Are immigrant litigants in general and Jewish litigants in particular safe in the courts of upstate New York?
Why?
A report was made to Judge Mulvey, the Chief Administrative Judge of the 6th Judicial District, that a certain court attendant, at a community event dedicated to safety of children, while registering a Jewish child, asked his parent whether the parent knew it was Hitler's birthday that day.
It happened in June, so it could not be Hitler's birthday, Hitler's birthday is April 20th (according to the parent's and my own search on the Internet).
So why did the court attendant ask that question?
To hurt a Jewish person?
To make him feel vulnerable?
Probably, both. There is no other rational explanation as to what brought the court attendant to ask that question.
So what did Judge Robert Mulvey do when he was notified about the actions of the court attendant.
Did he remove that court attendant at least from the court proceedings of that Jewish litigant?
Not at all.
Two months after the complaint, that same court attendant was used by another judge, Judge Kevin M. Dowd, to intimidate the litigant for daring to make a motion to recuse against Judge Dowd.
Judge Dowd, according to the victim, put the court attendant in question, armed, behind the litigant's back and, after harassing the litigant enough, and after having the court attendant search the litigant's bag right in the judge's chambers, the judge recused and then ordered the armed Hitler-loving court attendant to get the Jewish litigant out of Judge Dowd's courthouse - he said "get him out of MY courthouse".
The only "guilt" of the litigant was that he dared to make a motion to recuse Judge Dowd.
Judge Dowd does not own the courthouse.
The litigant had a right of access to that public building at any time during its business hours.
Yet, the same officer who was asking him about Hitler's birthday after registering his child's Jewish name, was ordered by Judge Dowd to remove him from the public building.
So, the question is - if Judge Mulvey did nothing to control behavior of the court attendant and to remove him from proceedings of a Jewish litigant whom the court attendant already attempted to intimidate, was it intentional? Is Judge Mulvey anti-Semitic?
Is Judge Dowd anti-Semitic?
And, returning back to the initial question, are immigrant litigants in general and Jewish litigants in particular safe from harassment and intimidation based on their national and ethnic origins in our upstate courtrooms?
Judging by the behavior of Judges Mulvey and Dowd, and based on my own experience as an immigrant attorney and litigant, in front of these two judges and other upstate judges - I do not think so.
No comments:
Post a Comment