Completely Legal

Court funding cuts and the effect those cuts have had on New York’s justice system will be among the key topics for discussion at the New York State Bar Association’s 135th Annual Meeting in Manhattan, which starts on Monday.

The week-long conference will include forums on immigration, court funding, representation of veterans, diversity in the legal community and the impact of the Bernie Madoff fraud case on international litigation. More than 5,000 lawyers are expected.

Among those scheduled to address the conference are William Robinson III, president of the American Bar Association; Jack Rives, executive director of the American Bar Association; state Chief Judge Jonathan Lipmann; state Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti; former state Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and former Governor David Paterson. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be presented with the Gold Medal, the Bar Association’s highest award, for lifelong excellence in the legal profession and his civic contributions.

On Wednesday, the conference will feature a panel on the crisis in state court funding across the United States. The Bar Association this week released a report that identified problems with the court system in the wake of state budget cuts, including long delays and postponements in civil and criminal cases, overcrowded court calendars, problems with jury selection and jury service, limited citizen access to legal services and overworked court employees, among other issues. Former state Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye (now of counsel with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom), will moderate a panel of state and national experts on the topic. American Bar Association President William T. Robinson’s keynote address also will focus on court funding.

For a complete listing of speakers, program and events, go to www.nysba.org/am2012. Founded in 1876, the 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest state bar association in the country.

A 30-year-old Mount Vernon man was convicted today of raping his live-in ex-girlfriend and beating her 6-year-old son at least twice last year.

Michael E. Thompson Jr. (right) was found guilty of first-degree rape and three counts of second-degree assault, all felonies, and misdemeanor counts of menacing and child endangerment.

A Westchester County jury acquitted him of two counts of third-degree rape an an additional count of first-degree rape.

Prosecutors say Thompson, who is 6-foot-3 and weighs more than 300 pounds, punched the boy in the mouth, knocking out a tooth. They also allege he beat the boy with an electrical cord, poured rubbing alcohol over the open wounds and dunked his head into scalding water.

Thompson was accused of terrorizing the boy’s mother, who worked in a restaurant, threatening to kill her if she didn’t let him live in her apartment. She said Thompson beat and raped her to keep her under his control.

The woman told no one until Feb. 20, when prosecutors said she finally got the courage to go to the police. The defense claimed the woman’s accusations were revenge for Thompson cheating on her.

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary set sentencing for Feb. 29. The rape conviction carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in state prison, while each assault charges is punishable by up to seven years.

Frank DeMaria (left) taught a move called the “tiger claw” so his martial arts students could defend themselves against attackers. But Westchester County prosecutors say the move, when it involved grabbing DeMaria’s groin, was an excuse to have 8- and 10-year-old girls fondle the 67-year-old kung fu grandmaster at his Croton-on-Hudson studio.

Jury selection began today for DeMaria, an Ossining resident who founded the American Center for Chinese Studies. His felony sex abuse trial will open at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow before county Judge Barbara Zambelli.

He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, both felonies, and four counts of child endangerment, a misdemeanor.

He is charged with abusing four girls, all under 13 years old. Prosecutors say he would have the girls face away from him, reach around and then repeatedly grab, squeeze and pull his penis. While the girls followed instructions, she said, DeMaria would gyrate his hips. Those actions, they argue, is not a legitimate martial arts move.

DeMaria told Croton detectives that his students were taught to grab the eyes, throat and groin of their attackers. He said he taught students to grab the groin when they were in an arm-lock or choke-hold position. When police told him that some of his students complained that he enjoyed being grabbed in the groin, DeMaria reportedly said, “I can’t control what my groin does. It’s a physical reaction, it’s not on purpose.”

Defense lawyer Andrew Quinn said his client, a retired Westchester County police officer, is the third-highest ranked grandmaster of his type of martial arts in the world. He said DeMaria teaches physical street-fighting moves so people can defend themselves, and has demonstrated “tiger claw” defense moves in videos and booklets. Quinn also said the parents and students who sign up for his martial arts courses sign waivers acknowledging that there will be physical contact in the classes.

DeMaria wrote a book on Chang-style tai chi and was head instructor for self-defense at the Westchester Police Academy. He has also taught courses at the State University of New York at Purchase.

