Thursday, November 20, 2008
In Our Opinion...
“Dealing With The Devil”
For 12 years Jeanine Pirro was the ultimate authority, the force to be reckoned with in Westchester County; the one person you didn’t want to provoke no matter your guilt or innocence. In point of fact, between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 2005, there was no such thing as “self-defense” and no “accidental killings” in Westchester County. And, nobody, once made a target by Pirro’s office, was ever “discovered to be innocent.” There were only prosecutions of opportunity; a district attorney’s office whose prime requisite was the political advancement and self-preservation of DA Jeanine Pirro.
Her predecessor, Carl Vergari, had ruled with a strong grip for 26 years, having followed Leonard Rubenfeld, who preferred to be a judge, in 1968. Innocent people did go to prison under Vergari. But, he was not the self-serving, psychopathic liar who would follow him. Neither was he married to the most outrageous white collar criminal in the County. Jeanine Pirro quite literally would invent a lie at any moment, one that was calculated to advance her political position, while, at the same time, distracting public attention from hers, and her husband Al’s, criminal conduct and unethical behavior. Despite their corruptive influence, they were known as the “Power Couple”, literally adored by superficial followers,
and an icon-generating, gossipy press; Cindy Adams, Phil Reisman, Janine Rose, et cetera, ad nauseum. She was clearly not a public servant, rather a celebrity whose career and personal capital were built on the practice of extreme prosecutorial misconduct, the confabulation of “facts”, and the constant withholding of exculpatory evidence, not to mention tampering with evidence and suborning of perjury.
For Mrs. Pirro, it was never about a quest for justice, for truth, but, rather, whatever it took to achieve a conviction, even when innocence was obvious and well-established. Unfortunately, her lies and her cruelty, her evil prostitution of justice, resulted in untold numbers of innocent, incarcerated victims, persons such as Police Officer Richard Diguglielmo, civilian Anthony DiSimone, each only recently exonerated, each having served many years in state prison. They continue to be repeatedly threatened with re-prosecution by an equally evil and untruthful successor to Pirro: Janet DiFiore, who knowingly and willfully concealed from DiSimone’s attorneys 376 pages, 52 boxes and miles of exculpatory taped conversation, while sending her Assistant DAs into Federal District Court and Federal Appeals Court to repeatedly lie in the faces of those judges.
Janet DiFiore obviously had no problem with Jeanine Pirro’s mode of operation, having served six years under her. In fact, in 2005, when Pirro, responding to her own polling that informed her she would not win if she ran against Tony Castro for a second time, decided not to seek a fourth term. DiFiore, running for the job, told The Journal News editorial staff interviewing her, that she would give Pirro a grade of A-plus. Given her Pirro-like repeated prosecutorial misconduct, and totally misguided actions to cover up and preserve years of wrongful convictions, We believe she meant it.
Most significantly, Janet DiFiore has dealt with the County’s 43 individual police departments in the same manipulative and political ways Pirro often did, and, in many ways, worse. Her relationship with the Yonkers Police Department, in particular, can best be described as incestuous
and twisted. There can be little doubt, in light of her handling of the Irma Marquez case, and the Rui Florim case, and numerous other less-publicized cases of Yonkers police brutality, including Tina and Mary Bostwick, and Dr. Sherry Bobrowsky, that she is unnaturally tied to,
and beholden to, that department, a fact that goes right to her installation as District Attorney.
However, her wrongful handling of police departments, and individual police officers, has not been limited to Yonkers. Much as her predecessor, she repeatedly uses the power of her office to engage police departments in deals with the devil. Consider her dealings with the Bedford and Mount Kisco Police Departments last year regarding the death of Rene Perez.
As The Guardian observed, she came to court against Mount Kisco Police Officer George Bubaris, with her “tank on empty.” Consider, too, her secretive and disrespectful handling of the shooting death of heroic Mount Vernon Police Officer Christopher Ridley. How different were her dealings with the County Police, the White Plains Police, and Mount Vernon Police Departments, all involved in Officer Ridley’s case; her manipulation and coercion. How different was DiFiore’s conduct as compared with Jeanine Pirro’s manipulation of the Dobbs Ferry Police Department in Police Officer Richard Diguglielmo’s case, in Steven Nowicki’s case, and numerous other cases. Deals with the devil, each and every one.
Our Readers Respond....
On The Eve Of A New Day: In Honor of the American People for the election of President, Barack Obama November 4, 2008.
I looked out onto the eve of morning, with its new day rising for America and behold I saw the image of our President Elect Barack Obama as the peoples’ declaration that America will now strive together as a nation to honor and live up to the Constitution, the Amendments and The Declaration of Independence of these United States!
