Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Advocate
Richard Blassberg
Judge Adler Would Give Rogue
DAs Another Bite Of The Apple
Last Thursday morning, January 8th, Anthony DiSimone, accompanied by his attorney, Murray Richman, appeared before State Supreme
Court Justice Lester B. Adler, for what Adler would describe as a Hearing For Determination Of Readiness. That description was really a tipoff as
to the mindset with which the Judge entertained the “Reply Memorandum In Support Of Motion To Dismiss The Indictment And Preclude A Retrial,” a 13-page argument drafted by John R. Bartels, Jr., Esq., Of Counsel, presented by Mr. Richman.
In reality, DiSimone, his Attorney, and some members of family, as well as friends, had come to Court, as had the parents and family of the late
Louis Balancio, to receive the Decision And Order of Judge Adler with respect to the Motion submitted by Richman to dismiss the indictment.
And, there was every good, legally justifiable reason, to vacate that indictment handed up in December of 1997 by a Westchester grand jury in
response to the confabulated, tortured version by then-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the events outside the Strike Zone Bar on Central Avenue in Yonkers in the wee hours of February 4, 1994 that supposedly resulted in the death, from multiple stab wounds, 13 in all, of one, not quite 21-year-old Louis Balancio, member of the Hell’s Kitchen Gang.
Mrs. Pirro was barely in office one month when the incident occurred involving some 25 or more young adults, many of them of Italian-American
ethnicity, some Irish-American, still others Albanian-American; a number of girls in the area, several guys, supposedly the “Tanglewood Boys.” Pirro saw what she hoped would be an opportunity to shake the notion that she could not prosecute, and deal with, “La Cosa Nostra”, a hindrance to her potential political rise attached to her since 1988 when she was withdrawn from consideration for Lieutenant Governor because of her spouse, Al’s, tight connection to Suburban Carting and owners Jimmy Galante and Tommy Milo.Within six days of the brutal murder of Balancio,
Pirro was in possession of a confession from the actual murderer, a young Albanian-American named Nick Djonovic who was upset by the attention Balancio was paying to his girlfriend. But an Albanian would not suit self-promotionally-motivated Pirro, who allowed Djonovic to escape to Yugoslavia while she concocted her own version of events and searched for the right Italian, hopefully one with some family connection to the “Mob”, that would suit her purposes.
Anthony DiSimone was not her first choice. Darren Mazzarella, who actually held Balancio down while Djonovic stabbed away, got the first call. Darren, and his brother, also named Nick, had already established themselves as a kind of minor “Murder Incorporated”, having wasted Nick’s employer, and a youthful gang member, in the Bronx. They had each been apprehended by federal authorities subsequent to the Balancio killing,
and were vulnerable and willing to play their part in whatever plot Pirro was prepared to script.
The Mazzarellas would ultimately cut a ‘sweetheart’ deal for themselves into Witness Protection at public expense while avoiding sentencing for
their pleas on their federal raps for more than 10 years now. For all that they got from the Government in return, Darren, who would be Pirro’s chief ‘witness’ against Anthony DiSimone, at no point testi- fied that he ever saw him kill anybody.
In point of fact, Mrs. Pirro, and her henchmen prosecutors, Clement Patti and Steven Bender, had nothing truthful in the way of evidence that, in
any way, implicated DiSimone in the death of the Balancio boy, but much that exculpated him, not only pointing to his innocence, but also directly pointing to Nick Djonovic.
Within hours of Pirro’s scheduled classic press conference to announce DiSimone’s indictment by a fourth grand jury late in December of 1997,
after three prior grand juries had refused to, she had received a telephone call from Mark Pomerantz, Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and head of the Office’s Criminal Division, questioning how she intended to announce DiSimone’s indictment for a
murder she had had a confession, a bloody leather jacket, and numerous other items of evidence about from Nick Djonovic, who she had allowed
to escape to Yugoslavia.
The fact was, in December of 1997, nearly four years after Louis Balancio lay mouldering in his grave, and Anthony DiSimone continued to
live in plain sight in Yonkers with his wife and her family, Mrs. Pirro & Co. had collected some 376 pages, 52 boxes and miles of tape-recorded conversations that all pointed to the fact that Anthony was innocent of the charges she wanted to bring against him.
It is important to point out, at this juncture, that all of the exculpatory evidence to which I make reference, the overwhelming majority of which
was deliberately and unlawfully kept from his defense, and naturally, from the jurors when Anthony DiSimone was brought to trial in 2000, remained concealed in the Offices of the Westchester County District Attorney while Anthony remained locked up in state prison for a crime he didn’t commit, until in 2006, Attorney John Bartels, Jr., pressing hard for the truth in the Federal District Court of Judge Charles L. Brieant in White Plains, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Foley Square, Manhattan, backed Valerie Livingston, Assistant DA in the Westchester Appeals Bureau, an outrageous liar who we witnessed commit-ting perjury both before Judge Brieant and a three-judge panel including Presiding
Judge Calabresi at the Court Of Appeals, against the wall.
Judge Brieant, on a Remand from the Court above, was mere seconds from opening a long, protracted evidentiary hearing that would’ve been
most embarrassing to DA Janet Di-Fiore and her effort to prevent Mr. DiSimone’s release on a writ of Habeus Corpus when Livingston was compelled to break down and rescind her opposition to the writ, followed by her exit from the courtroom, in tears.
She had every good reason to be crying because she had been caught up in the “tangled web” of lies and deceit with respect to Mr. DiSimone,
and had defended by repeated perjury and misrepresentation before the federal courts what presiding Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
had called, “The worst Brady violation I have seen in 12 years on the Bench.”
It was this contaminated, ugly case that was before Judge Adler last Thursday. This case, where, although they had the power to do it themselves,
the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals, having directed the granting of the writ of Habeus Corpus, was not about to clean up after the State Court’s mess entirely, preferring, instead, to make the State deal with the wrongfully-obtained indictment in light of all of the prosecutorial
misconduct, and the malicious motive, that had gone into it.
Such was the opportunity to finally make right what had been so wrong for nearly 15 years; the Big Lie from Jeanine Pirro’s mouth, that had been tearing at both the DiSimone and Balancio families for so very long. However, Judge Adler had no intention of ending either the injustice or the agony. Adler opened the proceedings with, “On DiSimone, the Court has rendered its decision, and it will be handled on the second call. The Attorneys have gone to Judge Molea for scheduling.” Had he decided to vacate the original indictment, there would have been no need for scheduling as there would be nothing to schedule.
The incident which took the life of Louis Balancio had occurred more than four years prior to the day in 1999 when Anthony DiSimone, having
learned that he was now indicted and sought for the murder, walked into Yonkers Police Headquarters to surrender. The entire time he had been
living in plain sight, in Yonkers, having never left the area whatsoever. He was kept in the County Jail, without bail, for a year thereafter while Pirro, Patti, and Bender, not to mention the Yonkers Police Department, and 40 DA investigators worked at trying to tie him to the murder for a
total of five years. His trial was presided over by Judge James Cowhey, who was dating Mrs. Pirro’s mother, Esther Ferris. The Judge was actively engaged in the conspiratorial effort to keep any and all information about Nick Djonovic, the actual murderer, from the Defense and, more importantly, from the jury.
