I wrote in the previous post about Judge Sharpe's "visionary" unsworn testimony on behalf of the prosecution in a case where the judge claimed that in 50 years a gene will be discovered showing that some people may have uncontrollable urges to view child pornography.
Apparently, Judge Sharpe did not find that unsworn testimony of a judge on behalf of the prosecution is somehow inappropriate.
So far, I know of only one more judge who also loves to testify as a medical expert, Judge Carl F. Becker of the Delaware County Court, New York.
Judge Becker offered (and relied upon) his own unsworn opinions as:
(1) forensic dentist;
(2) forensic gynecologist;
(3) forensic ophtalmologist (Judge Becker stated in an open criminal proceeding that a legally blind defendant is not as blind as he pretends to be - when the judge accepted a plea from a legally blind defendant that he drove the truck with drugs), and
(4) forensic surgeon (Judge Becker stated, also in an open criminal proceeding that a criminal "suddenly" needed a surgery to avoid sentencing while he is not as disabled as he claims to be - and that New York State will provide free medical care to such person behind bar).
Those are cases I know about, there might be a lot more.
In all of those cases Judge Becker made his unsworn and unqualified expert opinion in favor of a party with a higher social standing.
And, while the 2nd circuit reversed the case where Judge Sharpe offered his unsworn and unqualified expert testimony on behalf of the prosecution, in New York, appellate court affirmed decisions involving unsworn testimony of Judge Becker - every one of them.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
In the view of Judge Gary L. Sharpe people are "genetically predisposed" to view child pornography. Is something seriously wrong with this judge?
In 2011 Judge Sharpe, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of New York, was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit because the judge considered in imposing a sentence upon a criminal defendant his own personal genetic theory that people are genetically predisposed to view child pornography.
The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed and remanded the case to a different judge in view of apparent inability of Judge Sharpe to be fair.
Even though objections to unreasonableness of sentencing were not preserved for appellate review, the court still reviewed them for "plain error". The appellate court noted: "we may exercise our discretion to notice the forfeited error only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings".
At sentencing, the judge made a ruling that was stunning in its logic (or, rather, a complete lack thereof).
Rejecting reports from psychologists that the defendant was of low or moderate risk to reoffend in the future (which, to be fair, the judge could be correct about, because psychology is not an exact science), the judge made his own scientifically unsupported claim that 50 years in the future a gene will be discovered which governs defendant's uncontrollable urge to possess child pornography.
This comes from a judge who has been on the bench for a long time, has practice law for decades, and has been a prosecutor for some time.
The judge had to know that in this country people are not punished for "uncontrollable" behavior.
When the judge pronounced that defendant's behavior in possessing child pornography was uncontrollable, the judge just as well said that the conviction should be tossed.
Yet, the judge used his unsupported personal opinion that possession of child pornography may be uncontrollable behavior not as a mitigating factor, but as an aggravating factor for sentencing, which is completely illogical and begs an answer - did Judge Sharpe start to have mental health problems back in 2011 when he offered his "forensic geneticist" opinion in U.S. v. Cossey?
It sure looks like that to me because recently Judge Sharpe sanctioned me for correctly reading the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution... To me, that is a sure sign that something may be wrong with the judge.
Appellate court, while reversing Judge Sharpe's decision, stated the following:
Was Judge Sharpe sanctioned for his unsworn testimony as a forensic geneticist on behalf of the prosecution? Not at all, and that's the problem.
Federal judges are supposed to serve for life "on good behavior". Mental health problems cannot be considered "bad behavior", because, once again, it is behavior that a person cannot control.
Yet, there should be some way to suspend or take off the bench judges who start to act in a bizarre way, unreasonably hurting people.
If such behavior is just plain malicious and vicious, it is even worse.
Federal rules of judicial discipline declare that a complaint against a judge will not even be accepted if the complaint is against the judge's behavior in a certain case - it is allegedly an appellate issue.
I already wrote in this blog about federal appellate courts rubber-stamping the lower court's decisions, and it is especially hard to have a judge recognize that a another judge not only acted "unreasonably", but committed an outright judicial misconduct.
Yet, the concept of absolute judicial immunity FOR MALICIOUS AND CORRUPT ACTS ON THE BENCH was invented by the judiciary specifically because judicial discipline is available.
So, the concept of absolute judicial immunity refers to a judge's behavior in a court proceeding and cloaks the judge with immunity from lawsuits BECAUSE judicial discipline is available as an alternative to such lawsuits.
On the other hands, federal judicial discipline for whatever the judge did in court proceedings is NOT available specifically BECAUSE it was done in a court proceedings.
See the logic? There is no logic. There is only a desire of the judiciary to protect itself from accountability for ANY acts, no matter how malicious and how corrupt, no matter what.
