What is good for the goose, must be good for the gander

I remember a case where two people were prosecuted for alleging to insurance authorities that certain property was destroyed by a lightning.

Individuals were charged with a felony and were eventually convicted on a plea deal.

Porter Kirkwood, a judicial candidate, as well as 19 Delaware County Board members, ok'd a "deal" where a county vehicle was written off at scrap value of $350, according to the audit of NYS Comptroller (see my previous blog post for scans of the audit).

The basis of calculation of value was suggested by the County mechanic.

The vehicle were then sold, at that suggested basis, to the county mechanic's brother, and then resold back to the County mechanic, who drove the vehicle (a 2008 Chevrolet Impala), which obviously suggests that the vehicle was far from scrap.

So, telling the government that a lightning destroyed the value of personal property is fraud prosecutable as a felony.

Telling the taxpayer, because of self-interest, that a good vehicle in drivable condition is scrap, selling it as scrap to a relative of County employee who immediately resells it back to the County mechanic who operated as an assessment expert and made the expert pronouncement that the vehicle is not worth more than "scrap" - and immediately starts driving that "scrap" - is not fraud?

Are we all living beyond the looking glass?

Why isn't Porter Kirkwood, the senior County mechanic, his brother and all board members who approved the "deal" are not yet criminally investigated?

Why are Porter Kirkwood and the Board members not being impeached?

Why do we allow the perversity of justice - where Porter Kirkwood who was just caught red-handed in a fraudulent involvement is, instead of being criminally investigated, running for a judicial office and is being endorsed by various parties and public officials?

Why is Richard Northrup, the County District Attorney who failed to prosecute Porter Kirkwood and who accepted an illegal financial arrangement for Richard Northrup's third prosecutor from Porter Kirkwood's client, the County Board, at the time when Porter Kirkwood AND the Board should have been investigated BY RICHARD NORTHRUP for fraud as a result of the recent audit - why is this prosecutor endorsed and allowed to run for public office?

The very same Board that claimed that the illegal financial arrangement where the third prosecutor was supposed to have his or her benefits paid out of conviction fines was supposed to save taxpayers' money, were blatantly stealing taxpayers money by endorsing deals of selling taxpayer-owned good vehicles for scrap and awarding $129.6 MILLION plus $770,000 to unknown vendors without ANY public bidding!

When such public bidding:

(1) could have saved Delaware County taxpayers millions of dollars when only the lowest bid for the best job would be accepted, after the public bidding, and
(2) could have given job to thousands of local vendors of goods and services.

And Porter Kirkwood who ok'ed these shameless deals is now pretending to have integrity for the judicial office?

Vote against Porter Kirkwood!

Vote for Gary Rosa!

And - I suggest that people should start petitioning the New York State Attorney General and the Governor to impeach DA Northrup and County Attorney Porter Kirkwood for their misconduct in office, to appoint special investigators and special prosecutors of their misconduct, to convene a grand jury to hear their cases - and to file complaints with the Attorney Disciplinary committee requesting their disbarment for misconduct.

People in power must abide by and be subject to the same laws as those against whom people in power enforce these same laws.

Otherwise, the concept of the rule of law and of equal protection of laws is a joke.

Ability to act as if you are above the law is qualification for judicial office? On retired judge Carl Mugglin's blessing of Porter Kirkwood for judicial office

Porter Kirkwood recently posted on Facebook a blessing by retired appellate judge Carl Mugglin, of Walton, NY:

I already wrote about Carl Mugglin on this blog, only in connection with the case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit 10 years ago where the court recognized as "governmental interest" the "right' of the government to hire police candidates with an intellectual level only below a certain level - to allegedly prevent turnover.

In that connection, I quoted priceless words of Carl Mugglin that I will never forget, that he told me, a female attorney, representing a female client who was a college professor, at an appellate conference held after his retirement (he retired in 2007, I was admitted to practice law in 2009, so our paths as attorney and judge could never cross) - "you will dig a hole for your client, Mrs. Neroni, with your intellectual efforts".

My client was shocked, I was shocked by that statement - because it showed that for the settlement officer, a retired appellate judge, intellect in a woman was a negative that will lead to trouble.