It was against this historical background that last Thursday Judge Lester B. Adler handed up his 20-page Decision and Order denying Anthony
DiSimone’s Motion to Dismiss the original indictment for the crime of Depraved Indifference Murder, which, under the facts of the case, nobody
could be charged with today, or, alternately Intentional Murder, for which DiSimone was acquitted by the original jury and cannot be charged with
under the Constitutional prohibition against Double Jeopardy of the Fifth Amendment.
In point of fact, under rulings from New York’s highest court since 2004, nobody may be charged and indicted, both for Intentional and Depraved
Mind Murder at the same time for the same incident, a fact that Judge Adler has known since he presided over the Selwyn Days’ trial nearly five
years ago.
In reviewing Judge Adler’s Decision And Order, we made a number of observations. On Page 7, Adler points to the fact that as recently as September 15, 2008, “Defendant again moves to inspect the grand jury minutes and to dismiss the indictment on the grounds of legal insufficiency of the evidence.” Given all of the contortions and adjustments the State’s highest court, in its effort to finally deal with a nearly 40-year “leg-up” for the State’s prosecutors, over the past five years, having first cited the “Law of the Case”, a strictly procedural doctrine, as a constraint to granting Defense’s motion, Adler justifiably, and properly, launches into a four-page mini-history of the high court’s multiple attempts to limit some four decades of Unconstitutional application of the Depraved Mind Murder Statute.
However, having taken the extensive tour from Gonzalez through Jean -Baptiste, and properly expressed the recent evolution of the Depraved Mind statute, apparently finding no rock-solid mandate with respect to said changes, to grant Defense’s motion, Adler concludes, “In the absence of
any extraordinary circumstances which would warrant a departure from the doctrine of The Law Of The Case, his [DiSimone’s] renewed motion
to re-inspect the grand jury minutes and to dismiss the indictment on insufficiency grounds, is denied.”
With all due respect, we must take issue with Judge Adler, and suggest that any time a prosecutor, or prosecutors, acting in concert, have concealed 376 pages, including a confession by the actual murderer, 52 boxes, including the bloody jacket worn by the actual murderer, and miles of recorded telephone and in-person conversations with witnesses, FBI agents, and Assistant United States Attorneys, all of which are exculpatory to the individual wrongfully indicted, tried, and convicted, God help us if all that does not constitute “Extraordinary Circumstances.”
Judge Adler would definitely seem to be out of sync with the indignation and outrage felt by the justices of our nation’s second highest court when
they granted Mr. DiSimone a writ of Habeus Corpus for the “worst Brady violation” the presiding justice had seen in 12 years on the Court. Surely
Adler is engaging in classic British understatement when, on Page 12 of his decision, he opines, “Defendant’s federal writ of Habeus Corpus granted on the ground of a Brady violation, not on the ground that the evidence presented at trial was legally insufficient.”
We are talking about multiple Brady violations and multiple acts of prosecutorial misconduct so wrongful and malicious in nature, and so numerous
as to provoke the comment from Judge Calabresi, presiding over the Federal Court of Appeals, dubbing it “the worst” he had seen.
But Judge Adler sees no reason not to give the Office responsible for such dastardly conduct, the Office that has already robbed Mr. DiSimone of seven years of his life and liberty, and driven the decedent’s family half-crazy with their lies and confabulations, another crack at it!
Perhaps Mr. DiSimone’s Attorney, Murray Richman, stated it best when he told this reporter, speaking of Judge Adler’s decision: “We will review
the entire decision with a mind toward reargument. It is apparent on its face that the Court relied on old grounds rather than punishing the
People for their wrongdoing.
“How does society benefit when prosecutors can withhold exculpatory material and have a do-over? “When I was a kid in the Bronx, playing kids’ games, if my opponent did something wrong, he didn’t get a do-over.” Mr. Richman then concluded, “I respect the Judge and honest men can
disagree honestly.”
Showing posts with label Westchester DA's Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Westchester DA's Office. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Westchester Guardian/In Our Opinion/Our Readers Respond/Janet Difiore.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
In Our Opinion...
There Ought To Be A Law
We are more firm than ever in our belief, and motivated in our strivings, to help bring about legislation to control, and prevent, prosecutorial
misconduct. We have come to believe that such legislation must provide both incarcerative and financial penalties; but, at the very least, involve permanent loss of one’s license to practice law. Furthermore, the legislation must be enacted by Congress, as it must be applicable, and enforceable, everywhere throughout our Nation.
Under the current state of affairs, state and federal prosecutors, district attorneys, and United States Attorneys, have no disincentive to engaging in any and every form of prosecutorial misconduct, and, in fact, routinely do, unfortunately, as witnessed in two separate, well-known cases here in Westchester just last week; one in the State Supreme Court, Anthony D. Simone; the other in Federal District Court, Paul Cote.
In the absence of meaningful punishment, prosecutors, already advantaged with unlimited human and financial resources, with increased frequency, find it convenient and personally acceptable to engage in prosecutorial misconduct of every kind in their effort to convict accused citizens, be they guilty or innocent. Without fear of punishment, at the very least loss of their license to practice law, our courts, both state and federal, are virtually powerless to protect the Constitutional rights of citizens against such unscrupulous, rogue prosecutors.
In case after case, we see such prosecutors bent on winning at any and all costs, sending innocent individuals to prison, often for life, based upon false confessions, witness coercion, evidence tampering, suborned perjury, and a host of other actions which, if engaged in by anyone other than a prosecutor, would be dealt with as crimes and would result in incarceration and financial penalties.
In the interest of justice and fair play, We believe the time has long been at hand when federal legislation must be enacted that will prevent the kinds of deliberate and calculated prosecutorial misconduct that sent Jeffrey Deskovic, Richard DiGuglielmo, and Anthony DiSimone (see Advocate, p.5), all innocent victims of prosecutorial misconduct, to prison from state court, and most recently, Paul Cote (see Court Report, p3) from federal court.
No democracy can long endure if the Constitutional rights of its citizens are routinely violated with impunity by the very individuals entrusted to protect them. We must not stand idly by as rogue prosecutors, together with rogue police and others in the Criminal Justice System, commit crimes against innocent citizens, indeed, against the very fabric of our society.
Amongst all of the presidential candidates, Democratic, Republican and other, who offered themselves to the American people, only one, Barack Obama, on at least two occasions, spoke of the need to, “deal with wrongful convictions.”
Now that he is about to take the reins into his hands, and in light of the unprecedented Constitutional violations of his predecessor’s administration, what better time for the voice of the People to be heard on behalf of such legislation?
Our Readers Respond...
Reader Complains Of Tyranny In Rockland Courts
Dear Editor:
Where do I begin? I was charged with Harrassment, 2nd Degree sometime in mid-2006. I am a resident of Rockland County. My defense attorney, at the time, was Anthony Dellicarri, then working for the law firm of Zugabie and Ferraro, one of the county’s largest law firms handling senior estate guardianships granted to them by the Surrogate Court.
In January 2008, Tom Zugabie was elected District Attorney of Rockland County. He now had to make an abrupt closure of his private practice. Mr. Dellicarri was hired onto the District Attorney’s staff as a senior attorney. However, Mr. Dellicarri was still continuing to act as my defense attorney well into February of 2008, after he had sworn the oath of office working in the District Attorney’s Office. In fact, he had written
letters to Judge Paul Phinney in Orangetown Court, presiding over my case, stating that he [Dellicarri] was my attorney of record.