As an example, if a federal judge imposes, for a kickback, illegal criminal sentences (as it happened with juvenile sentences in the "Kids for Cash" scandal in a state court in Pennsylvania, Luzerne County), simply to fill privatized prisons, then the following happens:
(1) appellate courts will never find misconduct in whatever the judge is doing;
(2) disciplinary authorities will reject complaints about the judge BECAUSE judge's conduct complained about happened during a court proceeding; and
(3) and the judge is covered by absolute judicial immunity BECAUSE his conduct, again, happened during a court proceeding and because PRESUMABLY judicial discipline is available as an alternative means to a lawsuit (although we know it is not available).
The result - there is no legal remedy for malicious and intentionally incorrect judicial decisions, as well as for corruption on the bench.
I am far from accusing Judge Sharpe of corruption on the basis of the described case, there is nothing in the case indicating corruption.
Yet, there is something in the case indicating malice - and the court, although it ruled that the court was "unreasonable" and although the appellate court remanded the case to another judge, Judge Sharpe was not disciplined and remained the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Yet, Judge Sharpe's claim about "genetic predisposition" to possess child pornography is disturbing, at least because it can be used to completely eliminate possession of child pornography as a crime - if people have uncontrollable urges to possess it.
And the other disturbing question of public concern that clearly arises would be - is Judge Sharpe's personal opinion as to uncontrollable urges to possess child pornography based on personal experience?
I wonder whether there is authority in the United States who runs regular psychological analyses of judges, like they, no doubt, do in FBI, CIA and in any other governmental jobs presupposing high-stress, fast-track work environment requiring split-second ability to react.
Even though Judge Sharpe does not believe in such evaluations, probably, only such evaluations will be able to reveal judges who are unfit to remain on the bench - and that will save people who appear in front of them a lot of grief.
Even though objections to unreasonableness of sentencing were not preserved for appellate review, the court still reviewed them for "plain error". The appellate court noted: "we may exercise our discretion to notice the forfeited error only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings".
At sentencing, the judge made a ruling that was stunning in its logic (or, rather, a complete lack thereof).
Rejecting reports from psychologists that the defendant was of low or moderate risk to reoffend in the future (which, to be fair, the judge could be correct about, because psychology is not an exact science), the judge made his own scientifically unsupported claim that 50 years in the future a gene will be discovered which governs defendant's uncontrollable urge to possess child pornography.
This comes from a judge who has been on the bench for a long time, has practice law for decades, and has been a prosecutor for some time.
The judge had to know that in this country people are not punished for "uncontrollable" behavior.
When the judge pronounced that defendant's behavior in possessing child pornography was uncontrollable, the judge just as well said that the conviction should be tossed.
Yet, the judge used his unsupported personal opinion that possession of child pornography may be uncontrollable behavior not as a mitigating factor, but as an aggravating factor for sentencing, which is completely illogical and begs an answer - did Judge Sharpe start to have mental health problems back in 2011 when he offered his "forensic geneticist" opinion in U.S. v. Cossey?
It sure looks like that to me because recently Judge Sharpe sanctioned me for correctly reading the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution... To me, that is a sure sign that something may be wrong with the judge.
Appellate court, while reversing Judge Sharpe's decision, stated the following:
"It is undisputed that it would be impermissible for the court to base its decision of
recidivism on its unsupported theory of genetics. For Cossey’s challenge to survive, there must
be error and it must be plain. Where a district court relies on its own scientific theories of human
nature to sentence a defendant, as it does here, a finding of plain error is warranted.
The court’s belief that Cossey was genetically incapable of controlling his urges affected the court’s decision to sentence him to imprisonment, to impose a prison term that is lengthy, and to order him to submit to supervised release for life, all of which affect Cossey’s substantial rights. "
The court’s belief that Cossey was genetically incapable of controlling his urges affected the court’s decision to sentence him to imprisonment, to impose a prison term that is lengthy, and to order him to submit to supervised release for life, all of which affect Cossey’s substantial rights. "
Was Judge Sharpe sanctioned for his unsworn testimony as a forensic geneticist on behalf of the prosecution? Not at all, and that's the problem.
Federal judges are supposed to serve for life "on good behavior". Mental health problems cannot be considered "bad behavior", because, once again, it is behavior that a person cannot control.
Yet, there should be some way to suspend or take off the bench judges who start to act in a bizarre way, unreasonably hurting people.
If such behavior is just plain malicious and vicious, it is even worse.
Federal rules of judicial discipline declare that a complaint against a judge will not even be accepted if the complaint is against the judge's behavior in a certain case - it is allegedly an appellate issue.
I already wrote in this blog about federal appellate courts rubber-stamping the lower court's decisions, and it is especially hard to have a judge recognize that a another judge not only acted "unreasonably", but committed an outright judicial misconduct.
Yet, the concept of absolute judicial immunity FOR MALICIOUS AND CORRUPT ACTS ON THE BENCH was invented by the judiciary specifically because judicial discipline is available.
