#JudgeRosa, why bother? Part VI. The fraudulent "drug court" sail into judgeship.

 This is Part VI of the series about the re-election campaign of Judge Gary Rosa, currently of Delaware County Family, County and Surrogate's Court.

Part 1 is here.

Part II is here.

Part III is here.

Part IV is here.

Part V is here.

In his re-election campaign, Judge Rosa, as did judge Carl Becker before him, tries to use the so-called "drug court" as a sail into judgeship.

He doesn't have to use any sail into judgeship, because, as I exlained in Part I, he runs unopposed and thus only needs his own vote to get "reelected".

But, he puts out the misinformation about the "drug court" nevertheless, and that fraud needs to be addressed.

First of all, here is the full transcript of an interview given by Delaware County District Attorney Shawn Smith when he tried to quickly bow out of that same "drug court" a week after a squatter/apparent confidential informant was found dead - who was put into our house to destroy it, intimidate our daughter and to run a drug surveillance operation and fentanyl lab for the County.

Despite the fact that Shawn Smith is once again, sort of, good and dandy with Judge Rosa with drug court, the issues raised by him in the interview did not go away, and remain tainting the claims of Judge Rosa as to the project's alleged wholesome goodness.

You can read the transcript here.  I have personally transcribed the interview from an audio file that I downloaded from DA Smith's official Facebook page.  

I also did some investigation, including through FOIL requests, of what exactly the "drug court" is.

I found out that, first, it is, very simply, not a "court", as Judge Rosa claims it to be.  It is a project based on federal grant that does not qualify as a "court" under New York State Judiciary Law, and, as such, all claims that it is a "court" are illegal.

Moreover, many participants of the "drug court" claimed that they participate in such "court" on consent and based on a "contract".

My efforts to receive a copy of the "contract" through FOIL from Delaware County and the New York State Office of Court Administration (NYS OCA) were so far unsuccessful.

I FOILed Delaware County Public Defender Joe Ermeti, Delaware County District Attorney Shawn Smith and Delaware County Sheriff Craig Dumond for documents indicating existence of a contract upon which they participate in "drug court" - which was publicized many times in the local press.

No such "contract" was produced.

Both Delawrae County Attorney Merklen and the NYS OCA give me currently a runaround as to the "drug court" documents, now claiming that they are wholly and entirely "private".

Moreover, these entities claimed to me that, even though court proceedings MUST be public, according to Judiciary Law 4, the "drug court" is covered by federal privacy regulations because it is - guess what? - a patient treating facility.

I wonder where is Judge Rosa's medical degree to run such a "patient treating facility", and in the Delaware County courthouse, no less.

In other words, dear voters, the "drug court" is a grant-eating sham spewing into the community violent criminals and drug dealers, as DA Smith explained in his radio interview in great detail.

And judges, such as Rosa now, should stop using this project to sail onto the bench on its coattails.

Because it stinks.

Judge Rosa, why bother? Part V. Buying votes by false promises and then denying it in judicial decisions. And - the 3R revisited again, on the revolving door of recusal-re-entry-retaliation, Judge Rosa's version

This is Part V of the series about the re-election campaign of Judge Gary Rosa, currently of Delaware County Family, County and Surrogate's Court.

Part 1 is here.

Part II is here.

Part III is here.

Part IV is here.

I wrote about this particular episode in 2017, here.

Some time before the judicial elections of 2015, on a sunny day at the square before the courthouse of 3 Court Street, Delhi, NY, Gary Rosa, at that time not a judge yet, was talking to two voters.

Gary Rosa needed their votes badly, and tried to get them at any cost.

The voters told him about a particular Family Court case and about criminal shenannigans of Judge Carl Becker there.

Gary Rosa puffed up and stated that "he would never do something like that", that "if elected, he would be neutral and show integrity".

About THAT PARTICULAR CASE.

That did not happen in reality.

Once Gary Rosa obtained votes from these two voters, he GOT ASSIGNED to the case that he discussed out of court with them, promised a different outcome to them, and got their votes based on that promise.

