Does a taxpayer have a right to know how his money is spent? Not if it is spent (or misspent) for assigned attorneys in Delaware County, NY

Several years ago, suspended attorney David Roosa sued Delaware County Judge Carl F. Becker for his shenanigans in assignment of attorneys.


Among other things, David Roosa claimed that Judge Becker was upset that he, as an assigned counsel, was making motions and that Judge Becker assigns attorneys only if they do not make motions on behalf of their clients.


I can attest to that.


Even before Judge Becker's vendetta against me started that I amply described in this blog, Judge Becker never assigned my husband or myself to cases - and the reason is because we made no distinctions between assigned or retained cases and did our job fully, as it was supposed to be done.  If the case required discovery, motions and a trial - we did it.


Recently, I filed a FOIL request with Delaware County where I asked to show me documents pertaining to compensation of assigned counsel in local courts for the years when Judge Becker was on the bench.


The Delaware County denied my FOIL request claiming that such release of documents would require release of confidential names of parties in Family Court and juvenile proceedings.


My first question about it - why would documents that are transferred to the Treasurer for payment even contain names of parties instead of being indexed and codified, so that only the name of the court, the assigning judge and an identifying internal number remains.  This way, a taxpayer wanting to see a copy of these records that are presumed to be public records, would not have to jump through hoops or deterred from pursuing FOIL requests by a threat of having to pay for the labor of the Treasurer's workers in order to redact those confidential names from these documents.


Nevertheless, I was able to analyze at least what was available for public review - and that is scheduling in Delaware County Family Court on the website of the New York State Court Administration, on E-Courts.


There, any person can clearly see assignments of attorneys by designation of "18B" or "Attorney for the child".


The analysis of all assignments by Judge Becker of cases available on E-Courts in regards to Delaware County Family Court shows an interesting picture.


An assigned counsel in Family Court is paid $75.00/hr for in or out of court work, including waiting for the appearance in court and travel.


It would make sense for a Delaware County Family Court judge, especially for a judge who has a policy denying indigent clients experts and investigators if their extended family hires a retained attorney (on personal experience) and who refuses to assign only "tame" counsel who do not make motions or ruffle any feathers (David Roosa's federal lawsuit) to:


1) assign mostly attorneys from Delaware County;
2) assign attorneys who will not cost taxpayers much money for work not directly associated with representation of the indigent clients, such as travel.


Yet, assignments by Judge Becker show the opposite.


Below is a table that I compiled from assignments of counsel available on E-Courts in Judge Becker's Delaware County Family Court cases.


I verified on the public website of the New York State Court Administration the official registration addresses of assigned attorneys, verified through www.mapquest.com distances and travel time by car from that registration address to the courthouse and, by multiplying this travel time by 2 (roundtrip) and by the hourly rate, came to numbers that attorneys are paid for travel, or, for activities unrelated to representation of clients.


It is interesting to mention that two attorneys out of the list of attorneys assigned by Judge Becker, Dolores Fogarty and Bruce Maxson, are full-time employees of Otsego County.  Their salaries, according to seethroughny.net, is $46,161 each.  It is not clear how they can be assigned in Delaware County at all where their time belongs to Otsego County.


Attorney Fogarty's travel per appearance costs the Delaware County taxpayers $95.00, Attorney Maxson's - $87.50.


Next question - why does Judge Becker assign attorneys out of Delaware County, specifically, out of Jefferson, Otsego, Chenango and Schoharie Counties?  There are no attorneys in Delaware County to be assigned?  That is not true, there are plenty of attorneys in Delaware County, and I heard a lot of complaints (in private) from attorneys of Delaware County for assignments of cases to out-of-the-county attorneys.


As the table below shows, in majority of out-of-the-county assignments, travel expenses are a lot higher than in within-the-county assignments.


Judge Becker does not know the local distances and travel time, having resided in the area "only" for 40 something years?


 How about the fiscal discipline that Judge Becker always parades, to the point of denial of required services to the really indigent people who needs them?


There is no question that the main concern of the assigning judge is to assign competent counsel.


There are a lot of competent counsel in Delaware County, living much closer to the courthouse than out-of-the-county attorneys.


Why are those attorneys under-assigned?  Some special reasons?  Some personal preferences of the judge?


Should the New York State Court administration require judges assigning counsel to consider, right after availability of competent counsel for a case, the travel distance for such competent counsel to the courthouse, and choose accordingly?