So, the concept of absolute judicial immunity refers to a judge's behavior in a court proceeding and cloaks the judge with immunity from lawsuits BECAUSE judicial discipline is available as an alternative to such lawsuits.
On the other hands, federal judicial discipline for whatever the judge did in court proceedings is NOT available specifically BECAUSE it was done in a court proceedings.
See the logic? There is no logic. There is only a desire of the judiciary to protect itself from accountability for ANY acts, no matter how malicious and how corrupt, no matter what.
As an example, if a federal judge imposes, for a kickback, illegal criminal sentences (as it happened with juvenile sentences in the "Kids for Cash" scandal in a state court in Pennsylvania, Luzerne County), simply to fill privatized prisons, then the following happens:
(1) appellate courts will never find misconduct in whatever the judge is doing;
(2) disciplinary authorities will reject complaints about the judge BECAUSE judge's conduct complained about happened during a court proceeding; and
(3) and the judge is covered by absolute judicial immunity BECAUSE his conduct, again, happened during a court proceeding and because PRESUMABLY judicial discipline is available as an alternative means to a lawsuit (although we know it is not available).
The result - there is no legal remedy for malicious and intentionally incorrect judicial decisions, as well as for corruption on the bench.
I am far from accusing Judge Sharpe of corruption on the basis of the described case, there is nothing in the case indicating corruption.
Yet, there is something in the case indicating malice - and the court, although it ruled that the court was "unreasonable" and although the appellate court remanded the case to another judge, Judge Sharpe was not disciplined and remained the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Yet, Judge Sharpe's claim about "genetic predisposition" to possess child pornography is disturbing, at least because it can be used to completely eliminate possession of child pornography as a crime - if people have uncontrollable urges to possess it.
And the other disturbing question of public concern that clearly arises would be - is Judge Sharpe's personal opinion as to uncontrollable urges to possess child pornography based on personal experience?
I wonder whether there is authority in the United States who runs regular psychological analyses of judges, like they, no doubt, do in FBI, CIA and in any other governmental jobs presupposing high-stress, fast-track work environment requiring split-second ability to react.
Even though Judge Sharpe does not believe in such evaluations, probably, only such evaluations will be able to reveal judges who are unfit to remain on the bench - and that will save people who appear in front of them a lot of grief.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Why wouldn't Judge Leslie Stein of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department practice what she preaches - professionalism in the law?
I wrote in my previous posts that on October 17, 2014 the NYS Governor announced his intent to nominate the justice of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department Leslie Stein to the highest court in the State of New York, the New York State Court of Appeals, thus conferring upon Judge Stein a financial benefit of over $2 mln in salary and benefits and eliminating for Judge Stein whose term expires next year (Judge Stein was elected in 2001 for a 14-year term), the necessity to run for re-election - and fund the re-election either with her own funds or through fundraising efforts.
The nomination occurred while Justice Leslie Stein was presiding over at least two cases where the Executive government of the State of New York to which the Governor is the Chief Executive Officer was in front of Judge Leslie Stein as the presiding justice of the appellate panel.
Such a nomination obviously required instant disqualification and recusal of Judge Stein from the case to avoid the appearance that she is being bribed to rule in favor of the Commissioner of the Environmental Conservation in two cases pending in front of her, while the DEC Commissioner was the direct subordinate of the Governor.
Instead, Judge Stein did not step down, remained the presiding justice of the panel and ruled in favor of the Governor's subordinate the Commissioner of Environmental conservation 6 days after being nominated by the Governor to the NYS Court of Appeals.
Offering or conferring a financial benefit of any kind by a party upon a judge results in instant disqualification of a judge under New York State Judiciary Law Section 14, and smacks of corruption.
Conferring a benefit of over $2 mln smacks of major league corruption.
Below I provide the biography of Judge Leslie Stein on the website of the New York State Appellate Division Third Judicial Department.
It indicates, among other things, that Judge Stein is a "founding member of the NYS Judicial Institute of Professionalism in the Law".
Professionalism, right.
The nomination occurred while Justice Leslie Stein was presiding over at least two cases where the Executive government of the State of New York to which the Governor is the Chief Executive Officer was in front of Judge Leslie Stein as the presiding justice of the appellate panel.
Such a nomination obviously required instant disqualification and recusal of Judge Stein from the case to avoid the appearance that she is being bribed to rule in favor of the Commissioner of the Environmental Conservation in two cases pending in front of her, while the DEC Commissioner was the direct subordinate of the Governor.
Instead, Judge Stein did not step down, remained the presiding justice of the panel and ruled in favor of the Governor's subordinate the Commissioner of Environmental conservation 6 days after being nominated by the Governor to the NYS Court of Appeals.
Offering or conferring a financial benefit of any kind by a party upon a judge results in instant disqualification of a judge under New York State Judiciary Law Section 14, and smacks of corruption.
