The country could do worse than suffer rule by lawyers,” he said. “I would prefer a tyranny of law to life under a military regime. But outside our professional sphere, the dominance of law, the legal profession and the judiciary is resented more than we appreciate. As a matter of self-awareness and conscience, judges should accept that the legal mind is not the best policy instrument and that lawyer-driven processes and lawyer-centered solutions can be unwise, insufficient and unjust. … For the judiciary this would mean a reduced role but not a diminished one.”

November 2006

Scandal in the Courtroom: Found Guilty Without Trial is about the life of a dairy farmer and his son in Copake, New York (Columbia County). The close–knit community in the beautiful Taconic countryside is undone by a serial arsonist that burns building after building. . . . Today, many innocent people are in ruin because of judicial and lawyer misconduct in the courts. Scandal in the Courtroom: Found Guilty Without Trial follows one such case, where a federal district judge failed to investigate and act on a complaint of lawyer misconduct.

Also see: (Crooked Columbia County)

Spitzer to help shape court
Experience, not party, likely deciding factors

By Mark Johnson, Associated Press

11-27-06 -- Within a few months of taking office, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer will have a chance to help shape the state's highest court, a tribunal that has decided key spending and social issues for New Yorkers but that critics say has grown timid in recent years. . . . Two terms will come up for review and court watchers expect Spitzer, a Democrat, to make his choices based on legal experience, not political affiliation, to make the panel stronger. Albany Law School professor Vincent Bonventre said the seven-member court lost some of its stature after Republican Gov. George E. Pataki stacked it with judges who "seemed to be governed by ideology and politics." . . . On Dec. 31, Court of Appeals Judge Albert Rosenblatt, a former Dutchess County district attorney appointed by Pataki in 1998, will step down at the mandatory retirement age of 70. And in March, Chief Judge Judith Kaye's 14-year term expires. Kaye, the first woman on the court, who was an associate judge for 10 years, could serve until the end of 2008, if Spitzer reappoints her. . . . Kaye, appointed by former Gov. Mario Cuomo, has told Spitzer she wants to be reappointed, Court of Appeals spokesman Gary Spencer said. . . . The court has decided some of the biggest issues in Albany in recent years. It allowed Indian casinos to flourish, slapped the state with a multibillion-dollar bill to improve New York City schools, and asserted the governor's power over the Legislature in budgeting.

Court Bites Judge

EDITORIAL

11-22-06 -- Here's a man-bites-dog story if ever there was one: New York's top court ruled yesterday that Albany must cough up "only" $1.9 billion a year more for the city's schools. . . . The Big Spenders in the state's education cartel had set their sights on three times that amount - if not more. And a lower court actually backed them up. . . . Not so fast, the Court of Appeals said: Setting the school-funding budget is the job of the state Legislature and the governor, not the courts. . . . The court ordered the state to provide no more than what the Pataki folks said was required under the Constitution. . . . At last: Judicial restraint in a New York court. . . . Gov. Pataki deserves two measures of credit for yesterday's ruling: . . . * For having fought this case for so long - his entire 12-year tenure - in a state practically run by school unions and other special interests. . . . Practically everyone agreed (wrongly) that the city needs billions more for schools. Even though it already spends far more per student than most other cities. And even though there is no credible evidence that extra money can guarantee students learn more.

NY Plans to Reform Local Justice System

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

11-22-06 -- With growing concern over the future viability of New York's time-honored but often maligned local justice system, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman yesterday announced a sweeping series of reforms designed to bring out the best elements of the current framework and weed out the worst with a strategy relying primarily on court system initiatives. . . . Under an action plan aimed at taking the "most aggressive and comprehensive steps that the state judiciary can take in supporting New York's local courts under current law," the court system would:

• "Fundamentally reinvent" training for non-lawyer justices. It would require two weeks, rather than one, of in-residence education plus a five-week home curricula.

• Require attorney justices to attend a week-long orientation program similar to that required of other judges.

• Require town and village justices to report their compliance with rules and laws governing assignment of indigent counsel.

