So, on April 7, 2015 Judge Dowd claimed that he was in Virginia for the last 10 days before April 7, 2015, which means, he was in Virginia since March 27, 2015.
Vacation schedule received from the New York State Court administration through a FOIL request (judge's chambers ignored my request for the same) for the year 2015 are:
On Monday, April 6, 2015, on behalf of Judge Dowd, his law clerk Claudette Newman issued an order indicating to me that the judge does not recognize (without seeing me) my lawful medical leave issued by my physician after he saw me in person - even though the judge did not see me and did not see my injury.
Moreover, Claudette Newman threatened me in an e-mail that "the court" will use "legal means to secure my attendance", whatever that meant, if I dare not to appear (read: if I dare to be bedridden and unable to appear because of the pain caused by my diagnosed injury - which I was the next day).
Yet, the next day, on Tuesday, April 7, 2015, Judge Dowd makes a statement that he communicated with his law clerk about my medical excuse from work filed "on Monday" while driving from Virginia.
Since I provided the medical excuse from my physician to the court on Monday, April 6, 2015, the Monday the judge is talking about is Monday, April 6, 2015.
According to the judge's vacation schedule, the judge was supposed to be at work on that day, since his vacation ended on April 3, 2015.
Yet, the judge, according to his admission on record, was driving from Virginia on that day and his law clerk was issuing orders instead of him while he was still vacationing in Virginia.
I FOILed the NYS Court Administration for records justifying Judge Dowd's absence on April 6, 2015.
First, the representative of the NYS Court Administration tried to give me a run-around claiming that records I was asking for are not eligible for FOIL.
After I explained to that representative (name is Shawn Kerby) that I am absolutely entitle to receive through FOIL copies of public record showing why a public servant was not at work on a certain day - whether they are time-sheets, vacation records or any other records explaining the absence - Shawn Kerby relented and told me that NYS Court Administration has NO records on file showing why Judge Dowd was still vacationing in Virginia when he was supposed to be in office and while his law clerk Claudette Newman was issuing decisions through e-mail on his behalf.
This behavior of a judge raise many questions.
One of them I am asking as a taxpayer: this judge claimed in another transcript that I read, in another case, that he is being paid "meager bucks" to do his judicial job.
The meager bucks of Kevin Dowd reported by seethroughny.net in 2014 were:
base salary - $174,000
received - $172,300
$174,000 per year translates (with all holdays and vacations) in approximately 252 working days, at $690.48 per day.
The judge certainly cannot be "deemed" in office when he is miles away from office coming from a vacation.
The judge was not in office in the afternoon of April 6, 2015, by his own admission on record in the Mokay case.
The court administration does not have records explaining why Judge Dowd was not in office on April 6, 2015.
Thus, Judge Dowd did not show up to work on April 6, 2015 without a legitimate reason.
His law clerk, without ever explaining to me that the judge is actually on a vacation and cannot issue any orders, issued a lot of orders while the judge was on a vacation, including the rejection of my medical leave and the threat of "securing my attendance" at trial, even though I was injured and in pain on April 6, 2015.
As a taxpayer, I demand that Judge Dowd is not paid for April 6, 2015.
As a taxpayer, a citizen and a member of the public, I demand that judges submit timesheets and, if they do not show up at work, they must submit an explanation, available to the public through FOIL requests, as to why a certain judge, a public servant, paid nearly $200,000, allows himself not to show up at work without a proper justification.
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