Conferring a benefit of over $2 mln smacks of major league corruption.
Below I provide the biography of Judge Leslie Stein on the website of the New York State Appellate Division Third Judicial Department.
It indicates, among other things, that Judge Stein is a "founding member of the NYS Judicial Institute of Professionalism in the Law".
Professionalism, right.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
An amendment of the New York State Constitution is necessary to prevent manipulation of judicial appointments by the executive branch in order to win court cases for that branch
New York State Constitution, Article VI, Section 2(e) provides that judges of the New York State Court of Appeals are appointed by the governor, with advice and consent of the Senate, from nominees recommended by the Judicial Nominating Commission.
At the same time, the Governor and his agencies appear in front of judges who the Governor nominates, as parties, which provides a unique opportunity to influence and manipulate judges deciding cases for the Executive branch of the New York State government.
Moreover, as the case of Governor Cuomo's nomination of Judge Leslie Stein shows, see here and here, the Governor can use his power to manipulate independence of judges who are about to make decisions about the Governor's agencies, by dangling in front of them nominations to higher offices with no need to run for re-election, expend the judge's own money for the re-election campaign, and with higher prestige and salaries.
If the judiciary considered it necessary to suggest an amendment of the New York State Constitution simply because they wanted to retain their benches past 70 years of age, manipulation by the Governor of judicial appointments in cases where the Governor's agencies appear in front of judges should justify an amendment to the New York State Constitution changing appointments to the New York State Court of Appeals to elections.
So who is going to prosecute Governor Cuomo for using the power of his office in bribing a judge whose term was expiring with a $2,411,200 appointment (plus benefits, perks and prestige), at New Yorkers' expense? And who is going to prosecute the judge? Her own counsel Mr. Schneiderman?
I have described how the New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo made a nomination to the Court of Appeals by bypassing a qualified candidate Judge Victoria Graffeo and instead publicly announcing his "intent to nominate" Judge Leslie Stein of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department at the time when Judge Leslie Stein was the presiding judge over a case litigated in front of her by the Governor's subordinate, the Commissioner of the Environmental Conservation.
As I wrote in the prior post, Judge Stein ruled in DEC's favor within 6 days of the announcement by Governor Cuomo expressing his intent to nominate her to the New York State Court of Appeals.
The reported salary of Leslie Stein for the year of 2013 was $176,000.00 (as reported by http://seethroughny.org).
The reported salary of Judge Victoria Graffeo in the New York State Court of Appeals for the same year of 2013 was $184,800.00.
According to the official biography of Judge Leslie Stein on the website of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, she was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 2001.
Governor Cuomo could not reappoint her to the Appellate Court unless she would be re-elected, as, by law, Governor Cuomo could only appoint a judge already elected to the New York State Supreme Court to an intermediate appellate court.
Judges of the New York State Supreme Court are elected for terms of 14 years.
Since Judge Stein was elected in 2001, her term ends at the end of the next year, unless she runs for re-election.
With the nomination, Judge Stein does not need to expend her own funds on a re-election campaign in 2015, since judges are not allowed to use public funds for their re-election.
Let's count how much of taxpayers' money was secured by Governor Cuomo to bribe Judge Leslie Stein into making a decision for the DEC in Martens v. Neroni?
Governor Cuomo promised to appoint her for 14 years, as a matter of his sole discretion. Remember, the salary of Victoria Graffeo for the year 2013 was $184,800. Judge Stein's term otherwise would have expired at the end of year 2015, at a salary of $176,000.
Even assuming that Judge Stein will not have any raises over her 14-year term on the Court of Appeals, which is unlikely, she will get $2,587,200.00 over her term minus $176,000 that she would have gotten as an Appellate Court justice in 2015 anyway, for the total of $,2,411,200, and that is not counting the benefits and the perks of her office, and the savings for not having to fund a re-election campaign in 2015 to keep her current judgeship in the Appellate Division.
$2,411,200.00 is not a bad chunck of change for just one decision, and that is the one that I know of.
The amount of money Leslie Stein was promised by the Governor at the time governor's officers appeared in front of Leslie Stein as a presiding judge, and the fact that Leslie Stein ruled in favor of Governor Cuomo's officers within 6 days of the nomination, puts a whole new light on her statement that she is "humbled" by the nomination.
My question now is - how can the New York State Attorney General criminally prosecute Governor Cuomo and Judge Stein for corruption when the New York State Attorney General is the official legal counsel for both?
Doesn't this case demonstrate clearly enough that the same public official, the New York State Attorney General, should not be given by statute obligations that create mutually exclusive duties toward the same people - both defend them when they are sued for fraud and investigate and prosecute them criminally for the same thing?
As I wrote in the prior post, Judge Stein ruled in DEC's favor within 6 days of the announcement by Governor Cuomo expressing his intent to nominate her to the New York State Court of Appeals.