The prosecution is continuing to provide a jury with evidence and testimony in the robbery case against Edward Brims, charged with one gun-point robbery of the Ramapo convenience store Guzzles in Hillcrest on Oct. 12, 2010.

Prosecutor Richard Kennison Moran has offered the jury a video of the man leaving the business, as well as police testimony.

Today, Moran planned to provide testimony on the recovery of the gun, following up Friday with a DNA expert testifying that Brims’ DNA was supposedly  found on the weapon.

On Monday, the Guzzles clerk is scheduled to testify about being robbed and by whom.

What Brims lacks in a legal degree, he makes up with street legal training and self-confidence. At one point in January 2011, Brims told Kelly, a former Bronx prosecutor and veteran jurist, “Bring it on

Brims is representing himself in the robbery and faces a potential life sentence in prison if convicted, based upon his previous felony convictions. Ramapo police arrested Brims following a string of store robberies, but he was charged with just one.

Brims, 53, is charged with  first-degree attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and assault. Attorney Martin Gotkin is  his adviser during the trial before state Supreme Court Justice William A. Kelly at the Rockland Courthouse in New City.

What Brims lacks in a legal degree, he’s made up for with  street legal knowledge from the streets and prison. He filed a legal papers in federal court concerning his arrest,  but the judge denied his motion.

He doesn’t lack confidence in the courtroom.

Last January, Brims told Kelly, “Bring it on, judge”  after arguing for nearly an hour that he is qualified and able to mount his own defense. Kelly attempted to convince him that as a career criminal with at least 20 arrests – including seven felony convictions – in New York he would be better off with a lawyer.

Brims responded he understood the seriousness of the charges, but added, “If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down defending myself.”

He told the judge that the charges were as “phony as phony can get,” and “I spent 23 years up in the mountains in jail.”

Brims also told  the judge the legal system is against him because he’s black and his cousin is Belton Lee Brims, who was convicted of the double murder of Arnold and Elaine Sohn in December 1980.  He’s also related to Jerry Lee Brims, convicted of killing Jerry Reed in a 2000 gunfight in Spring Valley.

When Moran asked for $500,000 bail, Brims responded. “That’s not bail, that’s a ransom.”

Photo upper right of Edward Brims

A Thiells home improvement contractor who ripped off a Nyack homeowner for $5,000 received a five-month jail sentenced and a $1,000 fine during an appearance in state Supreme Court in New City.

A jury convicted Jerry Cioffi in October  of stealing the money after not fulfilling his contract in April 2010 to contruct a sewer line at the Nyack home of his customer. Cioffi never applied for permits and didn’t do any work for the $5,000 downpayment on the $10,000 job.

The jury convicted Cioffi and his corporation, Cioffi Services, Inc., of a felony count each of third-degree grand larceny. The jury deliberated for two hours before returning a guilty pleas in October following the trial.

Justice William A. Kelly also sentenced Cioffi to five years probation on Wednesday.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said his office prosecuted Cioffi for grand larceny the New York State Lien Law. Zugibe’s office has used the law to crack down on fraudulent home improvement and other types of contractors.

The law mandates that contractors can only use the money for a home improvement or property contract on that specific project and must maintain separate ledgers for each job. By failing to provide an accounting of how the money had been used and by not returning the money upon the demand of the consumer, the contractor violated the laws, Zugibe said.

Read more on this case Friday at www.lohud.com

The New York State Bar Association’s report about the failing conditions of state courts in the wake of budget cuts is meant to be a wake-up call for state lawmakers who may be considering slashing the Office of Court Administration’s budget even further, Bar President Vincent E. Doyle III (right) told Completely Legal.

“Courts are doing more work with less resources,” he said, noting not only the 12 percent increase in overall caseloads from 2001 but also that foreclosure filings have nearly doubled. “There were years of budget constraints and years of stagnation before the funding cut.”

Doyle said he wants state lawmakers to realize that businesses look at the efficiency of a state’s court system when deciding if it will move to New York or expand its existing operations. If the court system appear overwrought and chaotic, he argued, businesses will leave New York.

