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Thursday, August 19, 2004
Law - Allegedly crooked Brooklyn judge on trial
The NY Times local section reports today, in a story titled "Played in Court, Tapes Show Judge Coaching Lawyer and Taking Cash," that:
Surveillance tapes made last year in a Brooklyn matrimonial judge's office and played publicly by prosecutors for the first time yesterday show the judge, Gerald P. Garson, offering a lawyer detailed instructions on how to argue a case before him. He also assures the lawyer that if he follows them, "The worst possible scenario is a win."In the tapes, Justice Garson tells the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, that he will award his client in a divorce case the rights to a house and uses an expletive to describe how the decision would affect the client's estranged wife. Justice Garson also dictates to Mr. Siminovsky the exact language he should use in a memo to the judge and urges him to charge his client extra for the memo.
The tapes were played yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in the criminal trial of Justice Garson's former clerk and a court officer, who are charged with taking bribes to steer Mr. Siminovsky's cases to Justice Garson.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 19, 2004 05:07 PM
Posted to General Law Related