The reported salary of Leslie Stein for the year of 2013 was $176,000.00 (as reported by http://seethroughny.org).
The reported salary of Judge Victoria Graffeo in the New York State Court of Appeals for the same year of 2013 was $184,800.00.
According to the official biography of Judge Leslie Stein on the website of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, she was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 2001.
Governor Cuomo could not reappoint her to the Appellate Court unless she would be re-elected, as, by law, Governor Cuomo could only appoint a judge already elected to the New York State Supreme Court to an intermediate appellate court.
Judges of the New York State Supreme Court are elected for terms of 14 years.
Since Judge Stein was elected in 2001, her term ends at the end of the next year, unless she runs for re-election.
With the nomination, Judge Stein does not need to expend her own funds on a re-election campaign in 2015, since judges are not allowed to use public funds for their re-election.
Let's count how much of taxpayers' money was secured by Governor Cuomo to bribe Judge Leslie Stein into making a decision for the DEC in Martens v. Neroni?
Governor Cuomo promised to appoint her for 14 years, as a matter of his sole discretion. Remember, the salary of Victoria Graffeo for the year 2013 was $184,800. Judge Stein's term otherwise would have expired at the end of year 2015, at a salary of $176,000.
Even assuming that Judge Stein will not have any raises over her 14-year term on the Court of Appeals, which is unlikely, she will get $2,587,200.00 over her term minus $176,000 that she would have gotten as an Appellate Court justice in 2015 anyway, for the total of $,2,411,200, and that is not counting the benefits and the perks of her office, and the savings for not having to fund a re-election campaign in 2015 to keep her current judgeship in the Appellate Division.
$2,411,200.00 is not a bad chunck of change for just one decision, and that is the one that I know of.
The amount of money Leslie Stein was promised by the Governor at the time governor's officers appeared in front of Leslie Stein as a presiding judge, and the fact that Leslie Stein ruled in favor of Governor Cuomo's officers within 6 days of the nomination, puts a whole new light on her statement that she is "humbled" by the nomination.
My question now is - how can the New York State Attorney General criminally prosecute Governor Cuomo and Judge Stein for corruption when the New York State Attorney General is the official legal counsel for both?
Doesn't this case demonstrate clearly enough that the same public official, the New York State Attorney General, should not be given by statute obligations that create mutually exclusive duties toward the same people - both defend them when they are sued for fraud and investigate and prosecute them criminally for the same thing?
Governor Cuomo publicly buys off Judge Leslie Stein of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department with a Court of Appeals nomination to have her decide a case in favor of his agency, and Leslie Stein rules in his favor within 6 days - shouldn't participants in this dirty story be collectively fired and stripped of their law licenses for corruption and fraud upon New York landowners?
The press was confused as to why New York State Governor Cuomo refused to nominate Judge Victoria Graffeo, of the New York State Court of Appeals, to another term at the end of this year, when her current 14-year term expires, and instead announced his intent to nominate Judge Leslie Stein of the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department.
Here is the answer:
The intent to nominate Judge Leslie Stein to the New York State Court of Appeals was announced at the time when Judge Leslie Stein had a case pending before her where the New York State Executive Office (DEC) was in front of her.
New York State Governor is the head of the executive branch of the government of the State of New York, and when DEC was in front of judge Leslie Stein in Martens v. Neroni, Case No. 515341, it was the Executive Office, and, subsequently, Governor Cuomo, who was in front of Judge Leslie Stein in that case.
Governor Cuomo, apparently, was insecure as to how Judge Stein was going to rule, given multiple constitutional arguments raised, one of them - lack of notice to a landowner that environmental objects are located on his property - being jurisdictional.
So, Governor Cuomo did not wait how the judge would rule, instead, he sweetened the deal for the presiding judge of the court panel deciding his agency's case by announcing his nomination of that presiding judge, Leslie Stein, to the New York State Court of Appeals.
The judge took the hint perfectly - instead of stepping down from the case, as required by Judiciary Law Section 14, since she was publicly offered a material benefit by a party in an action pending in front of her, she remained on the case as the presiding judge of the appellate panel, and authored the decision favoring the DEC, thus making sure that she controlled it.
In that decision, Leslie Stein ignored the jurisdictional issue that had a potential of reversing all convictions ever obtained by the DEC against New Yorkers and vacate all fines ever imposed upon New Yorkers for violation of environmental law upon their properties, if maps used to describe protected objects on their properties are as blind as the one that allegedly described protected environmental objects on the property belonging in 2001 solely to my husband Frederick J. Neroni.
I guess, my husband's law license and my own law license were doomed since 2007, even before I was admitted to practice law when, through a FOIL request, I discovered at the office of DEC-4 in Stamford, NY, that the map that was used by DEC to establish jurisdiction over my husband's Town of Hamden property:
(1) is named "Walton", precluding a person who would be looking for a map of the Hamden area from receiving any notice of protected environmental objects on a Town of Hamden property;
(2) is blind;
(3) contains no readable legend;
(4) makes it impossible to locate any address of any property on that map, and
(5) does not have any environmentally protected objects noted on that map.
