Thursday, February 15, 2007

Our Readers Respond...

Take Action Against Judge


Dear Editor:

In regard to the plight of Ms. Jing, I suggest the following if Judge Schecter continues her illegal conduct after the
next hearing.

1. A motion should be made in the Appellate Division for an Order recusing Judge Schecter from the case by reason of her questionable impartiality. The applicable rule is that “recusal of a Judge is required when the impartiality of the judge is in question.” The record shows that the Judge is not impartial when she refuses to conform to orders of an appellate court.

2. A complaint may be filed with the Committee on Judicial Conduct against the tyrannical Judge for disciplinary
action upon the grounds of her refusal to comply with orders of the appellate court. Further, a habeas corpus proceeding may be commenced in the Federal Court to produce the child by reason of the deprivation of constitutional rights to due process citing the orders of the Appellate Division.

Solomon Abrahams


Three Musketeers Step Up To The Plate

Dear Editor:


At the February 14th Greenburgh Town Board meeting 3 residents of a group home on Chatterton Parkway –Jason Kingsley, Raymond Frost Jr and Yaniv Gorodischer will speak about the need for sidewalks on Chatterton Parkway They all have Downs Syndrome. The “three musketeers” were involved in a petition drive about a year ago –seeking sidewalks. They went door to door. All of the neighbors were enthusiastic and signed in support of constructing a sidewalk along Chatterton Parkway down to Central Ave.

The two holdouts were an elderly man who didn’t want to shovel snow (the boys offered to do it for him) and one man who was concerned about having sidewalks placed on his property.

Jason, Raymond and Yaniv will speak before the Town Board at 7:15 PM on February 14th at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Ave, Greenburgh.

I am very pleased that these three young men are getting involved in the community and hope that the Town Board will consider their request. Last year the Town Board requested Supervisor Feiner to develop a proposed sidewalk policy. The Board has not yet approved any sidewalk policy.

Paul Feiner
Greenburgh Town Supervisor


In Our Opinion...

When Prosecutors Need To Be Prosecuted


Now that the ugly facts regarding the behavior of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office with respect to the prosecution of Mr. Anthony DiSimone for the killing of Louis Balancio some 13 years ago, despite his actual innocence of the crime, and despite the fact that DA Jeanine Pirro had a confession from the actual murderer within six days of the killing, has fi-nally been exposed to the light of day, it is incumbent upon all right-thinking individuals to reflect upon the broader implications of what we now know.

While it is mind-boggling, and very disillusioning to realize that the very of-fice entrusted to protect all of us from crime, and harm, could possibly have engaged in such criminal and harmful behavior as to charge, prosecute, and send to prison for life, a man they knew very well was not guilty, it is most important to realize that such conduct is far from rare. In fact, in the Westchester County DA’s Office, under the Jeanine Pirro Regime, for twelve years, it routinely occurred.

And, the Westchester DA’s Office, while perhaps extreme in its willingness to engage in such reprehensible violations of individual’s Constitutional and Civil Rights, clearly does not stand without peer in its practices. Consider DA Nifong, of North Carolina, and his year-long prosecution of four innocent Duke University students, all the while withholding critical exculpatory DNA evidence.

Prosecutorial misconduct is not limited to state prosecutors, as we have come to realize, from transgressions at every level of federal investigation and prosecution exposed over the last several years. Even so-called ‘special
prosecutors’ have not been averse to violating Constitutional rights in service of whatever agenda they are representing. In a world increasingly driven by media hype and spin, where image has become dominant over reality, the search for truth, and the bringing about of justice, have become secondary, if not illusory, priorities in many prosecutor’s offices, elected, or appointed.

What was ruthlessly perpetrated against Mr. DiSimone by Jeanine Pirro, in concert with her small army of assistant district attorneys, police officers, medical examiners, paid expert witnesses, and loyal press, and media corps, was repeated over and over again, in high-profile case after case; Richard DiGuglielmo, Steven Nowicki, Marci Stein, Jing Kelly, Matthew McKerrick, and the tragic death of Rob Viscome, to name but a very few. And, while the Di-Simone case may have stretched the limits of prosecutorial misconduct to a point that even the most jaded and savvy ‘insider’ would be compelled to denounce, the above-referenced cases are each no less egregious and shocking in their cruel and mindless destruction of innocent people and their families.

It is critical that thinking, caring individuals, entrusted with the power to legislate into existence the necessary safeguards to bring such horrific betrayals of the public trust, and the public well-being, under control, in fact, do so without delay. Specifically, what is desperately needed is federal legislation which calls for the criminal prosecution of any prosecutor, elected, or appointed, state, or federal, who knowingly engages in conduct calculated to deny any accused, regardless of the offense charged, their Constitutional right to Due Process. Such legislation must be firm, carrying both significant fines, and substantial prison sentences. It is obvious that civil penalties, no matter how large the awards, have not been an effective deterrent, because in most instances the actual perpetrator is only marginally harmed, if at all, as governmental bodies, and insurance companies absorb the costs.

We now call upon our congressional representatives, Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, as well as Representatives Nita Lowey, Elliot Engel, and John Hall to express their support for such legislation, publicly. We believe that a confab between Congressional legislators and experts in the field of Prosecutorial Misconduct,
Pace University Law Professor, Bennett Gershman, prominent among them, would be very beneficial and catalytic to the passage of the needed legislation. The Westchester Guardian is anxious to hear from our readers on this most vital subject, and will promptly pass all correspondence along to the above legislators.

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