And, he repeatedly acted Becker-like in that case against the voters who he swindled.

When I made a motion to recuse Rosa after he got assigned to my personal motion and produced a decision against me before I could contest his assignment, and when I pointed out the episode with getting the vote from the party in the case with promises about this particular case, Judge Rosa saw red.  In the motion to recuse, I asked for an evidentiary hearing, where I would call Judge Rosa and the two voters to testify.

Judge Rosa, instead:

(1) granted the motion to recuse and recused - without vacating his improper prior decision, which is the going practice of New York State judges in general.  The granting of the motion precluded me from appealing the decision, and mooted my request for an evidentiary hearing.

At the same time, Judge Rosa 

(2) claimed in the same non-appealable decision that barred an evidentiary hearing where Rosa would have had to testify, that I lied about him.

It was reported to me recently that the local so-called "legal community", specifically, an attorney out of Delaware County Public Defender's Office Russell R. Kassner, coincidentally, a specialist in Intellectual Property, assigned to represent clients in Family Court with predictable abysmal results, has been spreading defamatory rumors about me, a person this attorney never saw and does not know personally, that I am "lying to courts".

The "lying" part was specifically based on Judge Rosa's retreating statement in his decision GRANTING my motion to recuse in order to prevent me from appealing and in order to moot the evidentiary hearing, cancelling the need for Judge Rosa to testify about his fraudulent voter solicitation practices.

Therefore, I was mildly amused when this particular judge was grandstanding in his re-election campaign about the importance of judicial integrity and neutrality.

And - you know under which circumstances the fearless attorney Kassner was accusing me, behind my back, of "lying to courts"?

Oh, no, one can't make it up.

When one of the described voters in question, a party in the proceedings to which Judge Rosa GOT RE-ASSIGNED HIMSELF AFTER RECUSAL!!! - asked Attorney Kassner, her assigned counsel, to make a motion to recuse the damned sucker because HE ALREADY RECUSED FROM THE CASE and had no right to re-enter the case from which he recused.

I wrote on this blog about the practice of New York State judges to re-enter cases from which they recused in order to retaliate against individuals who reported judges to authorities for misconduct or sued them, here, and here.

The practice is alive and well today with Judge Rosa.

Judge Carl Becker did the same as Judge Rosa did - in the same very case, Family File # 6995 and in one other case, Family File # 9197.

I am in possession of two orders.

One is an order of recusal of Judge Rosa from the entirety of proceedings in Delaware County Family Court case, File # 6995, dated February 2017.

The other is an order of 2025, showing that Judge Rosa re-entered the case after recusal and has been trying to put the voter who outed him for his fraudulent solicitation of votes in jail, repeatedly.

Moreover, upon information and belief, after recusal and reentry, Judge Rosa repeatedly hurt the voter's child, to the point that he attempted to bar her school attendance, which required the voter to file - and win, pro se - a writ of mandamus against Judge Rosa in the Appellate Division.

So much for the promise to the voters on that sunny day in 2015 to be different from Carl Becker.

Judge Rosa is a contemptible cheat and a coward.  A grandstanding one.

#JudgeRosa, why bother? Part IV. How much does it cost to buy this judge's favor? It depends, right, Nancy Deming?

This is Part IV of my series about Judge Gary Rosa's fraudulent grandstanding in his "re-election" campaign.

Part I is here.

Part II is here.

Part III is here.

Now let's address the issue that Gary Rosa runs on - judicial neutrality and integrity - head on.

Does Judge Rosa have any of these?

I doubt it.

First, there is a sticky issue of Nancy Deming.

She is no longer Gary Rosa's law clerk, I have heard, because of an illness.  But, she was judge Gary Rosa's law clerk from the very beginning of his first term, and for many years - and that is a problem that I have written about at the time Gary Rosa was running for the first term, and after that, when Rosa was elected and already acted as a judge.

Nancy Deming was the usual version of the local political hack of an attorney.