He advised me that a guilty plea would be my best option, and promised to submit a pre-sentencing memorandum, which he promptly failed to prepare after I heeded his advice. A letter-writing campaign ensued between Mr. Dellicarri, Justice Phinney and myself. In short order, Judge Phinney withdrew my guilty plea in the interest of justice, and rescheduled my case to his calendar with new counsel.
I requested a special prosecutor and the recusal of Justice Phinney. I was granted a prosecutor from Putnam County by the name of Mr. Hogan. Who picked him, I don’t know. And Judge Phinney said he would not recuse himself from the case. I wrote to Gary Casella of the Grievance Committee advising him of Mr. Dellicarri’s actions, on the one hand working as my defense attorney and, at the same, being a sworn prosecutor.
My complaint was referred to the Westchester County Bar Association; and, I am currently still waiting to be heard by their Committee as to whether my complaint will be investigated.
I was assigned an 18B counsel because all money had been spent on Mr. Dellicarri’s representation. I was now assigned a Mr. Allen McGeorge, and was given approximately 30 days to prepare my case with him.
On the very eve of my trial, at approximately 8pm, Mr. Mc-George and I were in contact, and he requested that I meet him at a McDonald’s Restaurant, together with my 17-and 13-year-old daughters, witnesses for my defense.
At that meeting, McGeorge stated to me that saw a lot of my letters and asked, “Come on, who do you think you are writing complaints about Anthony Dellicarri?” He said further, “Let’s face it, if he didn’t work for Mr. Zugabie, he would have never gotten the job he has.”
He told me that I hadn’t made any friends writing complaints, stating, “Let’s face it, you’ve pissed-of the judge.” He further stated, “I recommend
you take a toothbrush to court tomorrow,” indicating that I was not going to get a fair trial because of my letter-writing. Well, he wasn’t lying. On the morning of January 6, 2009, approximately two years after my original charge was filed, I stood for trial. I was found guilty of Assault, 2nd Degree and hit with the maximum fine of $250 and 14 days in the Rockland County Jail.
As Judge Phinney read my verdict, two Orangetown police officers entered the courtroom, and the Judge ordered me to be removed from the
court and brought to jail. My daughter, my witness, pleaded with the Judge to not take me, stating, “How will I get home?
I have three siblings at home, how do you expect me to care for them alone?” Phinney said there was nothing he could do. I asked him if it would be alright if I were to go home today, and whether he could postpone sentencing until next week, when the childrens’ mother would be home. He eventually agreed.
What needs to be understood is that, for some time, I have been attempting to expose a mortgage fraud operation that starts in Rockland County and extends to Orange and Nassau Counties. I have forensic handwriting examiners’ reports that name a forger. Several of the names forged were of deceased persons. How could the person forging these signatures be certain that the people were deceased?
I believe someone from the Surrogate Court has been divulging this information, and that a criminal network involving fraudulent mortgages and
deeds, have been processed through the County Clerk’s Of-fice, thereby stealing the property of the deceased and robbing banks and other lending
institutions of mortgage loans which are uncollectible because the person who acquired the loan is actually dead.
Several government actors within Rockland County are becoming quite concerned about my repeated notifications to certain government agencies
exposing these illicit activities. I have been, and I am continuing to be targeted, by said government actors and now my incarceration is essentially
phase 1. My situation in Rockland County is serious; the government actors are proving that they will stop at nothing to keep me from my goal of exposing their criminal enterprise engaged in robbing the dead.
Rockland County, and some of its elected government of-ficials, have literally turned the Surrogate Court into one of the largest theft rings in New York State. They must be stopped and exposed. These are the people who required maximum sentence imposed on them, and pilfered property returned to rightful inheritances. Banks must be repaid in order to prevent the economic collapse of our economy from these criminal government actors.
Finally, people need to start watching the actions of judges and court clerks if we are to put a stop to this organized crime ring facilitated by the people who are entrusted to uphold our Constitution.
Mike Kelly, Rockland
County ADA Audrey Stone Should Be Ashamed Of Herself
Dear Editor:
I was recently a spectator in White Plains Supreme Court because I was both concerned and interested in a case being handled by Anthony M. Giordano, Esq. of Ossining.
A frail and somewhat sickly 71-year-old man, married 48 years, has loud arguments with his wife. During an argument in October 2008 a neighbor called the police, who called in Adult Protective Services. ADT contacted the District Attorney’s Office who issued an Order of Protection for the wife and told the husband to leave the home. The PD prepared a Supporting Deposition. The wife refused to sign it saying it was inaccurate and besides, she wanted her husband back home.
But the District Attorney’s office didn’t care they don’t have a Complainant, along with an un-signed Supporting Deposition. They went full-throttle and had the elderly husband incarcerated when he returned to the house while the TOP was in effect. First he returned because his wife invited him back; second time because he forgot his eye glasses there after he got 22 stitches in his head when he fell.
Attorney Giordano asked for no bail, the ADA asked for $10K and the Ossining Village Judge went with $15K. The elderly man went back to
jail. Then at a bail hearing before kindly Judge Jeffrey Cohen bail was lowered to $1,500. And this is where I ‘met’ the A.D.A. Before going in front of Judge Cohen a woman who’s name I did not know called me to the back of the courtroom. She said to me “What’s your name?” I said “Linda. What’s your name” and she said “Audrey”. She questioned me “What are you doing here? Why do you want to help this man?” I said “Because the man is elderly, needs help, and should not be in jail for the holidays.”
In so many words I was told to mind my own business and just go away. Later on I heard Audrey say to Judge Cohen “And that woman who said the Defendant could live in her home. She refused to even give me her name when I asked her for it!” Hearing a lie being told to a Judge made me
cringe. And from an Assistant District Attorney! ADA Audrey Stone, someone who represents our Court system. Then ADA Stone told the Judge I
“screamed” at her outside of another Court. Another fabrication ADA Stone spewed to Judge Cohen. I was 2 car lengths away from this woman
and said “Someday we’ll both be old. We should be helping our senior citizens.” A witness to this incident corroborated that I had not “screamed” at anyone.
ADA Stone continues to pursue charges again this elderly man who has been forced to live in a hotel since October 2008 (almost 4 months now).
What I’d really like to know is this: How can the District Attorney’s office pursue this matter when they don’t even have a Complainant? How could anyone in their right mind, and under the color of law, force a financially poor person to keep out of his home and either live in a hotel or be homeless? Attorney Anthony Giordano should be sainted. I find him to be honest and caring and professional.
This is not the first time I’ve seen him selflessly represent a truly unfortunate and needy human being. I’d guess he’s disgusted with the shenanigans of the DA’s office.
What’s happening here is a total miscarriage of justice and an abuse of power by District Attorney Janet DiFiore’s office. And after personally hearing ADA Stone lie to a Judge in open Court I will no longer wonder why there are so many lawyer jokes and why our Court system is oftentimes nothing but a mockery.