Panel says judge should be removed for failing to send payments

11-17-06 -- (AP) _ An Otsego County town justice should be removed from office for failing to turn over court-collected funds to the state on time and for refusing to cooperate in an investigation into her conduct, a commission overseeing the state's judges said Friday. . . . Under state law, funds collected by courts have to be documented and turned over to the state by the 10th day of the month following collection. The Commission on Judicial Conduct said Plainfield Town Court Justice Kerry Lockwood failed to do so on numerous occasions from January 2004 through December 2005 even though her court handled an average of just four cases a month. . . . Two of the payments were sent in more than 640 days late and 11 were more than 113 days late. . . . The commission said Lockwood, who is not a lawyer, showed "disregard for the responsibilities of her judicial office" and would not cooperate with its investigation.

October 2006

NJ's Same-Sex Marriage Ruling May Affect NY Debate

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

10-26-06 -- The New Jersey Supreme Court's decision yesterday ordering that state's legislature to offer gays the benefits of marriage, either via civil unions or same-sex marriage, may not lead to a flood of New Yorkers crossing the Hudson River, but it could have a profound effect on the New York state Legislature's approach to gay unions. . . . "I think it does mean something for New York," said Roberta Kaplan, the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner who argued in favor of same-sex marriage last May before the New York Court of Appeals in the joined cases known as Hernandez v. Robles, 86. "It's not irrelevant that nearly every state that shares a border with New York -- Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, and now New Jersey -- allows for in some measure, either by court ruling or legislative act, statewide recognition of same-sex families."

Clinton-Appointed Judge Lets Terrorist Collaborator
By Tom Fitton

10-25-06 -- How long of a prison sentence would you give to someone who was convicted of aiding a known terrorist? According to one Clinton-appointed federal judge, about 28 months ought to do the trick. . . . On October 16, Judge John Koeltl sentenced terrorist collaborator and radical liberal lawyer Lynne Stewart to a "whopping" two years, four months in prison for smuggling messages from her client, terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, to his terrorist minions in Egypt. Adding insult to injury, during the sentencing Judge Koeltl, who was nominated by President Clinton to the bench in 1994, also praised Stewart for her "enormous skill and dedication," and for performing "a public service not only to her clients but to the nation." (So light was the sentence that Stewart told the press she could do it, "standing on my head." Federal prosecutors, who were seeking a 30-year sentence, plan to appeal.)

Judge's daughter in court after fatal accident
By Brian Rogers, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Sobbing softly as she stood before a judge this morning, Elizabeth Shelton spoke inaudibly after being asked if she understood her rights. . . . "What?" state District Judge Caprice Cosper asked. . . . "Yes," said Shelton, 19, who had a black eye. . . . Standing beside her, her attorney squeezed her shoulders. . . . Shelton, the daughter of Judge Pat Shelton, is charged with intoxication manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, 19-year-old Matthew McNiece. . . . She was in Cosper's court today to hear the affidavit spelling out the evidence supporting her arrest. . . . Prosecutor Paul Doyle said Shelton was driving a red Lexus sport utility vehicle at high speed in the 2300 block of the Southwest Freeway early Monday when she hit an 18-wheeler, killing McNiece.

NY Lawyer Sees Dead Client's Malpractice Claim Dismissed

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

A Manhattan appellate court has dismissed a legal malpractice suit on behalf of an elderly man who claimed his lawyers misled him into signing away control of his estate, but a dissenting judge said the majority's decision "risks undermining the confidence of the public in the profession." . . . Jack E. Maurer, who died last year at age 86, sued the firm formerly known as Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow in 2003 for allegedly failing to explain to him the import of estate planning documents he signed. He also claimed the firm was conflicted because it represented his wife Rona, who he named as a co-defendant in the suit. . . . According to Mr. Maurer's lawyer, Lawrence H. Silverman, the documents at issue gave Ms. Maurer control over a trust containing her husband's major assets, a $12 million Central Park West apartment and a $3 million house in Quogue, N.Y., and placed restrictions on Mr. Maurer's access to other retirement funds.