“The legal climate in this state is just as important as the economic climate,” he said. ”(State lawmakers) need to look at courts as something more than a line item on a budget sheet.”

It was the day of tear-filled emotional sentencings in the Westchester County courtroom of Judge Barbara Zambelli.

Ex-Eastchester police officer James Pileggi (right) blubbered as he was sentenced to serve 3 to 9 years in state prison for unintentionally killing his friend in New Rochelle two years ago. Pileggi’s tears followed the sobs of Gail Everett, the mother of victim Andre Everett, who called Pileggi “evil” and swore never to forgive him. The prosecution asked for the maximum semtence: 15 years in prison. The defense asked for the minimum: time served with probation. Zambelli, as I predicted, split it down the middle, allowing Pileggi to apply for parole in a little more than two years.

Three hours later,  Francisco Acevedo (left) was sentenced to life for the cold-case serial killings of three women in south Yonkers.  The daughter of one of the victims, who was three when her mother was killed, and the mother of the second victim sobbed as they railed against Acevedo, calling him a monster, an animal, and other insults.

Danielle Hodges of The Bronx, who is the sister of one of the victims, did not speak at the sentencing. After it was over, she said it brought closure. “My sister is finally free,” she said.

Acevedo’s sentencing was delayed because he had not been brought to the courthouse in time from Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, where he is serving a 1 to 3-year stint on a felony drunken driving conviction out of Suffolk County.

There were two other high-profile cases today that were both brief and unemotional. Ex-Mayor Adam Bradley’s ongoing domestic violence case was adjourned to March 5 while the case of Tappan Zee Bridge dangler Michael Davitt was postponed to Feb. 24 in Greenburgh Town Court.

It’s going to be an interesting morning in the local judicial system on Tuesday: a county judge will hand down sentences in two high-profile homicide cases, while the ex-White Plains mayor will be in a nearby courtroom to answer probation violation charges, at the same time as the Tappan Zee bridge dangler will appear in Greenburgh Town Court.

First, the sentencings:

Francisco Acevedo (left) will be sentenced in the murders of three women in south Yonkers over a seven-year period starting in 1989. Acevedo had sex with each of them before strangling them, posing their nude bodies to face upward and fleeing the scene. Acevedo was caught after he submitted DNA in a bid to get early release from prison on a drunken driving conviction. Westchester Judge Barbara Zambelli, who has a reputation for tough sentences, may give him three consecutive prison terms of 25 to life, for a total of 75 to life.

Whatever the sentence, I expect it will be an emotional closure for the families of the women and for John T. Geiss, the dogged Yonkers detective who pursued the cold case for years.

Zambelli also will be sentencing ex-Eastchester police officer James Pileggi (right), who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for the unintentional (but criminally reckless) shooting of his friend, Andre Everett. This is a sentencing with wide options: Pileggi could get as little as probation or as much as 15 years in state prison; it’s completely Zambelli’s call. She could rule down the middle: 4 to 7 years or perhaps 7 to 10. Pileggi’s family vowed to launch a massive letter-writing campaign begging the judge for leniency. The question is, did Everett’s family do the same, urging Zambelli to go the other way?

Down the hall from Zambelli’s court, ex-Mayor Adam Bradley (left) will appear before acting state Supreme Court Justice Susan Cacace on charges that he violated a stay-away order by calling his estranged wife, Fumiko, late last year. Bradley swears he repeatedly “pocket dialed” her by accident. Bradley had to post $10,000 bail for his smartphone snafu. We’ll see what, if anything, happens in the latest twist of this ongoing domestic violence case.

Finally, disgruntled Rockland County resident Michael Davitt (right) will be in Greenburgh Town Court on charges related to his November publicity stunt in which he dangled mid-span from the Tappan Zee Bridge. Davitt, an ex-county employee, is facing several misdemeanors and violations. He worked for the county for more than 27 years before being was suspended in 2008, and then became a fixture at county Legislature meetings, claiming corruption in government. No word on if or when a plea deal is coming., but I’d be surprised if this case goes to trial. My guess is that he’ll plead guilty to one or more of the charges and get a conditional discharge, with a fine, of course.