L.A. Mangano, Ossining
Readers Seeks Answers
Dear Editor:
While reading the article about the civil rights lawsuit against former County Corrections Officer on January 8, 2009, I wondered who has followed through on the death of Zorn Teodorovic who died some 14 months following the body-slamming on October 10, 2000 by Offier Mark Reimer
in an arc with a radius of some 7 feet who bounced his left side of his head violently on the concrete cell-block floor and then joined by Officer Paul
Cote who kicked him and sidekicked him on the right side of his jaw with his boot while Reimer continued to punch him in the chest and face?
Who is questioning the “reflexive response” and the “approved method” involving the treatment of inmates? Who is questioning the death of individuals housed on units for inmates known to have psychiatric issues and the conditions they endure?
I am appalled by the death of Zorn Teodorovic and hope his death will not be overlooked.
Eva Scholle
In Our Opinion...
There Ought To Be A Law
We are more firm than ever in our belief, and motivated in our strivings, to help bring about legislation to control, and prevent, prosecutorial
misconduct. We have come to believe that such legislation must provide both incarcerative and financial penalties; but, at the very least, involve permanent loss of one’s license to practice law. Furthermore, the legislation must be enacted by Congress, as it must be applicable, and enforceable, everywhere throughout our Nation.
Under the current state of affairs, state and federal prosecutors, district attorneys, and United States Attorneys, have no disincentive to engaging in any and every form of prosecutorial misconduct, and, in fact, routinely do, unfortunately, as witnessed in two separate, well-known cases here in Westchester just last week; one in the State Supreme Court, Anthony D. Simone; the other in Federal District Court, Paul Cote.
In the absence of meaningful punishment, prosecutors, already advantaged with unlimited human and financial resources, with increased frequency, find it convenient and personally acceptable to engage in prosecutorial misconduct of every kind in their effort to convict accused citizens, be they guilty or innocent. Without fear of punishment, at the very least loss of their license to practice law, our courts, both state and federal, are virtually powerless to protect the Constitutional rights of citizens against such unscrupulous, rogue prosecutors.
In case after case, we see such prosecutors bent on winning at any and all costs, sending innocent individuals to prison, often for life, based upon false confessions, witness coercion, evidence tampering, suborned perjury, and a host of other actions which, if engaged in by anyone other than a prosecutor, would be dealt with as crimes and would result in incarceration and financial penalties.
In the interest of justice and fair play, We believe the time has long been at hand when federal legislation must be enacted that will prevent the kinds of deliberate and calculated prosecutorial misconduct that sent Jeffrey Deskovic, Richard DiGuglielmo, and Anthony DiSimone (see Advocate, p.5), all innocent victims of prosecutorial misconduct, to prison from state court, and most recently, Paul Cote (see Court Report, p3) from federal court.
No democracy can long endure if the Constitutional rights of its citizens are routinely violated with impunity by the very individuals entrusted to protect them. We must not stand idly by as rogue prosecutors, together with rogue police and others in the Criminal Justice System, commit crimes against innocent citizens, indeed, against the very fabric of our society.
Amongst all of the presidential candidates, Democratic, Republican and other, who offered themselves to the American people, only one, Barack Obama, on at least two occasions, spoke of the need to, “deal with wrongful convictions.”
Now that he is about to take the reins into his hands, and in light of the unprecedented Constitutional violations of his predecessor’s administration, what better time for the voice of the People to be heard on behalf of such legislation?
Our Readers Respond...
Reader Complains Of Tyranny In Rockland Courts
Dear Editor:
Where do I begin? I was charged with Harrassment, 2nd Degree sometime in mid-2006. I am a resident of Rockland County. My defense attorney, at the time, was Anthony Dellicarri, then working for the law firm of Zugabie and Ferraro, one of the county’s largest law firms handling senior estate guardianships granted to them by the Surrogate Court.
In January 2008, Tom Zugabie was elected District Attorney of Rockland County. He now had to make an abrupt closure of his private practice. Mr. Dellicarri was hired onto the District Attorney’s staff as a senior attorney. However, Mr. Dellicarri was still continuing to act as my defense attorney well into February of 2008, after he had sworn the oath of office working in the District Attorney’s Office. In fact, he had written
letters to Judge Paul Phinney in Orangetown Court, presiding over my case, stating that he [Dellicarri] was my attorney of record.
He advised me that a guilty plea would be my best option, and promised to submit a pre-sentencing memorandum, which he promptly failed to prepare after I heeded his advice. A letter-writing campaign ensued between Mr. Dellicarri, Justice Phinney and myself. In short order, Judge Phinney withdrew my guilty plea in the interest of justice, and rescheduled my case to his calendar with new counsel.
I requested a special prosecutor and the recusal of Justice Phinney. I was granted a prosecutor from Putnam County by the name of Mr. Hogan. Who picked him, I don’t know. And Judge Phinney said he would not recuse himself from the case. I wrote to Gary Casella of the Grievance Committee advising him of Mr. Dellicarri’s actions, on the one hand working as my defense attorney and, at the same, being a sworn prosecutor.
My complaint was referred to the Westchester County Bar Association; and, I am currently still waiting to be heard by their Committee as to whether my complaint will be investigated.
I was assigned an 18B counsel because all money had been spent on Mr. Dellicarri’s representation. I was now assigned a Mr. Allen McGeorge, and was given approximately 30 days to prepare my case with him.
On the very eve of my trial, at approximately 8pm, Mr. Mc-George and I were in contact, and he requested that I meet him at a McDonald’s Restaurant, together with my 17-and 13-year-old daughters, witnesses for my defense.
At that meeting, McGeorge stated to me that saw a lot of my letters and asked, “Come on, who do you think you are writing complaints about Anthony Dellicarri?” He said further, “Let’s face it, if he didn’t work for Mr. Zugabie, he would have never gotten the job he has.”
He told me that I hadn’t made any friends writing complaints, stating, “Let’s face it, you’ve pissed-of the judge.” He further stated, “I recommend
you take a toothbrush to court tomorrow,” indicating that I was not going to get a fair trial because of my letter-writing. Well, he wasn’t lying. On the morning of January 6, 2009, approximately two years after my original charge was filed, I stood for trial. I was found guilty of Assault, 2nd Degree and hit with the maximum fine of $250 and 14 days in the Rockland County Jail.
As Judge Phinney read my verdict, two Orangetown police officers entered the courtroom, and the Judge ordered me to be removed from the
court and brought to jail. My daughter, my witness, pleaded with the Judge to not take me, stating, “How will I get home?
I have three siblings at home, how do you expect me to care for them alone?” Phinney said there was nothing he could do. I asked him if it would be alright if I were to go home today, and whether he could postpone sentencing until next week, when the childrens’ mother would be home. He eventually agreed.
What needs to be understood is that, for some time, I have been attempting to expose a mortgage fraud operation that starts in Rockland County and extends to Orange and Nassau Counties. I have forensic handwriting examiners’ reports that name a forger. Several of the names forged were of deceased persons. How could the person forging these signatures be certain that the people were deceased?
I believe someone from the Surrogate Court has been divulging this information, and that a criminal network involving fraudulent mortgages and
deeds, have been processed through the County Clerk’s Of-fice, thereby stealing the property of the deceased and robbing banks and other lending
institutions of mortgage loans which are uncollectible because the person who acquired the loan is actually dead.
Several government actors within Rockland County are becoming quite concerned about my repeated notifications to certain government agencies
exposing these illicit activities. I have been, and I am continuing to be targeted, by said government actors and now my incarceration is essentially
phase 1. My situation in Rockland County is serious; the government actors are proving that they will stop at nothing to keep me from my goal of exposing their criminal enterprise engaged in robbing the dead.