'Lazy' Judge Lets Thug Off Easy: Police

By Kieran Crowley

A group of detectives ripped a "lazy" Long Island judge for allowing a hardened criminal to cop a plea deal that cuts his prison time in half. . . . Tom Willdigg, president of the Nassau County Detectives Association, accused Justice Richard LaPera of offering Ernest Colon "a half-price sale" - or 12 years in jail - for confessing to his involvement in a violent home invasion in Oceanside in 2005. . . . "[LaPera] is lazy - he doesn't want to go to trial" and has decided not to run for re-election, Willdigg said. . . . Colon - dressed in black like a Ninja - menaced a family with a screwdriver, beat the dad and threatened, "If you yell, I'll kill your children!" Willdigg said. . . . Colon, 45, and his partner, Efram Zimbalist Russell, 43, also are suspects in at least eight other home invasions that terrorized Nassau County residents last year. . . . They were busted in the Oceanside case because Russell left behind his DNA - while snacking on his victims' food. . . . Willdigg said Colon should spend at least the next 25 years behind bars for the break-in.

O.J. Trials For Terrorists

by Ann Coulter

10-19-06 -- The Democrats claim they want to treat terrorism as a criminal law problem, but when we give them an American citizen convicted of aiding terrorists -- as happened this week -- a Democrat judge gives her a slap on the wrist. Or he was going to give her a wrist slap until someone told him that wrist-slapping was banned under the Geneva Conventions, so he let the wrist off with a warning. . . . Last year, a New York jury found Lynne Stewart guilty of helping her former client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, communicate with his Egyptian-based group of murderous terrorists, appropriately known as "the Islamic Group." . . . The blind sheik needed to instruct his followers to abandon a truce and resume murdering innocents, but he couldn't get the message through because, by sheer coincidence, he was in prison for conspiring to murder innocents here in America by plotting the first World Trade Center bombing. So Stewart and a "translator" met with her former client in prison and took his messages for transmission to his followers in Egypt. . . . With the full constitutional protections Democrats want for terrorists in Guantanamo, Stewart was convicted by a New York jury last year.

Stewart did not deserve mercy of court

Editorial: Delco Times

10-19-06 -- Convicted terrorist enabler Lynne Stewart was sentenced the other day. She faced 30 years in prison for helping her client, terrorist mastermind Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, get word to his followers that he had decided to end the cease-fire between his group Gama’a al-Islamiyya and the Egyptian government. . . . But he had a problem. He was incarcerated and supposed to be incommunicado. . . . In 1995, Rahman was convicted with nine others of conspiring to blow up the U.N. and FBI buildings in New York City. He was also accused of being involved in the 1992 World Trade Center bombing that killed six and injured hundreds. He was never convicted in that case. . . . Stewart was his lawyer. Though she had signed an agreement with the Bureau of Prisons not to help her client communicate with his followers, she did not honor that agreement.

NY DA's Vouching For Witnesses Triggers Overturning of Murder Conviction

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

10-18-06 -- An appellate court has overturned the murder conviction of a man sentenced to 20 years to life for his alleged role in the contract-killing of a homeless man. . . . The panel ruled Tuesday that repeated prosecutorial misconduct prevented a fair determination of the credibility of two key witnesses, one of whom was a sitting Manhattan Family Court judge, Helen Sturm. . . . The prosecutor, for example, repeatedly called the defendant a liar and vouched for the credibility of his own witnesses, including Judge Sturm. . . . The panel added that the failure of the trial judge, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edwin Torres, to instruct the jury regarding the credibility of a judge "exacerbated" the error. . . . "Defendant was deprived of a fair trial by the cumulative effect of the prosecution's conduct during its cross-examination of defendant and its summation. . . . Moreover, the misconduct during summation was compounded by the trial court's error in failing to provide specific instruction as to the credibility of a judge's testimony," the unanimous panel held in its per curiam decision, People v. Ortiz, 8656-8657. . . . The panel reversed the decision and remanded the case for a second trial.

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.