She sat on the local school board while her son was there, to protect her son in case anything comes amiss.

When she started to hurt financially in the local tough market of legal services - because she was no good as an attorney, and I know it because our law office beat her many times in court, often on law school student issues - she devised a simple plan:

(1) make a judge;

(2) have a salary, benefits and pension through that judge;

(3) wag the judge for the benefit of her attorney husband.

The plan worked like a charm with Gary Rosa.

Nancy Deming sat on the "judicial qualifications committee" in the 3rd Department - and made the judge, by recommending him.  Item (1) checked.

I was still in New York, and in Delhi, when Gary Rosa's first campaign started, and I saw that Nancy Deming clung to Rosa like glue, was always seen around with him.

As a result of her judge-making, Rosa was elected, and - voila - Nancy Deming got a law clerkship from him.

She no longer had to pay rent for her law office on Court Street, or try to get clients in order to survive with her substandard legal skills, or figure where to get medical insurance.  It was all given to her by the judge she newly-minted, on a silver platter.

Now she could use her substandard legal skills to write judicial decisions for the judge who she helped making, including through the 3rd Department judicial qualifications committee, and on the campaign trail.

Now she could wag the judge for the benefit of herself and her husband, James Hartmann, who still at that time was alive and active in legal practice in the area.

And DID she wag the judge!  I wrote about it, too, for more, just word-search Nancy Deming and James Hartmann on this blog.

Items (2) and (3) checked.

Rosa is also a very vain man.  Unlike Judge Hubbard who realized his, let's say, lack of legal abilities, and hired, immediately on taking the bench, a brilliant lawyer for his law clerk, Erin Neale, Rosa did not need his law clerk to outshadow his own modest legal abilities - hence, Deming was a great choice.

The problem with the above setup is simple - this judge can be bought, and was already bought.

If that happened in the past, that will continue happening.

We do not know, and likely will never know what it took Rosa, money wise, and promises wise, to get elected the first time.

We do not know, and likely will never know what it took Rosa, money wise and promises wise, to get on the ballot as "unopposed" this time.

But a judge that can be bought is bad news for the next 6 years.

Especially when he knows he was bought, retaliates through his judicial decisions against people who publicly pointed that out, and will be doing it in the future.

Because... bought integrity is not integrity, is it, Gary Rosa?

#JudgeRosa, why bother? Part III. When will political candidate's incomplete term fraud upon taxpayers end?

 This is Part III of my pre-election series of articles about the "election" campaign of the sitting Family, County and Surrogate's Court judge Gary Rosa.

Part I is here. 

Part II is here.

I have a question to taxpayers and voters in Delaware County, New York.

Why does the State of New York even allow candidates to run when it is clear from the candidate's age - as it is clear from Judge Rosa's - that the candidate will not be able to serve the entire term in office, which will require early re-election costs imposed on taxpayers?

As a result of ... let's say, inactivity of the local lawyers, Judge Rosa is running for re-election unopposed.

Which means exactly this - the result of such an "election" is a given, the local area will be saddled with Judge Rosa for additional ... well-well-well - what is the "truthful" local press not reporting here? About its own "Democratic" candidate?

Let's see.

Here is the official attorney registration information of Judge Gary Rosa on the website of the New York State Unified system:

Based on this - official - information about Judge Gary Rosa, let's count on fingers.

Attorney Rosa was admitted to practice law in 1986.  Given that people graduate from high school at 18, from college at 22, and from law school at 25 (at the minimum), that puts Gary Rosa's date of birth at 1961, at the minimum.

Thus, Gary Rosa will turn 70, the mandatory age of retirement for New York State judges, at the very least in 2031.  

Thus, out of a 10-year term that he is running for he will only be able to serve 60% of it, 6 years, and then the poor (in all senses) Delaware County will be saddled with costs of new election on his retirement in at least 2031.

Are you happy, Delaware County taxpayers, for such an additional expense imposed upon you by Judge Rosa?