Rockland County, and some of its elected government of-ficials, have literally turned the Surrogate Court into one of the largest theft rings in New York State. They must be stopped and exposed. These are the people who required maximum sentence imposed on them, and pilfered property returned to rightful inheritances. Banks must be repaid in order to prevent the economic collapse of our economy from these criminal government actors.
Finally, people need to start watching the actions of judges and court clerks if we are to put a stop to this organized crime ring facilitated by the people who are entrusted to uphold our Constitution.
Mike Kelly, Rockland
County ADA Audrey Stone Should Be Ashamed Of Herself
Dear Editor:
I was recently a spectator in White Plains Supreme Court because I was both concerned and interested in a case being handled by Anthony M. Giordano, Esq. of Ossining.
A frail and somewhat sickly 71-year-old man, married 48 years, has loud arguments with his wife. During an argument in October 2008 a neighbor called the police, who called in Adult Protective Services. ADT contacted the District Attorney’s Office who issued an Order of Protection for the wife and told the husband to leave the home. The PD prepared a Supporting Deposition. The wife refused to sign it saying it was inaccurate and besides, she wanted her husband back home.
But the District Attorney’s office didn’t care they don’t have a Complainant, along with an un-signed Supporting Deposition. They went full-throttle and had the elderly husband incarcerated when he returned to the house while the TOP was in effect. First he returned because his wife invited him back; second time because he forgot his eye glasses there after he got 22 stitches in his head when he fell.
Attorney Giordano asked for no bail, the ADA asked for $10K and the Ossining Village Judge went with $15K. The elderly man went back to
jail. Then at a bail hearing before kindly Judge Jeffrey Cohen bail was lowered to $1,500. And this is where I ‘met’ the A.D.A. Before going in front of Judge Cohen a woman who’s name I did not know called me to the back of the courtroom. She said to me “What’s your name?” I said “Linda. What’s your name” and she said “Audrey”. She questioned me “What are you doing here? Why do you want to help this man?” I said “Because the man is elderly, needs help, and should not be in jail for the holidays.”
In so many words I was told to mind my own business and just go away. Later on I heard Audrey say to Judge Cohen “And that woman who said the Defendant could live in her home. She refused to even give me her name when I asked her for it!” Hearing a lie being told to a Judge made me
cringe. And from an Assistant District Attorney! ADA Audrey Stone, someone who represents our Court system. Then ADA Stone told the Judge I
“screamed” at her outside of another Court. Another fabrication ADA Stone spewed to Judge Cohen. I was 2 car lengths away from this woman
and said “Someday we’ll both be old. We should be helping our senior citizens.” A witness to this incident corroborated that I had not “screamed” at anyone.
ADA Stone continues to pursue charges again this elderly man who has been forced to live in a hotel since October 2008 (almost 4 months now).
What I’d really like to know is this: How can the District Attorney’s office pursue this matter when they don’t even have a Complainant? How could anyone in their right mind, and under the color of law, force a financially poor person to keep out of his home and either live in a hotel or be homeless? Attorney Anthony Giordano should be sainted. I find him to be honest and caring and professional.
This is not the first time I’ve seen him selflessly represent a truly unfortunate and needy human being. I’d guess he’s disgusted with the shenanigans of the DA’s office.
What’s happening here is a total miscarriage of justice and an abuse of power by District Attorney Janet DiFiore’s office. And after personally hearing ADA Stone lie to a Judge in open Court I will no longer wonder why there are so many lawyer jokes and why our Court system is oftentimes nothing but a mockery.
L.A. Mangano, Ossining
Readers Seeks Answers
Dear Editor:
While reading the article about the civil rights lawsuit against former County Corrections Officer on January 8, 2009, I wondered who has followed through on the death of Zorn Teodorovic who died some 14 months following the body-slamming on October 10, 2000 by Offier Mark Reimer
in an arc with a radius of some 7 feet who bounced his left side of his head violently on the concrete cell-block floor and then joined by Officer Paul
Cote who kicked him and sidekicked him on the right side of his jaw with his boot while Reimer continued to punch him in the chest and face?
Who is questioning the “reflexive response” and the “approved method” involving the treatment of inmates? Who is questioning the death of individuals housed on units for inmates known to have psychiatric issues and the conditions they endure?
I am appalled by the death of Zorn Teodorovic and hope his death will not be overlooked.
Eva Scholle
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Westchester Guardian/Janet Difiore/The Advocate.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
The Advocate
Richard Blassberg
Westchester Needs A District Attorney Who
Is A Public Servant, Not A Self-Servant
Those who understand the power vested in a district attorney realize that it is the single most important position in all of County government. Only the DA has the power and authority to indict and prosecute. Only the DA can, if he or she chooses, turn the life of an
innocent individual and all of his loved ones into a nightmare without probable cause or justification. And, as we continue to discover, that has, in fact, happened far too frequently in Westchester over recent years.
It is vital that the individual who takes control of the office be someone of high moral character with a passion for the bringing about of justice, and beneficial outcomes, in the lives of innocent individuals and families. Reactive, politically-motivated prosecutors are truly dangerous individuals, quite capable of causing serious and prolonged misery and harm in the lives of good families. There is absolutely
no room for self-promotion, grandstanding, or covering up, at any time.
The truth must be pursued regardless of where the investigation may lead. Competent and thorough investigation must be the foundation of every case put before a grand jury.
The DA must not be engaged, for even one moment, in a numbers game; must not be all about winning, but rather about solving. It is far better to have not solved a case, and to continue struggling with it, than to prosecute an opportunistic defendant, perhaps achieving wrongful conviction and leaving the actual perpetrator out there to strike again. Such was the double tragedy in the Jeffrey Deskovic case,
where a 17-year-old, clearly innocent, as established by DNA, nevertheless went to prison for Rape and Murder, the prosecuting Assistant DA knew he did not commit, and the actual perpetrator took another life in the same fashion just three and a half years later.
The DA must be capable of withstanding close scrutiny. Someone with a powerful but scandalous spouse, one who previously attempted
to bribe another candidate off the ballot and intimi-date party chairmen for their parties’ endorsement, must be non-starters.
Neither can the People accept a DA candidate who has been closely associated with consultants and campaign advisors who have produced sleazy ethnic lies and distortions in the past, or associated with hoodlums who have engaged in election fraud, machine-tampering, and/or race
fixing, all of which have been employed in recent Countywide elections.
The People need an experienced prosecutor, one who has actually tried cases, not one who lied and said she “tried 2,000,” but in fact had only prosecuted 12 misdemeanors. Westchester needs a district attorney unfettered by incestuous relationships with various police departments in ways that render her unfit to hold office, committed to overlooking criminal activity, serious brutality against innocent citizens, and other unlawful acts. The right individual to be district attorney must not seek police department endorsements,
nor use or pressure attorneys and investigators in the Office to campaign on his or her behalf.
The People of Westchester deserve a district attorney who will strive to fulfill the full mandate of the Office, both the prosecution of the guilty and the protection of the innocent. One who would look at a videotape such as the one showing Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes bodyslamming an intoxicated, defenseless, petite woman like Irma Marquez, without any justification, nearly killing her, and then
decide to prosecute the innocent civilian victim by way of covering up the crime of the rogue officer should actually be recalled, removed from office. Such a chief law enforcer is, in reality, a grave menace to public safety.