Carl Mugglin also dropped at various appellate conferences, where he shared his wisdoms without getting acquainted with the essence of cases and where his role was only to inquire whether parties want to settle (but never coerce them into settlements), the following pearls:

• that Carl Mugglin (a retired appellate judge who was allowed to use the grand jury room in Delaware County Couthouse for purposes of an appellate settlement conference only) allows a private counsel to hold depositions in a grand jury room of the Delaware County courthouse for a private client;
• that it is appropriate for criminal trials to be held in a church;
• that there is a poster in a Cooperstown court about a criminal trial in a church, and that if a criminal trial was held in a church and it was good for that criminal defendant, it must be good to hold a deposition in a church (over objections of non-believer litigants to enter a house of worship under the threat of criminal contempt which is how subpoenas for such depositions are made)

It is interesting to mention that the issue of depositions in a church was not within Carl Mugglin's authority to even discuss or touch upon.  He simply undertook to lecture to a female attorney condescendingly and to use her as a captive audience at an appellate conference to share his unsolicited wisdom.

Carl Mugglin earlier endorsed Carl Becker as a very eligible candidate.

Carl Becker's misconduct was legendary and was subject of at least 9 lawsuits, all of which were dismissed on the basis of absolute judicial immunity for MALICIOUS and CORRUPT acts - without reaching merits of cases.  Such dismissals left Carl Becker's misconduct unaddressed, yet, all lawsuits were brought on sworn statements of plaintiffs and thus at least raise issues whether such misconduct happened.

Yet, Carl Mugglin, himself a retired judge who thinks that women should hide their brains someplace far away from his male pre-eminence to stay out of trouble, while his supported judicial candidate Becker had a well known bias against women, now wants to put on the judicial throne Becker's apprentice who is no better and may be worse.

Carl Becker ran from the bench into the protection of an "early retirement" on July 31, 2015.

Carl Becker announced his retirement, coincidentally, one day before the press-release by the New York State Comptroller about results of audit in Delaware County finding that 8.7 million (!) dollars worth of contracts were given (I wonder whether Becker or his connections had a paw in the contracts), without public bidding, to "third party contractors" - which could not be done without approval of the new County Attorney Porter Kirkwood.

After that announcement, there was no disciplinary investigation of Porter Kirkwood by attorney disciplinary authorities, there was no disciplinary investigation or prosecution of Porter Kirkwood by the other judicial candidate in Delaware County - Delaware County attorney Richard Northrup, for fraudulent award of governmental contracts bypassing public bidding.

Obviously inspired by Richard Northrup's non-prosecution, or, maybe, as a compensation for that non-prosecution, Porter Kirkwood as a County Attorney obviously endorsed the financial scheme under which a new prosecutor in the DA's office is going to be financed out of conviction fines.  Richard Northrup accepted it.

Carl Mugglin cannot pretend he did not know about either one of these illegal deals.  They were well publicized in the County, by the Walton Reporter, his town newspaper.

Yet, now Carl Mugglin is lending the authority of his retired judicial office to endorse Porter Kirkwood as eligible to be a judge - even though the only thing Porter Kirkwood is "eligible" for is to be criminally investigated for his involvement in bypassing the public bidding law in the County's award of 129.6 million dollar worth of contracts in one year only (!) to "third party contractors" (and not only for that).

"The County may not be getting the best value for the disposed vehicles" is the understatement of the century.  It is very obvious fraud upon taxpayers, to be prosecuted by the County District Attorney as a crime.

Porter Kirkwood, remember, approved of such sales and is thus participant in the fraud.

Were Porter Kirkwood, the senior mechanic and the senior mechanic's brother investigated and prosecuted by the other judicial candidate, Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup?  Of course, not.  He was at that point too busy prosecuting the victim of his employee's nephew Derek Bowie for a non-existent crime fabricated by Derek Bowie to escape liability for vehicular assault and attempted murder.

He was also too busy fabricating evidence in that case, and he was too grateful to Porter Kirkwood for the third prosecutor (illegally financed out of conviction fines) to prosecute his benefactor.

Here is another piece out of the May 6, 2015 NYS Comptroller's audit of Delaware County for 2013-2014 (when Porter Kirkwood was a County attorney):

Note the number of annual "procurement" - that's the contracts that were supposed to be submitted to public bidding, but never were so submitted.

I am filing today a FOIL with the Delaware County to verify who were the happy recipients of the "procurement" contracts mentioned in the audit - and will make the information public on this blog.

