Our Readers Respond...


To the Editor:

Did you know that virtually every police department in Westchester County is sitting on numerous protective orders that have been issued simply because wives have filed petitions (irrespective of whether their allegations
are true)?

Are you aware that most men are not even provided an opportunity in Westchester Family Court to tell their side of the story for weeks, often months. Are you aware that protective orders are being sustained without the men accused even being given an opportunity to be asked questions under oath by the Westchester Family Court Judges?

On a regular basis men in Westchester are being pressured by judges into plea bargaining (pleading guilty to their wives’ and girlfriends’ bogus allegations) rather than having a hearing.

It’s like Pre-War Nazi Germany (the Gestapo) or the former Soviet Union (the Gulag) all over again when it comes to how men are being treated in this county. A man is guilty until proven innocent in Westchester.
There is virtually no due process. The courts could not care less what a man has to say for months and months until a hearing is scheduled. Often the hearings never take place.

Well guys, it’s time to organize and sue “the system”! Spread the word. This is not a hush-hush matter.
Ask your neighbors and friends and you will find that they all know someone who is being subjected to this abuse of power.

It’s time to organize men in Westchester County who are currently under protective orders issued by the Family Court under false pretenses (little or no due process); orders or protection being issued simply on the basis of a
spouse or girlfriend’s allegations (which are often hearsay and fabricated).

These men are frequently being denied access to their homes and their children. I am forming a group of men that will qualify for a federal class action against the “system”.

If you feel you are currently under an Order of Protection unnecessarily and are being prevented from accessing your home and/or children, please contact me. Several men have already responded - their stories are truly
unbelievable. It is clear from speaking to them that the “system” is out of control and that Westchester County Family Court and the Department of Social Services are hauling hundreds of men in our County into Court and
restricting their movement dramatically; often preventing them from accessing their own homes.

There is power in numbers. The DSS and the Family Court system each need to be hit with a serious Federal lawsuit in order to curb their behavior. No one man can fight the system alone - it’s simply too big and too many
people are now making money off of its current structure. We will be meeting in the near future (within the next two weeks) and organizing ourselves with the goal of commencing a federal class action suit. Meetings will take place in Central Westchester.

E-mail me for more information. I welcome hearing from lawyers interested in helping us as well.
Spread the word-there is nothing to hide about this. This is a free country. There are numerous constitutional rights that are being violated by this conduct. The “system” (and its members) must be held accountable.

Matthew Kletter
mkletter@msn.com


In Our Opinion...

WE believe, based upon what we learned from the recent federal trial of former Westchester County Correction Officer, Paul Cote, and what we have learned over the past several years regarding operations at the County Jail, that the current circumstance under which the Westchester County Department of Probation, and the Westchester County Department of Corrections are each directed by the same commissioner, Rocco Pozzi, is a condition which must immediately be corrected.

To begin with, the only conceivable rationale under which one commissioner may be made to wear two hats, would be in a situation where there are two compatible and closely related county functions, the administration
of which is neither too complex, nor in conflict, and a significant economy can be realized in the payment of a single salary.

Such is clearly not the case between the Departments of Probation and Correction. One might reasonably suggest that these two functions, while theoretically, not totally at cross-purposes, are surely not parallel philosophically.

Furthermore, to suggest that one person’s time is sufficient to do justice to the responsibilities and administrational functions attached to each of these departments is to be out of touch with, or in utter denial of reality.

It is very clear to us that Mr. Pozzi has been on the job and has, for the most part, been running
a tight ship at the Department of Probation, for man years, essentially doing what he was hired to do. One need only examine the success of numerous initiatives over the years, including, but not limited to, the Sex Offender Unit, the DWI Unit, the Support Units, and the overall effectiveness of the Department in the areas of pre-sentence reporting and supervision, to appreciate that someone has been “watching the store,” even if, at times the Ninth Floor has exerted some undue political influence over personnel and operational decisions.

Having said that, We must take exception to the handling of Corrections generally, and specifically with regard to the operation of the County Jail. To begin with, the Jail and the Penitentiary are located on the Valhalla County
Campus at a site remote from the Department of Probation, and most County Government operations. Whether or not that fact alone has contributed to the kinds of problems: contraband, inappropriate contacts between
inmates of opposite sex, inmate/officer sexual contacts, and harassments, plumbing, and other infrastructural issues, inappropriate, in-house crossgender communication, to name just a few, may be subject to discussion.

However, it is indisputable that the operations of the Jail, housing some seventeen hundred individuals at any given time, is sufficiently complex, and significant to the well-being of our County that it deserves the fulltime
attention of a Commissioner of Corrections whose time and attention is not called upon by any other competing official responsibility. Surely, Mr. Schwartz, and the Office of the County Executive grasp that fact.

Therefore we now call upon the County Executive and the Board of Legislators to immediately consider the hiring of a Commissioner of Corrections whose job description will involve the full-time administration of the operations of the Department of Correction, with specific prohibitions with regard to any other form of employment.

After all, when an incident such as the death of an inmate as the result of a violent response by a correction officer, to that inmate, who had assaulted him, can result in the severe injury of that inmate by said officer, and ultimate death of that inmate, not to mention the promotion of that officer to sergeant, and the blaming, and framing of another officer for the crime, as was clearly the case with Sergeant John Reimer, and former Officer Paul Cote, something must be done to bring that operation under control. We believe that that something would be the hiring of a full-time Commissioner of Corrections capable of reining in and straightening out the Department.