Here is the map that DEC claimed as giving them authority over our property in the Town of Hamden (see that the map says "Walton", so why would a person living in Hamden even look at it to verify whether environmentally protected objects are located on his Town of Hamden property):
It is elementary due process of law that, before a person can be punished by the government for prohibited conduct, he or she should have clear notice from the state of that prohibited conduct.
Every 1st year law student knows that any rights pertaining to a piece of real estate must be documented in writing to be valid.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, an agency whose Commissioner is a subordinate of Governor Cuomo, does not have jurisdiction over every property in the State of New York, but only over properties where environmentally protected objects are located.
Location of such objects and their designation as environmentally protected objects must be made in writing, in order to give any New York landowner notice of such an object on the owner's property, in order for the DEC to be able to impose fines, often amounting to thousands and even millions of dollars, and/or and especially, to bring criminal proceedings against New York landowners.
Guess what, when maps are blind and do not show environmentally protected objects, landowners have no notice of such environmentally protected objects on their properties and DEC does not have authority to prosecute them for upsetting such alleged objects.
Leslie Stein, "encouraged" by the announced intent to nominate her to the New York State Court of Appeals by the party in front of her, and to a position not subject to elections and with a higher salary than she has currently and more prestige, simply skipped this initial, threshold and main constitutional issue of notice in her decision and ruled against Mr. Neroni on the merits.
She also hinted on page 3 of her decision that fines and civil penalties were imposed upon both my husband and myself, which was clearly not what happened and not what was in the record.
This case is bigger than my husband's or my own property rights, it is bigger than the fate of my husband's law license or my own, and it is much bigger than my criticism or even lawsuits targeting judicial misconduct in the State of New York.
It is about rampant fraud upon New York state landowners who are subjected to extortion of thousands and, probably, millions of dollars in fines and suffer criminal convictions based on maps where no environmental objects could be found in order to establish authority of the DEC to claim violations of environmental law.
Had Leslie Stein correctly and honestly ruled that the map M-19 which, DEC claimed, showed an environmentally protected object on my husband's property, could not give any landowner any notice of any environmentally protected objects on his or her property, and tossed the case against Mr. Neroni, that decision would have resulted in a flood of litigation from New York landowners seeking to vacate their convictions, have the State of New York return illegally imposed criminal and civil fines and make individual public officials involved pay for the fraud to individual landowners, including punitive damages.
See, for examples, similar jurisdictional maps for the areas of Stamford, NY, Bloomville, NY, and Deposit, NY. They are maps designated as containing alleged references to environmentally protected objects on the maps in the so-called "Water Index". As you can see, they reference absolutely positively nothing, but are used by the DEC to extract from landowners agreements to "remediate" their properties, at their expense, building costly stone "rip-raps", paying thousands of dollars in civil and criminal fines and suffering the indignities and permanent stigma of criminal convictions.
These are only some maps of the area where I live. You are encouraged to seek other maps, of the area where you live, but I doubt that the situation will be different - the maps are blind, do not show environmentally protected objects and cannot be used to give people notice of any environmentally protected objects located on their land. In our time of GPS and GIS mapping the maps that I provide here are a disgrace, and especially because they are used to extort money, inconvenience landowners, intrude upon their enjoyment of their properties and impose upon many of them the permanent stigma of criminal convictions.
Had Martens v. Neroni been decided by Judge Leslie Stein properly, claims to return the illegally imposed fines, going back years, could have bankrupted the State of New York, cost jobs and positions to many public officials and embarrassed judges, several NYS Governors, several NYS Attorneys General and several DEC Commissioners who, instead of eradicating fraud in the government, promoted it, covered it up, defended it and fought tooth and nail to discredit Mr. Neroni and myself as whistleblowers of that fraud.
The case was important enough for Governor Cuomo to consider bypassing Judge Victoria Graffeo in re-nomination for the Court of Appeals despite her 14-year experience on that court and dangling the carrot of his "intent to nominate" Judge Leslie Stein before Judge Stein made a decision on the case where a Department of the Executive branch of the government, the branch Cuomo is the head of, was a party in front of her.
Remember, Cuomo is the guy who disbanded the Moreland Commission on public integrity once the Commission started to investigate his own office, and for that reason, Cuomo's office is currently investigated by the Feds.
The Feds should investigate Cuomo's for publicly and openly buying Judge Stein's decision, too.
If there is the claimed rule of law in this state, Governor Cuomo and Judge Stein must be removed from their respective offices, stripped of their law licenses and criminally prosecuted under state and federal law for corruption and conspiring to perpetrate massive fraud upon New Yorker landowners.