Porter Kirkwood's predecessor as Delaware County Attorney, Richard Spinney, quickly retired at the end of 2012, just before the auditing period began, leaving Porter Kirkwood to  handle the dirt of backroom dealings, and Porter Kirkwood complied beautifully.

I already wrote in one of my previous blog posts about a trio of buddies:

• Richard Spinney - County Attorney, retired at the end of 2012;
• William Moon - County Commissioner for the Department of Social Services, Porter Kirkwood's client, retired at the end of 2014;
• Carl Becker - County judge, former subordinate of Spinney, friend of Spinney and Moon and former counsel for County Department of Social Services for 27 years, announced retirement on May 5, 2015, retired on July 31, 2015, long before expiration of his term through mandatory retirement

Apparently, Porter Kirkwood did a good job approving contracts in backroom deals, and for that he is supposed to be now given a gift of judgeship and a taxpayer funded enormous salary and pension?

Playing ball with the ol' boys' club, and placing the club rules above the law is what makes Kirkwood eligible, in another judge's eyes, for the bench?

Voters, please, don't be duped.

Vote against Kirkwood int he coming primaries!

We had enough dishonest, sexist, incompetent judges so far.  We do not need more of the same, and worse.  

Porter Kirkwood has just approved 129.6 million of backroom contracts plus $770,000 of no-contract payments in 2013-2014, just read the audit of the NY State Comptroller.  

County Attorney must approve  any county contracts, so there is no question about Porter Kirkwood's involvement here.

Moreover, Porter Kirkwood has just approved, in the summer of 2015, while running for the judicial office, an illegal deal for a prosecutor to be funded out of conviction fines.  He knew it is illegal, yet, he approved it on behalf of the County.

There is no more proof needed to see that Porter Kirkwood does not consider the rule of law as mandatory for himself, and there is no chance that a corrupt County Attorney will miraculously become an honest judge.

The question arises - was Carl Mugglin paid for his endorsement of Porter Kirkwood in this judicial campaign?

I will not put it beneath Porter Kirkwood to do that.  He did not put beneath him to do backroom deals, big time, as the audit discovered, and only Porter Kirkwood's obvious connections saved him from criminal prosecution for fraud, imprisonment for a felony and automatic disbarment.

Porter Kirkwood should be investigated and prosecuted for fraud, not elected as a judge.

Vote against Porter Kirkwood in the primaries and at the general elections.

Vote for Gary Rosa!  He has a record of integrity, while Porter Kirkwood has a record of dishonest deals.

Did Otsego County take a disabled Vietnam veteran's property to give it to a County employee's relative?

I encourage public investigation on the following matter.

A Vietnam veteran Bob Force of Otsego County recently lost his home to, allegedly, a "second bidder" in the auction, Neil J. Fogarty.

That's the same last name as Otsego County public defender Dolores Fogarty.

Neil J. Fogarty paid for the property not immediately, as required by law, but 6 months after the auction - while the homeowner's offer of payment BEFORE the auction was rejected by the County.

Now, a last name "Fogarty" is not as common as, let's say, a last name "Smith".

In view of the potential appearance of impropriety, I encourage my readers from Otsego County to ask their County government - is Neil J. Fogarty related to County employee Dolores Fogarty, and is the suspiciously lenient attitude of the County to Neil J. Fogarty's 6-months-after payment, while the homeowner's before-the-auction payment was rejected, due to that connection?

I would like to draw my readers' attention to the recent results of audit by the New York State Comptroller in the adjoining Delaware County where Delaware County found similar self-dealing by the Commissioner of Social Services Bill Moon where his wife was buying up properties foreclosed upon by the County.  

It is interesting that Commissioner Moon's wife had a different-than-him last name, which obscured the relationship of the bidder to the County official, which makes me wondering, how many deals like that did Commissioner Moon "enjoy" before his speedy retirement.  And how many proceeds did he, potentially, share, with his friends the County Attorney and the County (and Acting Supreme Court) judge to prevent disclosure of self-dealing?

Now the Delaware County introduced a prohibition for County employees and their relatives to bid on County-foreclosed properties.

It is interesting whether Otsego County has a similar self-prohibition.