Plaintiffs Fail to Meet Burden in Residential-Mold Case

Decision a significant victory for skeptics of residential-mold suits; is mold not the 'next asbestos,' after all?

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

10-19-06 -- Residential mold may not be the plague many housing advocates have claimed it to be, according to a recent Supreme Court decision. . . . In an action filed on behalf of three co-op residents who allegedly suffered health problems caused by mold, Manhattan Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich dismissed the causes of action for personal injury, holding that the plaintiffs did not establish that the theory underlying their claim has been generally accepted by the scientific community. . . . "[The] plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the community of allergists, immunologists, occupational and environmental health physicians and scientists accept their theory -- that mold and/or damp indoor environments cause illness," Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich held in Fraser v. 301-52 Townhouse Corp., 113586/02.

Stewart gets 28 months on terror charge

By Larry Neumeister & Anthony M. Destefano, Associated Press Writer and Newsday Staff Writer
10-16-06 -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months months in prison on a terrorism charge Monday for helping an Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. . . . Stewart, 67, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, smiled, cried and hugged supporters after U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl announced he was dramatically reducing the 30-year prison sentence called for by federal sentencing guidelines. . . . “If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that," defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink told the judge before the sentence was pronounced. . . . The sentence was met with claps and cheers outside the courthouse, where about 200 supporters of Stewart had gathered.

Panel Suspends 815 Lawyers For Failure to Register or Pay
By Mark Fass, New York Law Journal
In the first stage of its first major round up of delinquent attorneys in nearly a decade, the Appellate Division, First Department, has suspended 815 lawyers for failing to re-register and to pay their fees. . . . "This Court has previously held that failure to register or re-register, and pay the biennial registration fee constitutes professional misconduct warranting discipline," the unanimous panel held in its per curiam decision, Matter of Attorneys Who Are in Violation of Judiciary Law Section 458-a, M-3061. "The attorneys in question have been duly notified of their noncompliance and given an opportunity to cure their default." . . . See Court Notes for more information. To help resolve suspensions, call the Office of Court Administration at 212-428-2800 or the Appellate Division, First Department, clerk's office at 212-340-0400. . . . The order becomes effective 30 days after its Thursday release. Because the 30th day is Saturday, Nov. 11, the suspensions technically go into effect on Nov. 13.

Judges Without Justice: New York Judge Receives Censure, Not Suspension, for Misconduct

HALT Newsletter

Albany City Judge William A. Carter is this week’s contender for Judges Without Justice. . . . After descending from the bench and dropping his robes, Judge Carter challenged a defendant to a fist fight. In another case, he suggested police officers “thump the [expletive] out of” allegedly disrespectful individuals. And earlier in 2004, Carter left the bench and physically confronted a pro se defendant, asking him, “You want a piece of me?” . . . Describing his conduct as “deplorable” and “utterly inexcusable,” the Commission on Judicial Conduct, by majority rule, censured Judge Carter, declaring that any “future ethical lapses will be viewed with appropriate severity.” Yet opinions were mixed within the Commission regarding its decision. Some commission members, such as Chairman Felder, believe his conduct was “egregious” but did not “irretrievably damage” his effectiveness on the bench. Others, such as Monroe County Town Justice Klonick claim Carter lacked “any kind of self-control” and the “necessary judicial temperament” to render him fit for office. . . . To read the New York Law Journal’s news article, click here. To read the Commission’s opinion and decision, click here.

Complaints Against Judges on the Rise
Agency Reports Record Probes in 2005

By John Caher, New York Law Journal

10-12-06 -- Complaints against New York judges increased for the sixth straight year in 2005 as the Commission on Judicial Conduct received a record number of gripes and commenced a record-breaking 260 formal investigations, according to an annual report released yesterday. . . . The report shows that the watchdog agency rendered 30 disciplinary determinations and public sanctions last year, its highest total since a ticket-fixing scandal in 1981. It voted to remove four judges, to publicly censure 15 and to admonish five. Additionally, it investigated and privately cautioned two appellate judges whose identities were not revealed in the report. The commission has never publicly disciplined an appellate judge. . . . All told, the commission received a total of 1,565 complaints, the most ever, resulting in 260 probes. . . . But commission administrator and counsel Robert H. Tembeckjian said he is reluctant to "read too much into any single year's numbers." Mr. Tembeckjian suspects the spike in complaints may be attributable to more people being aware of the commission and its work than any decline in judicial ethics.

