The Court Report/Janet Difiore.

Thursday, May 7,2009

The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

District Attorney Who Repeatedly Prosecutes
Victims Of Police Brutality Recognizes
National Crime Victims’ Rights Week

Last week, motivated by the fact that it was National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, DA Janet DiFiore placed a table and poster, with literature, in the lobby of the Westchester County Courthouse, ostensibly for the purpose of disseminating information to Westchester victims of crime.

Having gone to court on Thursday to cover ongoing developments in a 15-year-old murder case, this reporter spotted the table upon leaving, and wished to photograph and publicize its existence.

We were informed by court officers that we would need to obtain explicit permission from the Administrative Judge, Francis Nicolai, in order to take any photographs within the courthouse. We went looking for Judge Nicolai, who was in the midst of dealing with calendar issues, with a long line of attorneys and judges awaiting his attention.

However, to his credit, when he emerged from a conference with one of those judges, he graciously took a moment to listen to our request, and granted permission within ten minutes, notifying us of his decision and informing the court officers
in control of the lobby floor through his assistant, Joe Ranieri. We were pleased with the Judge’s promptness and courtesy.

We were particularly anxious to photograph the DA’s display in light of her appalling record, over the last three years, actually prosecuting several innocent victims of police brutality such as Irma Marquez, Rui Florim, Sherry Bobrowsky, Tina and Mary Bostwick, and, literally, dozens of other similarly abused victims who have come forward in Yonkers since The Guardian first began exposing cases of police brutality in that city back in September of 2006.