From a nation constructed from slave labor, I heard the messages from the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware and the District of Columbia that all men are indeed created equal!
From a nation marred with the blood of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Riders and the Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement, I heard the voices of the states of Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and New Mexico proclaimed that we are indeed a United States!
From a nation still haunted by the images of the thousand nameless faces of black men and boys and families hanging from the limbs of southern trees, I heard the calls from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota, that we have overcome and this is the day the Lord has made for the Promised Land!
In a nation once plagued by segregation, I witnessed the coming together of people: in pairs, one-by-one, in groups of a dozen, in clusters of colorful droves: in peaceful assembly for the good and the survival of our nation!
From a nation where two hundred and twenty-one years ago, the founding fathers documented in the United States Constitution that slaves were to be counted as three-fifths of a human being, I heard the resounding echo from the southern states of Virginia, Florida and North Carolina, that this time of judgment is based on knowledge, character and capability!
In a nation still riddled with racial prejudice, hatred and fear, I saw the writings on the wall from the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and Hawaii that read, this man Obama, is the only qualified applicant for the post of Commander in Chief!
And then he spoke accepting his calling and I heard him proclaimed in a brilliant, righteous, commanding fashion “This Is Your Victory.” Then it all made sense, this is the victory of Rosa Parks, of Dr. King, of the Freedom Riders, and the Foot Soldiers, of John F. Kennedy of Robert Kennedy – it is the victory of the countless every day people who sacrificed their lives for justice and equality – it is the victory of every American today!
Congratulations America, we’ll teach the world to fly again!
Joan Wong
New Rochelle
Helping EMS Save Lives Is the Responsibility of Every Business
Dear Editor:
Every day, nearly 1000 Americans suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Chances for the victim’s survival decrease by 10% every 60 seconds after the attack. If the attack happens in your store or your office, you are the victim’s best chance for survival. It doesn’t require a healthcare professional. You can help save this person’s life, with the establishment of an early defibrillation program.. Finding out how to incorporate an early defibrillation program into your workplace is your public-health responsibility.
You’ve probably seen what SCA looks like on TV. But when it happens to someone right in front of you, whether to a loved one or a stranger, a work colleague or a customer, it is a sight you never forget. More than anything, you want to help.
Most commonly, the victim is suffering from a heart rhythm disorder called “ventricular fibrillation.” In this case, the victim needs defibrillation—which is an electrical shock to correct the heart’s rhythm—and they need it as soon as possible.
Defibrillation is delivered through a device called an automated external defibrillator, or AED. The latest AEDs are remarkably simple to use. With minimal training, anyone can be a lifesaver. The lightweight devices talk you through the rescue. They show you pictures to remind you how to
proceed. They sense whether the victim needs CPR or defibrillation, and they tell you how to deliver either. They have also become very
affordable, a recent development that makes widespread early defi-brillation a real possibility at last.
Wherever it is instituted, Public Access Defribrillation is a stunning success story. Placed in airplanes, airports, casinos, hotels, office buildings,
malls, restaurants, retail stores, and other public places, AEDs are saving lives all over the country. They are far more successful than CPR alone, increasing survival rates up to 70%. If you work in an office, a store, a mall, or a restaurant, you should have a defibrillator, and you should know how to use it. You have a fire extinguisher and smoke alarms. You have a telephone to call the police. You have a first-aid kit. You should have a
defibrillator. You owe it to your employees, your customers, and yourself to find out more.
Lenny Nathan
Reader Supports Gov. Paterson
Dear Editor:
I read your article regarding Governor Paterson’s cuts in government spending, which I am in total agreement with. You cited our nuclear facility.
Will you tell me, when was the last time that facility was attacked? You pointed out how our National Guard was protecting that facility, well maybe you don’t know, the National Guard is a civilian entity that has military training, basically to protect a certain group in our society. I know this to be true because I helped train them when I was in the Army.
They sleep on the job; the Governor can get anyone to work at Readers Respond, continued from page 4 Indian Point, make a few rounds and then go to sleep. There are approximately 95 or so personnel up there, and the cost is approximately $6,500,000 per year, which comes to about $75,000 per person. Only the commanding general should be paid that kind of money.
If the Governor sees fit to make any cuts he so chooses, you, like me, should give him our full support without question, because he has thought it over very carefully. He is not like your usual politician; he would not do anything without thinking it through first. I have lived under a lot of different Governors since Augustus Caesar, and they all was as crooked as an ess, without foresight or insight, and they made all kinds of
mistakes on top of greed and theft of public funds. Now we have a genuine down-to-earth individual, let us give him all the support we can.
Eddie Sauls, Sr.
Mount Vernon
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