After 15 years of misguided, self-promotional activity, and wrong-headed prosecutions of innocent civilians and police officers, not to mention all of the withheld Brady and Rosario materials, the blatant and malicious lies fed to federal and state appeals courts, and all of the subornation of perjury, tampering with witnesses and evidence, it’s time for a change. There has been more prosecutorial misconduct than most observers might imagine; and it is time for someone with the moral authority and the skill and experience to re-direct, re-train, and re-motivate those attorneys and investigators remaining in the wake of some 70 resignations over the past three years, and those who
must be hired.
Yes, it is high time the People of Westchester know the benefits of a professionally operated District Attorney’s Office, time it was restored to the level of investigative excellence and prosecutorial integrity it was known for throughout the law enforcement community under the late Carl Vergari. We have had more than our fill of district attorneys who talk about “dead-beat dads” while sleeping with one who denied paternity of his first offspring from an extramarital affair until she was 16, and DNA proved he was the father. Just as troubling is a DA who talked about law and order while her spouse attempted to bribe her opponent from the Right To Life Party to get him out of the race.
Westchester needs a district attorney who can handle constructive criticism; who does not punish and interfere with good police officers; dedicated professionals performing a difficult and dangerous job. They do not need a DA who constantly covers up the crimes and violence of rogue, violent officers from departments with whom she has twisted and incestuous relationships.
The Advocate
Richard Blassberg
Westchester Needs A District Attorney Who
Is A Public Servant, Not A Self-Servant
Those who understand the power vested in a district attorney realize that it is the single most important position in all of County government. Only the DA has the power and authority to indict and prosecute. Only the DA can, if he or she chooses, turn the life of an
innocent individual and all of his loved ones into a nightmare without probable cause or justification. And, as we continue to discover, that has, in fact, happened far too frequently in Westchester over recent years.
It is vital that the individual who takes control of the office be someone of high moral character with a passion for the bringing about of justice, and beneficial outcomes, in the lives of innocent individuals and families. Reactive, politically-motivated prosecutors are truly dangerous individuals, quite capable of causing serious and prolonged misery and harm in the lives of good families. There is absolutely
no room for self-promotion, grandstanding, or covering up, at any time.
The truth must be pursued regardless of where the investigation may lead. Competent and thorough investigation must be the foundation of every case put before a grand jury.
The DA must not be engaged, for even one moment, in a numbers game; must not be all about winning, but rather about solving. It is far better to have not solved a case, and to continue struggling with it, than to prosecute an opportunistic defendant, perhaps achieving wrongful conviction and leaving the actual perpetrator out there to strike again. Such was the double tragedy in the Jeffrey Deskovic case,
where a 17-year-old, clearly innocent, as established by DNA, nevertheless went to prison for Rape and Murder, the prosecuting Assistant DA knew he did not commit, and the actual perpetrator took another life in the same fashion just three and a half years later.
The DA must be capable of withstanding close scrutiny. Someone with a powerful but scandalous spouse, one who previously attempted
to bribe another candidate off the ballot and intimi-date party chairmen for their parties’ endorsement, must be non-starters.
Neither can the People accept a DA candidate who has been closely associated with consultants and campaign advisors who have produced sleazy ethnic lies and distortions in the past, or associated with hoodlums who have engaged in election fraud, machine-tampering, and/or race
fixing, all of which have been employed in recent Countywide elections.
The People need an experienced prosecutor, one who has actually tried cases, not one who lied and said she “tried 2,000,” but in fact had only prosecuted 12 misdemeanors. Westchester needs a district attorney unfettered by incestuous relationships with various police departments in ways that render her unfit to hold office, committed to overlooking criminal activity, serious brutality against innocent citizens, and other unlawful acts. The right individual to be district attorney must not seek police department endorsements,
nor use or pressure attorneys and investigators in the Office to campaign on his or her behalf.
The People of Westchester deserve a district attorney who will strive to fulfill the full mandate of the Office, both the prosecution of the guilty and the protection of the innocent. One who would look at a videotape such as the one showing Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes bodyslamming an intoxicated, defenseless, petite woman like Irma Marquez, without any justification, nearly killing her, and then
decide to prosecute the innocent civilian victim by way of covering up the crime of the rogue officer should actually be recalled, removed from office. Such a chief law enforcer is, in reality, a grave menace to public safety.
After 15 years of misguided, self-promotional activity, and wrong-headed prosecutions of innocent civilians and police officers, not to mention all of the withheld Brady and Rosario materials, the blatant and malicious lies fed to federal and state appeals courts, and all of the subornation of perjury, tampering with witnesses and evidence, it’s time for a change. There has been more prosecutorial misconduct than most observers might imagine; and it is time for someone with the moral authority and the skill and experience to re-direct, re-train, and re-motivate those attorneys and investigators remaining in the wake of some 70 resignations over the past three years, and those who
must be hired.
Yes, it is high time the People of Westchester know the benefits of a professionally operated District Attorney’s Office, time it was restored to the level of investigative excellence and prosecutorial integrity it was known for throughout the law enforcement community under the late Carl Vergari. We have had more than our fill of district attorneys who talk about “dead-beat dads” while sleeping with one who denied paternity of his first offspring from an extramarital affair until she was 16, and DNA proved he was the father. Just as troubling is a DA who talked about law and order while her spouse attempted to bribe her opponent from the Right To Life Party to get him out of the race.
Westchester needs a district attorney who can handle constructive criticism; who does not punish and interfere with good police officers; dedicated professionals performing a difficult and dangerous job. They do not need a DA who constantly covers up the crimes and violence of rogue, violent officers from departments with whom she has twisted and incestuous relationships.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Janet Difiore.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg
Prosecutor Perry Perrone, Presenting A Case Without A
Scintilla Of Forensic Evidence, Declared,
“The Evidence Will Be Powerful, Compelling, And Overwhelming”
Westchester Supreme Court, White Plains
Judge Lester B. Adler Presiding
Friday, May 23, the trial of George Bubaris, former Mount Kisco Police Officer, charged with Manslaughter In The Second Degree, Unlawful Imprisonment, and Official Misconduct in the April 28, 2007 death of homeless, undocumented alien Rene Javier Perez, got underway. Bubaris is the only individual charged in the death despite the fact that Perez had been involved in an incident in the Town
of Bedford prior to being “borderdumped” by Bedford police back into Mount Kisco, and despite the fact that two other Mount Kisco cops, Lieutenant Dunnigan and Officer Dwyer, had had contact with Perez, who had dialed 911 from a laundromat in Mount Kisco complaining
of stomach pain and asking to be brought to the hospital.
Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone began his opening statement by describing Byram Lake Road, and specifi-cally the area where Perez was found, near death, as “a place of darkness one would not associate with Westchester County.” He then quickly told the jury of nine men and three women, “The evidence will show one thing and one thing only about Rene Perez. He was a victim of Officer George Bubaris. It will show that George Bubaris recklessly caused the death of Rene Perez.” Perrone went on, “The only person who could have inflicted the bluntforce trauma was George Bubaris, and George Bubaris alone.” Perrone went on to give a very loosely-hung-together, one-hour and-twenty-two-minute account, designed to plant the notion in jurors’ minds, that only George Bubaris, out of more than six billion
people on planet Earth, “could have inflicted the blunt-force trauma.” He then said, “You will not hear any forensic evidence in this case. The Defendant is excluded; but that doesn’t matter.”