'Utterly Inexcusable' Acts Prompt Censure of Judge

By John Caher, New York Law Journal

10-3-06 -- An Albany city judge who descended from the bench, dropped his robes on the floor and seemingly challenged a defendant to a fist fight in court barely escaped removal in a divided opinion yesterday by the Commission on Judicial Conduct. . . . In another incident, the judge suggested police officers "thump the shit out of" another allegedly disrespectful individual. . . . Majority and dissenting opinions make clear that Albany City Judge William A. Carter came within a thread of losing his job, and make equally clear that he will not get a second chance. Although the commission staff and two commissioners called for removal, the majority voted for censure, while describing Judge Carter's conduct as "deplorable" and "utterly inexcusable." . . . But the commission's opinion, released yesterday, also delves deeply into three broader issues with which the watchdog panel has recently struggled: whether it should require a full-blown hearing before removing a judge, or just rely on a stipulation of facts; when legal error constitutes misconduct; and whether the commission should have the power to suspend judges guilty of misconduct. The decision can be found at the commission's Web site, www.scjc.state.ny.us.

Justice in shadows

New York's town, village court system screams for reform

10-2-06 -- The justice of the peace system, which allows elected judges with no legal background to run courts in towns and villages, dates back to New York's colonial period. A New York Times investigative report published last week showed this system is screaming for oversight and reform. . . . Seventy-five percent of New York's nearly 2,000 town and village justices lack legal degrees and must rely on only six days of state training that couldn't possibly prepare them to preside over complicated legal matters. Too many have jailed people illegally, denied defendants the right to legal counsel and committed worse offenses because of ignorance or indifference to the law.

Homespun Injustice

Written by Editorial

10-2-06 -- The idea of a village judge sounds appealing, like a Mayberry elder perhaps, or a folksy, no-nonsense justice of the peace. But a Times series by William Glaberson has revealed the appalling ways some of New York’s hometown justices really work. . . . These part-time judges — most of whom are not lawyers — have been known to jail people without a plea or a trial. They have removed people from their homes improperly or made racist or sexist comments. They have kept courtrooms closed to the public and skewed rulings for friends; one let a rape suspect out of jail as a favor. As one justice explained: “I just follow my own common sense. And the hell with the law.” . . . Even a defendant faced with a speeding ticket deserves a fair and legal proceeding — no matter where. Some states, like California and Delaware, have added resources and toughened educational requirements for community courts. But New York has resisted any real reform of its 1,250 justice courts for almost a century, and for one main reason: they’re golden. They provide jobs or extra income and the fines and fees bring in lots of money.

Courts brace for flood of traffic cases
Effort to reinstate ticket pleas fails
By Nik Bonopartis, Poughkeepsie Journal

When a new state rule prevented troopers from pleading down traffic tickets, drivers and many judges were hoping state lawmakers would make the new policy short-lived and force the state police to go back to negotiating in court. . . . Gov. George Pataki dashed those hopes two weeks ago, when he vetoed an attempt by legislators to revoke the new policy. And political leaders in Albany probably won't attempt to override his veto until the spring, legislators said. . . . Faced with dealing with the new policy for at least the next several months, habits are changing among judges, prosecutors, and drivers. . . . Some courts already are seeing a slowdown in their traffic calendars. Others are beginning to see more drivers go to trial over speeding tickets.

September 2006

Broken Bench

How a Reviled Court System Has Outlasted Critics

By William Glaberson

Broken Bench

“Nothing Gets Done”

Part 3 of 3

A yearlong investigation by The New York Times of the life and history of New York State’s town and village courts found a long trail of judicial abuses and errors — and of governmental failure to curb them.