Our Readers Respond...

Open letter to Mr. Richard Blassberg, Editor of the Westchester Guardian

CC: NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct; Eliot Spitzer, Governor of the State of New York; Honorable Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge; Honorable Ann T. Pfau, Chief Administrative Judge; Francis Nicolai, Administrative Judge, 9th Judicial District

Dear Mr. Blassberg,

I’m writing to you in regards to the article “Blue Ribbon Panel Delivers White Papers DA Asked For” from the July 12 issue of The Guardian. In your article you revealed the name of the former Assistant DA Robert Neary among the four main wrongdoers in the conviction
and imprisonment of innocent Jeffrey Deskovic. In your article you correctly stated that at present Mr. Robert Neary acts as an appointed NYS Supreme Court Judge.

I believe that you are aware that Mr. Robert Neary run three times unsuccessfully in elections for Westchester County and NYS
Supreme Court Judge and was recently appointed as a Supreme Court Judge by governor Pataki. What strikes me is the fact that you stopped here. I have a couple of questions to you:

1. Do you feel comfortable that one of the guys who took away 16 years from the life of young Jeffrey Deskovic (and most probably
contributed to the murder of Pat Morrison) is now acting with full immunity under the guise of a Supreme Court Judge?

2. Do you think that having Mr. Neary on the judicial bench does not represent an imminent danger to the life and property of
Westchester County litigants?

3. Do we need to wait until the wrongdoer does a major strike (of the magnitude of wrongful conviction of Mr. Deskovic or the murder of Pat
Morrison) in order to take measures to prevent him from doing wrong.

4. What do you think is the role of journalism and in particular of The Guardian - keeping it cold blooded and report the events post
factum (just like the investigative panel appointed my the Westchester DA) or taking a proactive role in uprooting the public corruption and
helping the society. Curious to know your stance.

My personal believe is that Mr. Neary needs to be suspended immediately from his position. Of course he might challenge the investigative
panel’s report and if he proves that he didn’t do anything wrong he can be reappointed to the Supreme Court. I’m sure you can do better.

Thank you in advance for your response,

Peter Petrov, White Plains

Editor’s Note: Mr. Petrov’s letter is misdirected. Perhaps his inquiry would have been more intelligently directed to any one of, or all of, the five sources to which he CC’d his letter to us, and then CC’d to The Westchester Guardian, if he so desired. Nevertheless, since he directs four specific questions to us, We will attempt to address each one of them.

1. Given the fact that The Guardian publicly revealed former ADA Neary’s up-until-now publicly-concealed role in the sordid Deskovic
affair, we believe the answer to this question is obvious.

2. Despite the awkward way in which he phrases this question, suf-fice to say We have never endorsed Mr. Neary’s judgeship.

3. It is difficult to know who the “we” that Mr. Petrov makes reference to, actually is. However, We, The Westchester Guardian, believe
that We have been fulfilling our obligation under the First Amendment by exposing the truth, and, that is the “measure” that We have taken
and will continue to take on behalf of the People of Westchester.

4. As regards “taking a pro-active role in uprooting the public corruption and helping society,” as Mr. Petrov refers to it, We would wonder
if he is aware of any other weekly Westchester newspaper that has been more pro-active?

Finally, We appreciate Mr. Petrov’s assurances in his statement, “I’m sure you can do better.” In fact, We are striving to do better all the time.

In Our Opinion...

When Larry Met Larry


Last week’s resignation by State Supreme Court Justice Larry Horowitz, while disconcerting and surprising to outside observers, raising eyebrows in polite circles, actually had its origins in a deal struck with the Devil six years ago. In 2001 when Larry Horowitz, an unknown struggling attorney, met with Larry Schwartz, Andy Spano’s Deputy County Executive, and agreed to be the Republican “fall-guy
candidate” to run against Andy, a process was set in motion that would ultimately devastate Horowitz’ professional career.

In exchange for playing the stooge Horowitz was guaranteed an appointment to a County Court Judgeship the following year, which he received, and then used as a springboard to run for State Supreme Court in 2003. The whole deal was very fraudulent, and obvious to most political observers. And, just in case any voter was naïve enough to miss the fix, the last Republican mailer for countywide offices, just
before Election Day 2001, showed the faces of three candidates against the background of the ballot, Jeanine Pirro for District Attorney, Len Spano for County Clerk, and Andy Spano, a Democrat, for County Executive. Larry Horowitz was nowhere to be seen.

Horowitz was uncomfortable in his position as a judge almost from the very beginning, expressing disillusionment and regret for having left private practice. Things apparently were not going too well on the home front either, and perhaps it was inevitable that something would give out under the weight of it all. Larry Horowitz, ostensibly a decent, likable, fellow before his entanglement with Larry Schwartz
and the political dregs of Westchester, having been badly sullied by his involvement with them, hopefully will find the strength and the courage to acknowledge his mistake, and pick up the pieces of his career returning to private practice.

• • •


Schwartz’ Revenge In Greenburg

It would appear that Suzanne Berger has learned nothing from Larry Horowitz’ sad experience with Larry Schwartz. Last week’s “spontaneous gathering” of misguided local Democrats, supposedly in support of Berger’s candidacy for Supervisor of Greenburg, was, in actuality Schwartz’ political payback against Supervisor Paul Feiner who stood up for the residents of Greenburg several months ago, refusing to permit Schwartz to install a so-called “Homeless Drop-In Shelter” behind the headquarters of the County Department of Public Safety, in Hawthorne, in violation of a contract between the Town of Greenburg and the County of Westchester banning such institutions within less than two miles of any other shelter. In Mr. Schwartz’ twisted mentality Supervisor Feiner’s first allegiance should be to him, Schwartz, and not to Feiner’s constituents.

By standing firm, and holding the County to its contractual commitment, Mr. Feiner demonstrated the kind of courage, and dedication to the well-being of the People of Greenburg, very rare in public officials these days, particularly here in Westchester. It is obvious to us that Ms. Berger has now demonstrated that she is all too willing to cozy up to Larry Schwartz and his evil agenda. No doubt, there is a commitment of Democratic County Committee funds, -monies which have been totally, but wrongfully, under Schwartz’ control for many years now- to her campaign.

But, We digress; the subject of monies raised for many years, by Democrats in Westchester, and their misuse to promote election fraud, and to betray the intentions of contributors, will be the subject of another writing, in the near future.