Analysis:
For ADA Perrone, a veteran of any number of bad, fictionalized cases over the years, cases such as Richard DiGuglielmo, in which he and ADA Patricia Murphy turned a self-defense, justifiable killing, in which all three eyewitnesses who initially reported the same truthful
account that Charles Campbell was swinging a metal bat at the head of Officer DiGuglielmo’s father the moment he was killed, needed to
be coerced and worn down until they were saying what the District Attorney wanted them to. For such a prosecutor, truth and justice are
totally irrelevant. Obtaining a conviction is all that matters.
Defense Attorney Andrew Quinn, of White Plains, approached the jury, stating, “We will present to you what the evidence will not
prove.” He wanted to focus the triers of fact as early as possible, explaining to them, “They need to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
George Bubaris was responsible for Rene Perez’ death, and that they cannot do!”
Referring to Perez, he told the jurors matter-of-factly, “He got injured a lot because he got drunk a lot, and fell down.”Then Quinn took the gloves off, declaring, “We’re going to learn that this investigation was not quite what the District Attorney has told you.” Quinn went further, “A cardinal rule of police investigation is Don’t start at the end. And, that is exactly what was done. Even though he is complaining of stomach pain and asking for a hospital at 10:42pm, the Prosecution wants you to believe.”
Quinn then, standing before the jurors, calmly told them, “There’s not a shred of forensic evidence that ties my client to Rene Perez. The
Prosecution says, “We have a ton of evidence. But, none of it has to do with George Bubaris.” Then, getting down to specifics, Attorney Quinn declared, “The DA says the injury occurred after 11pm. at is wrong. You will learn that this was an injury that can be caused by a punch or a kick, or by falling down.”
Changing gears, he alerted the jurors with, “Wait till after you hear me cross-examine Officer Dwyer. He has demons of his own and reasons
to testify as he will.” He then followed up with, “There is absolutely no way that was a police car you will see on the Peltz Tape. They
can bring in all of the evidence they want, but it’s irrelevant.”
Analysis:
What we are witnessing at the Bubaris trial is a classic Janet DiFiore politically-motivated prosecution. A life has been lost. The alleged victim, a homeless, hopelessly alcoholic immigrant, whose reckless daily lifestyle involved many self-inflicted injuries and trips to the hospital over more than 10 years, could have died at any time under similar circumstances.
However, his death was, in fact, preceded by contact with at least five police officers from two different departments, Bedford and Mount Kisco, that we are aware of. In DiFiore’s calculations, someone needs to be sacrificed; the Latino Community will not accept the notion that he merely injured himself. And, therefore, the low man on the totem pole, George Bubaris, must be sacrificed, even though everything we know, the actual facts of the case, suggest whatever abdominal injury Rene Perez died from, occurred before Of-fi-cer George Bubaris was with him.
The presentation of the District Attorney’s fiction requires three Assistant DAs, Jim McCarty and Perry Perrone delivering the presentation, assisted by ADA Michael Delohery handling the computer and television equipment. Delohery, incidentally, is no choir boy. He committed his share of prosecutorial misconduct in the Paul Wicht case, intentionally withholding a critical email and lying to the same judge who presides in this case. Prosecutors lie routinely because even when caught, they pay no penalty, a fact that perpetuates the injustice and cries out for corrective legislation.
The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg
Prosecutor Perry Perrone, Presenting A Case Without A
Scintilla Of Forensic Evidence, Declared,
“The Evidence Will Be Powerful, Compelling, And Overwhelming”
Westchester Supreme Court, White Plains
Judge Lester B. Adler Presiding
Friday, May 23, the trial of George Bubaris, former Mount Kisco Police Officer, charged with Manslaughter In The Second Degree, Unlawful Imprisonment, and Official Misconduct in the April 28, 2007 death of homeless, undocumented alien Rene Javier Perez, got underway. Bubaris is the only individual charged in the death despite the fact that Perez had been involved in an incident in the Town
of Bedford prior to being “borderdumped” by Bedford police back into Mount Kisco, and despite the fact that two other Mount Kisco cops, Lieutenant Dunnigan and Officer Dwyer, had had contact with Perez, who had dialed 911 from a laundromat in Mount Kisco complaining
of stomach pain and asking to be brought to the hospital.
Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone began his opening statement by describing Byram Lake Road, and specifi-cally the area where Perez was found, near death, as “a place of darkness one would not associate with Westchester County.” He then quickly told the jury of nine men and three women, “The evidence will show one thing and one thing only about Rene Perez. He was a victim of Officer George Bubaris. It will show that George Bubaris recklessly caused the death of Rene Perez.” Perrone went on, “The only person who could have inflicted the bluntforce trauma was George Bubaris, and George Bubaris alone.” Perrone went on to give a very loosely-hung-together, one-hour and-twenty-two-minute account, designed to plant the notion in jurors’ minds, that only George Bubaris, out of more than six billion
people on planet Earth, “could have inflicted the blunt-force trauma.” He then said, “You will not hear any forensic evidence in this case. The Defendant is excluded; but that doesn’t matter.”
Analysis:
For ADA Perrone, a veteran of any number of bad, fictionalized cases over the years, cases such as Richard DiGuglielmo, in which he and ADA Patricia Murphy turned a self-defense, justifiable killing, in which all three eyewitnesses who initially reported the same truthful
account that Charles Campbell was swinging a metal bat at the head of Officer DiGuglielmo’s father the moment he was killed, needed to
be coerced and worn down until they were saying what the District Attorney wanted them to. For such a prosecutor, truth and justice are
totally irrelevant. Obtaining a conviction is all that matters.
Defense Attorney Andrew Quinn, of White Plains, approached the jury, stating, “We will present to you what the evidence will not
prove.” He wanted to focus the triers of fact as early as possible, explaining to them, “They need to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
George Bubaris was responsible for Rene Perez’ death, and that they cannot do!”
Referring to Perez, he told the jurors matter-of-factly, “He got injured a lot because he got drunk a lot, and fell down.”Then Quinn took the gloves off, declaring, “We’re going to learn that this investigation was not quite what the District Attorney has told you.” Quinn went further, “A cardinal rule of police investigation is Don’t start at the end. And, that is exactly what was done. Even though he is complaining of stomach pain and asking for a hospital at 10:42pm, the Prosecution wants you to believe.”
Quinn then, standing before the jurors, calmly told them, “There’s not a shred of forensic evidence that ties my client to Rene Perez. The
Prosecution says, “We have a ton of evidence. But, none of it has to do with George Bubaris.” Then, getting down to specifics, Attorney Quinn declared, “The DA says the injury occurred after 11pm. at is wrong. You will learn that this was an injury that can be caused by a punch or a kick, or by falling down.”
Changing gears, he alerted the jurors with, “Wait till after you hear me cross-examine Officer Dwyer. He has demons of his own and reasons
to testify as he will.” He then followed up with, “There is absolutely no way that was a police car you will see on the Peltz Tape. They
can bring in all of the evidence they want, but it’s irrelevant.”