He is not the only judge recently who did this trick with taxpayers.  Judge Carl Becker did the same - and got off the bench even faster than his mandatory retirement approached, requiring an early re-election in 2015 - when Rosa was elected.

So, wouldn't you think it would take just a little of the self-professed integrity of Judge Rosa to simply NOT run for a reelection where he cannot serve the entirety of the term he is trying to get re-elected to?

To save the local, already struggling, taxpayers the huge expense of the unnecessary early re-election campaign of a new judge when Gary Rosa will be forced to retire?

#JudgeRosa, why bother? Part II. Is it a good idea to repeatedly "elect" judges who can't survive in the outside world as lawyers? Like Gary Rosa?

This is Part II of my pre-election series of articles about the "election" campaign of the sitting Family, County and Surrogate's Court judge Gary Rosa.

Part I here. 

Judge Rosa has put a lot of grandstanding out there in his unnecessary judicial re-election campaign (he is running unopposed, so he needs only 1 vote - his own, to get "re-elected") to profess that he wants to "serve the public" some more.

The truth is uglier - and simpler.

 Here it is.

Gary Rosa's salary over the 10 years on the bench is this:

In the outside world, Gary Rosa was a real estate attorney who was making ends meet, while adding a meager salary of a town justice to that struggle.

The situation with paying clients got only worse since 2015 when he escaped that reality by getting on the bench.

Delhi, NY, the county seat, practically lacks lawyers to represent people in court - and especially to represent them well.

Lawyers who knew anything, left, retired, died, embraced public employment with Social Services or as judicial clerks, or in the Public Defender's office - because, once again, there are no paying clients to support them.

And that would have been the fate of Gary Rosa should he NOT run for re-election.

Please, remember that when reading the "public service" claims of this candidate.

It's all about money, baby.

And that it is a very, very bad idea to "elect", and "re-elect" judges who can't survive as lawyers in the outside world.  A bad lawyer (like Gary Rosa) will never a good judge make.

#JudgeRosa, why bother? Part I. Gary Rosa's vote counts. A lot.

This series of articles is called "#JudgeRosa, why bother" for a reason - Delaware County (NY) Family, County and Surrogate's court judge Gary Rosa is running for re-election in 2025 unopposed.

Which means that he does not need anybody's vote other than his own to get "elected".

Which raises the issue of why Judge Rosa even bothers to have an election campaign where he is repeatedly grandstanding about his non-existent judicial integrity and impartiality, of which I will remind the readers later on in these series, with documents published.

But - in this opening article of the series, I just ask the question - why bother having an election campaign, Judge Rosa?  When your own vote will get you in?

And when will people get fed up with this "unopposed election" sham, especially when such a sham is without a doubt the result of the local quid pro quo agreements between political parties.

So much about judicial integrity.

The Cornell scandall: the judicial system got weaponized to retaliate against my child for my investigation into the quid pro quo court cases

 I had to sue a judge today whom I am also investigating as a journalist in the Cornell quid pro quo scandal.

The "hero"'s name is Judge Mark G. Masler, judge Aherne's friend,  read my two previous articles about her by clicking the articles in the right top corner.

You can read my lawsuit against Judge Masler here.

I am now fighting for the right of the public to be present at motion hearing in court where such motions involve issues of public concern.

This is the 2nd judge I have to sue this year doing the same trick - he schedules a "motion hearing" that nobody asked for, to intimidate a particular person behind closed doors or to concoct a forged transcript with the help of a slave court reporter, then, if members of the public apply to attend the virtual court hearing, he switches a public motion hearing to a closed-door "conference" that parties still have to attend on fear of sanctions.

So, the bulk of "sensitive issues" in the motion, including any misconduct of the judge, is not recorded by the stenographer, and the public is barred from observing the de facto motion hearing because it is now supposedly a "conference ".

I sued to block New York State judges, all of them, including Judge Masler, from ever doing this trick to the public and the press - yes, I am the press - again.

I will cover developments in this lawsuit.

Stay tuned.