To me as a taxpayer, as well as an attorney, it will only make sense.

Name of assigned attorney	Registered address	County where office located	Mapquest distance from office to courthouse in miles/hrs	Amount paid by taxpayers for each appearance for travel
Albaugh, Renee Jeanette	127 Main Street Delhi NY	Delaware	0	$                   0.10
Becker, Sean Thomas	28 Townsend Street, Walton NY	Delaware	16.84 miles/21 minutes	$                 52.50
Cahill, Joseph H.	1055 Charlotte Valley Rd, Summit NY	Jefferson	35.27 miles/46 minutes	$               115.00
Carrascoso, Victor Bernard
Cowen, Sarah Elizabeth	28 Townsend Street, Walton NY	Delaware	16.84 miles/21 minutes	$                 52.50
Deming, Nancy K.	court street	Delaware	0	$                        -
Diamond, Jehed Frances	6 2nd street delhi ny	Delaware	0	$                        -
Fogarty, Dolores G.	183 Main Street Unadilla NY	Otsego	29.79 miles/38 minutes	$                 95.00
Gallagher, Thomas	72 Main Street Stamford NY	Delaware	20.91 miles/ 26 minutes	$                 65.00
Gordon, David	60 Long Ridge Road Ste 407 Stamford NY	Delaware	20.78 miles/26 minutes	$                 65.00
Gouldin, Robert Anderson	93 Main Street Oneonta NY	Otsego	20.73 miles/27 to 29 minutes	$                 72.50
Hammond, Christopher	Cooperstown NY	Otsego	49.86 miles/ 1 hour 3 minutes	$               157.50
Harmon, Kara	47 sunset blvd, Oneonta NY	Otsego	33.86 miles/ 50 minutes	$               125.00
Hartjen, Lee Christian	117 Grandview Drive, Cobleskill NY	Schoharie	57.55 miles/ 1 hour 7 minutes	$               167.50
Hegeman, Thomas	812 Dietz Street, Oneonta NY	Otsego	23.89 miles/34 minutes	$                 85.00
Kottmeier, Gregory L.	145 Main Street Delhi NY	Delaware	0.22 miles/37 seconds	$                        -
Madison, Paul G. J.	31 Harper street stamford ny	Delaware	20.40 miles/ 26 minutes	$                 65.00
Maxson, Bruce Ernest	48 Dietz Street Oneonta NY	Otsego	24.03 miles/ 35 minutes	$                 87.50
McCue, Christine Ann	1507 GROVENORS CORNERS RD, Central Bridge NY	Schoharie	53.74 miles/ 1 hour 7 minutes	$               167.50
Natoli, Lisa Ann	27 w main street norwich ny	chenango	50.97 miles/ 1 hour 10 minutes	$               175.00
Neale, Erin J.	127 Main Street Delhi NY	Delaware	0	$                   0.10
Obolensky, Larisa	bovina ny	Delaware	12.75 miles/17 minutes	$                 42.50
Peirez, Gregory B.	3349 freer hollow rd walton ny	Delaware	16.71 miles/20 minutes	$                 50.00
Richards, Rosemarie	gilbertsville ny	Otsego	37.19 miles/ 53 minutes	$               132.50
Rothenberg, Steven J.	23-25 division street sidney ny	Delaware	35.04 miles/47 minutes	$               117.50
Schwartz, Donald J.	189 Main Street Oneonta NY	Otsego	20.93 miles/ 28 minutes	$                 70.00
Smith, Shawn Josef	28 Townsend Street, Walton NY	Delaware	16.84 miles/21 minutes	$                 52.50
Summers, Linden D.	Main street Milford NY	Otsego	34.84 miles/44 minutes	$               110.00
Van Buren, Andrew Horace	Hobart NY	Delaware	16.69 miles/21 minutes	$                 52.50
Walas, Carly Rose	28 Townsend Street, Walton NY	Delaware	16.84 miles/21 minutes	$                 52.50

As a disclaimer, my office is within a walking distance from the courthouse.  Yet, since Judge Becker permanently recused from my cases in 2012, I cannot be assigned to his cases - and am not seeking such assignments, in any court. 


I prefer to remain an independent counsel, as I understood early on that an expectation of continued assignments presupposes some implied obligation of an attorney to tone down and restrict what he or she is doing for his or her clients.