Analysis:
What we are witnessing at the Bubaris trial is a classic Janet DiFiore politically-motivated prosecution. A life has been lost. The alleged victim, a homeless, hopelessly alcoholic immigrant, whose reckless daily lifestyle involved many self-inflicted injuries and trips to the hospital over more than 10 years, could have died at any time under similar circumstances.
However, his death was, in fact, preceded by contact with at least five police officers from two different departments, Bedford and Mount Kisco, that we are aware of. In DiFiore’s calculations, someone needs to be sacrificed; the Latino Community will not accept the notion that he merely injured himself. And, therefore, the low man on the totem pole, George Bubaris, must be sacrificed, even though everything we know, the actual facts of the case, suggest whatever abdominal injury Rene Perez died from, occurred before Of-fi-cer George Bubaris was with him.
The presentation of the District Attorney’s fiction requires three Assistant DAs, Jim McCarty and Perry Perrone delivering the presentation, assisted by ADA Michael Delohery handling the computer and television equipment. Delohery, incidentally, is no choir boy. He committed his share of prosecutorial misconduct in the Paul Wicht case, intentionally withholding a critical email and lying to the same judge who presides in this case. Prosecutors lie routinely because even when caught, they pay no penalty, a fact that perpetuates the injustice and cries out for corrective legislation.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Janet Difiore.
DA DiFiore Visits Mt. Kisco Seeks Help From Latino Community.
Last Wednesday night, in the wake of a severe thunder and wind storm, which took down trees and power lines in the Mt. Kisco area, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore, nevertheless, made an appearance at a gathering at Mt. Kisco Village Hall before some one hundred, mostly Latino, concerned citizens, there to protest the unsolved recent death of Rene Perez and two other Latinos strangled to death in the area in 2003 and 2004.
Introduced to the crowd by Fernando Mateo, founder of Hispanics Across America, DiFiore, surrounded by Mateo, DA Investigator Glover, and several Guardian Angels, declared, “I have come for a single purpose, to let the people know my office is handling the investigation into the death of Rene Perez.”
DiFiore went on to make an appeal to those gathered, as well as to the community at large, to come forward with any information that might be helpful in determining the exact circumstances leading up to Rene Perez’
death in the early morning hours of April 29. The DA attempted to ease any concerns on the part of undocumented individuals who might fear deportation or other repercussions for coming forward
with information.
Members of the District Attorney’s Office distributed a flyer, in both English and Spanish, displaying a picture of Rene Perez and offering a confi-dential hotline number, 914.995.6247, in the effort to draw out informants.
Last Wednesday night, in the wake of a severe thunder and wind storm, which took down trees and power lines in the Mt. Kisco area, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore, nevertheless, made an appearance at a gathering at Mt. Kisco Village Hall before some one hundred, mostly Latino, concerned citizens, there to protest the unsolved recent death of Rene Perez and two other Latinos strangled to death in the area in 2003 and 2004.
Introduced to the crowd by Fernando Mateo, founder of Hispanics Across America, DiFiore, surrounded by Mateo, DA Investigator Glover, and several Guardian Angels, declared, “I have come for a single purpose, to let the people know my office is handling the investigation into the death of Rene Perez.”
DiFiore went on to make an appeal to those gathered, as well as to the community at large, to come forward with any information that might be helpful in determining the exact circumstances leading up to Rene Perez’
death in the early morning hours of April 29. The DA attempted to ease any concerns on the part of undocumented individuals who might fear deportation or other repercussions for coming forward
with information.
Members of the District Attorney’s Office distributed a flyer, in both English and Spanish, displaying a picture of Rene Perez and offering a confi-dential hotline number, 914.995.6247, in the effort to draw out informants.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
We Ask The Westchester DA’s Office: How Many More Are You Concealing?
In Our Opinion...
The Westchester Guardian, having reviewed much of the 376 pages of Brady material, information tending to establish his innocence, unlawfully hidden from Anthony DiSimone for thirteen years, in the massive effort to perpetuate Jeanine Pirro’s confabulated lie, must now ask, when will the DA’s Office make a full and truthfulaccounting to the People of Westchester? Fifty-two boxes of exhibits, and 376 pages of exculpatory testimony and statements are not things that were likely to be lost, or missing, in the offices of any law-abiding District Attorney.
We were present several months ago when Assistant DA Valerie Livingston was compelled, at the very last moment, to tell Federal District Court Judge Charles L. Brieant that there would be no need to go forward with the scheduled evidentiary hearing because the District Attorney’s Office “was withdrawing opposition to the grantingof a writ of Habeas Corpus to Anthony DiSimone,” as they had found 376 pages and 52 boxes of Brady materials that they were turning over to DiSimone’s attorneys, “in the interest of justice.” Of course, having made that admission, the DA’s Office was opposed to an unconditional grant, petitioning the Court, instead, to keep DiSimone locked up, anyway. Livingston left Brieant’s Court literally in tears.
The truth is the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office had its back to the wall. Simply put, they could not allow the evidentiary hearing to go forward that would have lasted for weeks, exposing in minute detail all the evidence, including a confession that clearly pointed the finger of guilt at Nick Djonovic, an Albanian youth, whohad stabbed Louis Balancio to death at the Strike Zone Bar in 1994, and who Pirro had allowed to escape to Albania as she pursued the prosecution of someone more in keeping with her self-promotional agenda.
Pirro saw the tragic death of young Louis Balancio, reportedly a member of the Hell’s Kitchen Gang, as an opportunity to prove that, despite her husband Al’s known connections to the Mob, the Cosa Nostra, she could prosecute Organized Crime.
Pirro saw the tragic death of young Louis Balancio, reportedly a member of the Hell’s Kitchen Gang, as an opportunity to prove that, despite her husband Al’s known connections to the Mob, the Cosa Nostra, she could prosecute Organized Crime.
In light of all of the above, and further, in light of the fact that on February 27th, in New York City, at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ADA Livingston handed Mr. DiSimone’s attorneys a one-paragraph letter informing them that “additional material from 1997, which may, or may not, constitute Brady material,” had been found, We believe it is long past the time that District Attorney’s Office must come forward and level with the People of Westchester.
If the District Attorney’s Office was really intending to act “in the interest of justice,” upon Mrs. Pirro’s exit an inventory of all the outstanding cases on appeal, particularly homicides and other major crimes, should have been taken. And, all of the evidence, including all of the Brady material that had been intentionally withheld from those Defendants in each case, should have been turned over, thus separating the Office from the treachery and lies that had been employed by Jeanine Pirro.
Perhaps the Office did, in fact, review all of the major appeals, as they should have. In that case they were perfectly well aware that they were concealing a mountain of evidence that would have cast more than “reasonable doubt” upon the guilt of Anthony DiSimone, but chose nevertheless not to do the right thing! Any way one looks at it, the Office’s continuing pursuit and harassment of Mr. DiSimone perpetuates the unlawful conspiracy of Jeanine Pirro, Clement Patti, Steven Bender, and the entire supporting cast, whose prosecutorial misconduct sent an innocent man to prison.
We now ask two very important questions:
• How many more innocent individuals, sent away to prison by the prosecutorial misconduct of Jeanine Pirro, are you covering up? And,
• When will you stop protecting Mrs. Pirro and start protecting the People of Westchester?
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