Convicted murderer Judith Clark is featured in a New York Times Magazine article this week. She’s on the cover, complete with then and now photos.
The article  written an old friend of hers  – investigative reporter Tom Robbins –  is a then and now, as well.

Robbins focuses on the former radical’s life in prison since 1983 and her relationship with her daughter, whom Clark left as an infant on Oct. 20, 1981, to take part in the robbery of a Brinks armored car in Rockland. The article discusses Clark’s positive work with her fellow inmates and her educational growth behind bars.

On Oct. 20, 1981, Brinks guard Peter Paige and two Nyack police officers – Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown – were murdered by a band of self-proclaimed revolutionaries. Brinks guard Joseph Trombino was seriously wounded. Nyack Officers Arthur Keenan and Brian Lennon were injured.
Clark is serving a 75 year to life prison for three murder convictions for a role as a getaway driver in the robbery.Paig was killed at the Nanuet Mall when gunman robbed $1.8 million. O’Grady and Brown were murdered at a roadblock leading onto the Thruway when gunmen burst out of a van driven by David Gilbert with Kathy Boudin as a passenger. Clark drove one of the get-away cars.

The families of those killed have opposed parole for the Brinks participants,  though Boudin was released despite their opposition in 2003 after serving 23 years.

Written by investigative reporter Tom Robbins, a friend who interviewed her several times inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, the article discusses her life as a revolutionary to her personal repentance.
Much of her personal redemption came through her relationship with her daughter, Harriet, who was brought to visit her mother in prison. Clark, according to the article, came to face the reality she not only left her daughter motherless, but the three men killed during the Brinks robbery left behind children who were now fatherless.
At one point, she breaks down after being told: “You can’t cry for yourself and Harriet and not see that the children of the men who were killed cried the same way for their fathers.”
Boudin also left her son with a babysitter to take part in the Brinks robbery. Boudin developed a relationship with her son Cheasa while at Bedford Hills.
Clark has lost federal appeals for a new trial. She argued her rights to fair trail were violated because the judge should not have allowed her to go without a lawyer and boycott the proceeding. At trial, Clark and her co-defendents, David Gilbert, a former Weather Underground radical who fathered a child with Boudin, and former Black Panther Kuwasi Balagoon, considered themselves political prisoners.
She gives a spin to her capture after crashing the getaway car into the wall on Broadway in Nyack near Helen Hayes’ “Pretty Penny.” South Nyack-Grand View Police Chief Alan Colsey, who had pursued the vehicle, said he saw Clark reach for a gun as Sam Brown was injured. Gilbert was asking Colsey for an ambulance. Clark said she re-injured a bad shoulder injury in the crash. They had a standoff with Colsey threatening to shoot them until more officers arrived to aid Colsey.
The article quotes O’Grady’s nephew, John Hanchar, now a Clarkstown cop, saying, “One thing about Judith Clark I will never forget was her smiling face as she was led out of the police station in Nyack into the back of that car.”

Upper Right Photos:

Waverly Brown and Edward O’Grady

David Gilbert sandwiched by Kathy Boudin and Judith Clark in Nyack on the night after their arrest

The New York State Bar Association has introduced a mobile app that gives judges, lawyers, law students and the public at large instant answers to legal ethics questions on their smartphones.

The app contains more than 900 searchable ethics opinions, dating back to 1964, on legal issues in categories from acceptance of employment to zoning board issues. Decisions can be searched by keyword, category or opinion number.

“Ethics questions can arise in many different contexts. The NYSBA Mobile Ethics App will allow judges, lawyers and others to access the opinions of the Association’s Professional Ethics Committee on the spot from the convenience of their mobile devices,” Bar President Vincent E. Doyle III said in a statement. “The State Bar is pleased to provide this service to its members and the legal community.”

This is the Bar’s latest foray into making the law accessible online. Last year, it launched the eLAP website, a secure portal for accessing lawyer assistance information and services. The Bar also improved its website’s search engine and offered its members discount subscriptions to Clio, a cloud-based practice management system designed for solo practitioners and small law firms.

The Ethics app is available on Apple’s App Store, the Android Market, BlackBerry’s App World and on the state bar website at www.nysba.org/ethicsapp.

The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association,  founded in 1876, is the largest voluntary bar association in the nation.