Official maps of other areas of the state of New York show the same as the map of the area that the DEC claims shows our property: they are blind, lack legends, lack any designation of environmentally protected objects on the map and lack any possibility of tying a particular address of a particular property to the map.
I encourage landowners in the State of New York who were ever fined or convicted criminally on complaints of the DEC or who are prosecuted, civilly or criminally, for upsetting alleged environmental objects on their properties, to file FOIL requests as to the official maps based on which the DEC is asserting their authority over their property and claiming notice to the landowners of the environmentally protected objects on their property. You might be surprised what you will find.
I also call upon Governor Cuomo, Judge Leslie Stein and New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, as a matter of decency, to step down from their offices, and for Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Schneiderman, to exit their election races.
It will also be proper if attorneys Cuomo, Stein and Schneiderman turn in their law licenses.
Here is the answer:
The intent to nominate Judge Leslie Stein to the New York State Court of Appeals was announced at the time when Judge Leslie Stein had a case pending before her where the New York State Executive Office (DEC) was in front of her.
New York State Governor is the head of the executive branch of the government of the State of New York, and when DEC was in front of judge Leslie Stein in Martens v. Neroni, Case No. 515341, it was the Executive Office, and, subsequently, Governor Cuomo, who was in front of Judge Leslie Stein in that case.
Governor Cuomo, apparently, was insecure as to how Judge Stein was going to rule, given multiple constitutional arguments raised, one of them - lack of notice to a landowner that environmental objects are located on his property - being jurisdictional.
So, Governor Cuomo did not wait how the judge would rule, instead, he sweetened the deal for the presiding judge of the court panel deciding his agency's case by announcing his nomination of that presiding judge, Leslie Stein, to the New York State Court of Appeals.
The judge took the hint perfectly - instead of stepping down from the case, as required by Judiciary Law Section 14, since she was publicly offered a material benefit by a party in an action pending in front of her, she remained on the case as the presiding judge of the appellate panel, and authored the decision favoring the DEC, thus making sure that she controlled it.
In that decision, Leslie Stein ignored the jurisdictional issue that had a potential of reversing all convictions ever obtained by the DEC against New Yorkers and vacate all fines ever imposed upon New Yorkers for violation of environmental law upon their properties, if maps used to describe protected objects on their properties are as blind as the one that allegedly described protected environmental objects on the property belonging in 2001 solely to my husband Frederick J. Neroni.
I guess, my husband's law license and my own law license were doomed since 2007, even before I was admitted to practice law when, through a FOIL request, I discovered at the office of DEC-4 in Stamford, NY, that the map that was used by DEC to establish jurisdiction over my husband's Town of Hamden property:
(1) is named "Walton", precluding a person who would be looking for a map of the Hamden area from receiving any notice of protected environmental objects on a Town of Hamden property;
(2) is blind;
(3) contains no readable legend;
(4) makes it impossible to locate any address of any property on that map, and
(5) does not have any environmentally protected objects noted on that map.
Here is the map that DEC claimed as giving them authority over our property in the Town of Hamden (see that the map says "Walton", so why would a person living in Hamden even look at it to verify whether environmentally protected objects are located on his Town of Hamden property):
It is elementary due process of law that, before a person can be punished by the government for prohibited conduct, he or she should have clear notice from the state of that prohibited conduct.
Every 1st year law student knows that any rights pertaining to a piece of real estate must be documented in writing to be valid.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, an agency whose Commissioner is a subordinate of Governor Cuomo, does not have jurisdiction over every property in the State of New York, but only over properties where environmentally protected objects are located.
Location of such objects and their designation as environmentally protected objects must be made in writing, in order to give any New York landowner notice of such an object on the owner's property, in order for the DEC to be able to impose fines, often amounting to thousands and even millions of dollars, and/or and especially, to bring criminal proceedings against New York landowners.
Guess what, when maps are blind and do not show environmentally protected objects, landowners have no notice of such environmentally protected objects on their properties and DEC does not have authority to prosecute them for upsetting such alleged objects.
Leslie Stein, "encouraged" by the announced intent to nominate her to the New York State Court of Appeals by the party in front of her, and to a position not subject to elections and with a higher salary than she has currently and more prestige, simply skipped this initial, threshold and main constitutional issue of notice in her decision and ruled against Mr. Neroni on the merits.
She also hinted on page 3 of her decision that fines and civil penalties were imposed upon both my husband and myself, which was clearly not what happened and not what was in the record.
This case is bigger than my husband's or my own property rights, it is bigger than the fate of my husband's law license or my own, and it is much bigger than my criticism or even lawsuits targeting judicial misconduct in the State of New York.
It is about rampant fraud upon New York state landowners who are subjected to extortion of thousands and, probably, millions of dollars in fines and suffer criminal convictions based on maps where no environmental objects could be found in order to establish authority of the DEC to claim violations of environmental law.
