Yet another reversal - on the law - of the "move up or move on" judge John Lambert of Otsego County Court

On October 22, 2015 Judge Lambert, of Otsego County Court, was reversed - again, and reversed on the law - again (and criminal indictment dismissed), which is pretty bad for a judge.

It means that Judge Lambert did not do his job and allowed Otsego County to waste money on a trial that did not have to happen, Judge Lambert had to dismiss the case and not to allow it to go to trial - which, of course, Judge Lambert did not do, because he was catering for his former boss, Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl.

So far, Judge Lambert has 16 reversals and modifications, most of them on the law, over the period of 2011 to 2015, less than 5 years. That is more than 3 reversals per year, which is pretty bad for a judge.

The latest reversal is of a much publicized case of the alleged fraud by an insurance broker - who is now vindicated, and his insurance licenses in various states revoked because of the criminal proceedings will have to be restored.

All of that injury to the insurance broker Mr. Michaels did not have to happen, had Judge Lambert done his job.

Yet, Judge Lambert not only did not dismiss a legally insufficient case before trial, but, after an improperly obtained conviction he denied Mr. Michaels bail and sent an over-60 individual to jail making him to have to hire counsel to apply for bail pending appeal from the appellate court.

This reversal is extremely embarrassing for Judge Lambert and is showing him in a very bad light, as an incompetent judge who should be handling criminal felony cases.

This is not the first felony case I am aware of that Judge Lambert handled where Judge Lambert cavalierly denies pretrial motions and forces people into plea bargains by forcing them into trial and threatening to sentence them to prison for a maximum time or to any time if the whole idea of prison can coerce a person to plea.

So, Judge Lambert is a "move up (appeal) or move on (accept it)" judge - that's what he and his court attorney Mark Oursler regularly tell people when they point out the judge's mistakes that can be corrected in the judge's own courtroom, without forcing people to go for costly appeals.

Also, Judge Lambert is, apparently, a wrongful conviction judge who is regularly reversed on the law, which means he does not know the law and should not be presiding over ANY cases, and especially cases where child custody and people's liberty and criminal records are at stake.

Here is the record of Judge Lambert's reversals so far:

Date of reversal	Name of case	Name of lower court	Why reversed
1. January 6, 2011	Estate of Susie M. Walker, deceased	Delaware County Surrogate’s Court	On the law, the court erroneously granted a summary judgment to an objector and refused to accept a will for probate
2. February 17, 2011	Matter of Daniel M. v Lois L.	Otsego County Family Court	Reversal of denial of restitution to the victim of domestic abuse, Article 8 petition
3. October 27, 2011	MICHAEL PETROLLE,       v SHAWN GLAVIN,	Otsego County Court	Judge Lambert, on an appeal from a town court, improperly reduced the amount awarded on a defendant’s counterclaim, the amount was restored.
4. February 16, 2012	CHARLOTTE BERGSTROM v.              ROSE McCHESNEY	Delaware County Supreme Court	Lambert wrongfully denied a motion for a summary judgment in an action to quiet title to a parcel of real property where there was no rebuttal by defendants.
5.  October 18, 2012	Matter of Ryan Ruple v Shannon Harkenreader	Otsego County Family Court	Reversed the order to the father released from prison to engage in education and therapy as condition precedent to unsupervised visitation of the child, reversed denial of father’s access to school and health record of the child
6. October 17, 2013	Delaware County v Leatherstocking Care LLC	Delaware County Supreme Court	Judge Lambert wrongfully denied a motion to dismiss a fraud claim and wrongfully granted motion to dismiss unjust enrichment claim
7. April 3, 2014	People v Emanuel P. Medeiros	Otsego County Court	2 counts of the indictment vacated and remanded for a trial, on the law, for failure of Judge Lambert to advise the jury about the law of accomplice liability
8.  April 3, 2014	People v Cody Fancher	Delaware County Supreme Court	A conviction for criminal mischief reversed because People failed to satisfy an element of value necessary for a felony conviction
9. July 3, 2014	Frederick  Babcock	Delaware County Supreme Court	On the law, the court erroneously allowed the plaintiff to serve a late notice of claim
10. July 3, 2014	Town of Delhi v Ernie Telian	Delaware County Supreme Court	Judge improperly dismissed the lawsuit, the lawsuit was reinstated
11. October 16, 2014	Bufton Clark, Inc. v Hillside Companies, Inc.	Delaware County Supreme Court	Judge Lambert wrongfully granted to plaintiff a motion for partial summary judgment, with damages, vacated.
12. October 16, 2014	In the Matter of RICHARD W.    HOYLE JR., VICKI SALISBURY HOYLE,                     Appellant.	Otsego County Family Court	Judge Lambert improperly granted a child support petition despite an existing stipulation precluding the filing of such a petition, reversal on the law
13. January 8, 2015	Macaluso v Macaluso	Delaware County Supreme Court	Equitable distribution in a divorce action is modified, on the law, and the matter remanded back to court because the judge, in a bench trial, attributed defendant husband’s the totality of pension and his home bought before the marriage as marital property.
14. January 8, 2015	Melissa Beardslee v Calvin Beardslee	Delaware County Supreme Court	Judgment modified – Judge Lambert wrongfully denied to defendant husband in a divorce action separate property contributed to payment of marital debt
15. January 22, 2015	People v John Tubbs	Delaware County Court	Risk level III for a sex offender not supported by clear and convincing evidence – or by any evidence, risk level reduced to level II
16. October 22, 2015	People v Norman J. Michaels	Otsego County Court	On the law, and the indictment dismissed, a finding of fraud beyond the reasonable doubt could not be made by any reasonable jury that defendant had intent to defraud where no documents prohibiting issuing insurance policies for people outside of the region existed