By the way, the audit of the Delaware County by the NYS Comptroller apparently dug very deep and found that the County provided "insufficient oversight" over $129.6 million dollars worth of annual procurement contracts to third-party providers (that is a politically correct double-speak instead of saying that the County officials - Richard Spinney, William Moon, the current County Attorney Porter Kirkwood), and paid $770,000 to vendors without any written contracts, see the audit here, in other words, County officials gave contracts to their friends without putting them up for public bidding.

Here is also the full report from the NYS Comptroller about the audit of the Delaware County on vehicle usage.

The period under audit was January 1, 2013 to August 15, 2014.

 

Immediately before the audit started and right after it ended, three key players, and also three long-time buddies, who could have a hand in financial improprieties discovered in the County retired - without any accountability for their actions, by the way:

• Delaware County Commissioner William Moon - retired at the end of 2014 (the audit covered the period where Bill Moon was directly involved);
• Delaware County Attorney Richard Spinney - retired at the end of 2012 (the smartest of all, before the audit began);
• Delaware County Judge Carl F. Becker - retired on July 31, 2015 (announced his retirement a day before the press-release about the audit - while there is a clear appearance that he was notified ahead of time about the audit, given his connections and usual back-room dealings).

Do we need an audit in Otsego County, too, to get to the bottom of self-dealings in tax sales of properties that are plucked out of the hands of war veterans and their families and given to people with same last names as County employees (and, in Dolores Fogarty's case, people who are close to Judge Kevin Dowd who presided over tax sale litigation)?

That is an interesting question especially that the property that the disabled Vietnam was veteran Bob Force has lost to Neil J. Fogarty is 111 acres of farmland?

By the way, at an auction of August 20, 2014 Neil J. Fogarty, of Mt. Vision, NY, purchased yet another property at the Otsego County foreclosure sale, for 5 (five) thousand bucks, previously owned by Patrick and Larry Ward, on State Highway 7.

Which makes the question of the interesting last name even more interesting.

And what makes it even more interesting that I found an attorney in New Jersey with this exact name - Neil J. Fogarty.

Attorney Neil J. Fogarty is also admitted to practice law in New York. 

Is it a coincidence or is Neil J. Fogarty a New Jersey attorney and/or is he related to the Otsego County employee, full-time public defender and a person close to Judge Kevin Dowd's law clerk Claudette Newman, attorney Dolores Fogarty?

Let's explore this interesting issue.

I am waiting for your feedback and will do my own investigation.

Stay tuned.

A question to Otsego County taxpayers regarding private practice of Otsego County full-time public defender Dolores Fogarty

I wonder if Otsego County taxpayers want to ask their county government how this

can be harmonized with this

 and 11 pages listing Dolores Fogarty's PRIVATE cases before that.

Do Otsego County taxpayers want to know why their full-time public defender Dolores Fogarty is engaged in a full-time private practice on County time - and, apparently, on the taxpayers' dime, while logging in hours that she spends in court on her private cases into taxpayer-funded pension?

I encourage my readers to file FOIL requests asking for time sheets of Dolores Fogarty as full-time county employees and to write to the New York State Comptroller's office requesting an audit of the Otsego County.

Otsego County, NY, led by County Attorney, wife-of-a-judge Ellen Coccoma, adamantly disobeys New York Freedom of Information Law

I wrote in my previous blog about efforts of Otsego County, led by the County Attorney and wife-of-a-judge Ellen Coccoma, to stonewall requests for public records made by homeowner Maria Ajello and by the Otsego Board's own representative Betty Anne Shrewd.

I would like to now point out how the Otsego County, led by the County Attorney and wife-of-a-judge Ellen Coccoma, openly announces to the public that certain public records are "for County employees only".

Here is the website of the Otsego County, New York.

It says the following about the goal of why the website was even created:

Yet, if you think that Otsego County wants to be inquirer-friendly and abide by State Freedom of Information Laws, you are wrong.
Yet
Below there are two statements: one prominent, the other - not so prominent.

The prominent one announces the sale of "surplus" by the County on Ebay.

The not-so-prominent one announces that County e-mails are for "County employees only"

 

Yet, such a statement is against the law.

Telephone numbers of public officials, including County-assigned and purchased (or paid-for) cell phones AND County-assigned e-mails are public records.

I encourage my readers to file FOIL requests to Otsego County to ask to provide them, within 5 business days, such information.

I request your feedback as to the County's responses to such requests, and I will make my own FOIL requests and will share with you the County's response to them.

Stay tuned.