Had Leslie Stein correctly and honestly ruled that the map M-19 which, DEC claimed, showed an environmentally protected object on my husband's property, could not give any landowner any notice of any environmentally protected objects on his or her property, and tossed the case against Mr. Neroni, that decision would have resulted in a flood of litigation from New York landowners seeking to vacate their convictions, have the State of New York return illegally imposed criminal and civil fines and make individual public officials involved pay for the fraud to individual landowners, including punitive damages.
See, for examples, similar jurisdictional maps for the areas of Stamford, NY, Bloomville, NY, and Deposit, NY. They are maps designated as containing alleged references to environmentally protected objects on the maps in the so-called "Water Index". As you can see, they reference absolutely positively nothing, but are used by the DEC to extract from landowners agreements to "remediate" their properties, at their expense, building costly stone "rip-raps", paying thousands of dollars in civil and criminal fines and suffering the indignities and permanent stigma of criminal convictions.
Had Martens v. Neroni been decided by Judge Leslie Stein properly, claims to return the illegally imposed fines, going back years, could have bankrupted the State of New York, cost jobs and positions to many public officials and embarrassed judges, several NYS Governors, several NYS Attorneys General and several DEC Commissioners who, instead of eradicating fraud in the government, promoted it, covered it up, defended it and fought tooth and nail to discredit Mr. Neroni and myself as whistleblowers of that fraud.
The case was important enough for Governor Cuomo to consider bypassing Judge Victoria Graffeo in re-nomination for the Court of Appeals despite her 14-year experience on that court and dangling the carrot of his "intent to nominate" Judge Leslie Stein before Judge Stein made a decision on the case where a Department of the Executive branch of the government, the branch Cuomo is the head of, was a party in front of her.
Remember, Cuomo is the guy who disbanded the Moreland Commission on public integrity once the Commission started to investigate his own office, and for that reason, Cuomo's office is currently investigated by the Feds.
The Feds should investigate Cuomo's for publicly and openly buying Judge Stein's decision, too.
If there is the claimed rule of law in this state, Governor Cuomo and Judge Stein must be removed from their respective offices, stripped of their law licenses and criminally prosecuted under state and federal law for corruption and conspiring to perpetrate massive fraud upon New Yorker landowners.
Official maps of other areas of the state of New York show the same as the map of the area that the DEC claims shows our property: they are blind, lack legends, lack any designation of environmentally protected objects on the map and lack any possibility of tying a particular address of a particular property to the map.
I encourage landowners in the State of New York who were ever fined or convicted criminally on complaints of the DEC or who are prosecuted, civilly or criminally, for upsetting alleged environmental objects on their properties, to file FOIL requests as to the official maps based on which the DEC is asserting their authority over their property and claiming notice to the landowners of the environmentally protected objects on their property. You might be surprised what you will find.
I also call upon Governor Cuomo, Judge Leslie Stein and New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, as a matter of decency, to step down from their offices, and for Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Schneiderman, to exit their election races.
It will also be proper if attorneys Cuomo, Stein and Schneiderman turn in their law licenses.
Friday, October 24, 2014
When fraud upon the court is mandated by the court...
Normally, an attorney has a duty of due diligence and candor to the forum.
That means that before you bring a claim before the court, you need to conduct a minimum research and investigation to make sure the claim at least is not false.
This is true for both civil and criminal proceedings, but in civil proceedings, unlike criminal, courts can punish an attorney who is bringing false claims before the court, for frivolous conduct and award against the attorney opponent's counsel fees.
Not in attorney disciplinary proceedings in the 4th Department.
Here, a disciplinary prosecutor in a civil case (attorney disciplinary proceedings are claimed to be "civil" proceedings) is mandated by the court, in case proceedings are transferred from another court and from a recused prosecutor, to proceed on the original pleadings "as is", without regard whether such pleadings are fraudulent or not. 22 NYCRR 1000.8(a).
So, in such cases, frivolous conduct of prosecutors is mandated by the court? In order to protect the public from attorneys prosecuted for frivolous conduct?
Am I missing something or does it appear at least a little crazy to you, too?
That means that before you bring a claim before the court, you need to conduct a minimum research and investigation to make sure the claim at least is not false.
This is true for both civil and criminal proceedings, but in civil proceedings, unlike criminal, courts can punish an attorney who is bringing false claims before the court, for frivolous conduct and award against the attorney opponent's counsel fees.
Not in attorney disciplinary proceedings in the 4th Department.
Here, a disciplinary prosecutor in a civil case (attorney disciplinary proceedings are claimed to be "civil" proceedings) is mandated by the court, in case proceedings are transferred from another court and from a recused prosecutor, to proceed on the original pleadings "as is", without regard whether such pleadings are fraudulent or not. 22 NYCRR 1000.8(a).
So, in such cases, frivolous conduct of prosecutors is mandated by the court? In order to protect the public from attorneys prosecuted for frivolous conduct?
Am I missing something or does it appear at least a little crazy to you, too?
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