Thursday, October 15, 2009
Judgement Day
Judge William Erlbaum will be delivering his opinion later this afternoon in the case of Queens County vs. New York State Senator Hiram Monseratte. Senator Monseratte was one of the two Democratic State Senators who aided the state Republicans in hijacking the state senate for a month earlier this year. Senator Monseratte is on trial for assaulting his long time girlfriend, Karla Giraldo.
After Ms. Giraldo told doctors and nurses at the hospital she had been assaulted, the care-givers were legally obligated to report the incident to police. Once charges were filed, however, she recanted her statement and told police and press that it was all a mistake, and that she fell. Yes, she fell, face first on a broken glass that happened to be in the senator's hand, creating a gouge that went as deep as her cheekbone and required twenty stitches. It can happen to anyone.
Videotape from security cameras in the apartment building where Ms. Giraldo fell onto the broken glass in Senator Monseratte's hand seemed to show the senator dragging Ms. Giraldo down the stairs and to the lobby. In a hurry to take his lady love to the hospital he stopped at the garbage compactor chute to throw a small item into it. The item allegedly was the business card of a man. The Senator allegedly theorized that Ms. Giraldo was considering entering into a non-business type relationship with this man. Ms. Giraldo and the Senator had an argument, which ended with her falling face first on the broken glass. Uh-huh, yes indeed. She fell.
The Senator requested a bench trial. No jury. In my native Chicago, when a high profile individual requests a bench trial, more often than not the verdict has been not guilty. Even in open-and-shut slam dunk cases where the public is expecting a guilty verdict, not guilty has all too often been the result. This especially was going on in the late 70s and early 80s, until Operation Graylord.
Operation Graylord was a justice department sting operation that uncovered a number of judges that were on the take. The most celebrated case was a murder trial of a known operative of The Outfit. Harry Aleman was well known to Chicago police and the Chicago office of the F.B.I. as a hit man and high end thief, employed by a list of Italian-Americans with colorful nicknames. Need I say more? Mr. Aleman allegedly killed a witness in a trial against his employers. This killing was witnessed by a neighbor of the victim, who came forward. In spite of forensic evidence and an eyewitness, Mr. Aleman was found not guilty in a bench trial.
I bring this up because although it is the right of a defendant to request a bench trial over a jury trial, and that defendant is an elected official or a member of a criminal organization, my first reaction is to suspect that the fix is in. Elected officials and mobsters over the years have had a judge or two on the payroll, and it seems to always be a judge that nobody would suspect as being dirty.
Of course, I am not saying that Judge Erlbaum is in any way corrupt. But if Senator Monseratte is found not guilty in the face of testimony from the hospital workers and the videotapes of the security cameras, I will no doubt suspect His Honor, Justice Erlbaum. Time will tell.
After Ms. Giraldo told doctors and nurses at the hospital she had been assaulted, the care-givers were legally obligated to report the incident to police. Once charges were filed, however, she recanted her statement and told police and press that it was all a mistake, and that she fell. Yes, she fell, face first on a broken glass that happened to be in the senator's hand, creating a gouge that went as deep as her cheekbone and required twenty stitches. It can happen to anyone.
Videotape from security cameras in the apartment building where Ms. Giraldo fell onto the broken glass in Senator Monseratte's hand seemed to show the senator dragging Ms. Giraldo down the stairs and to the lobby. In a hurry to take his lady love to the hospital he stopped at the garbage compactor chute to throw a small item into it. The item allegedly was the business card of a man. The Senator allegedly theorized that Ms. Giraldo was considering entering into a non-business type relationship with this man. Ms. Giraldo and the Senator had an argument, which ended with her falling face first on the broken glass. Uh-huh, yes indeed. She fell.
The Senator requested a bench trial. No jury. In my native Chicago, when a high profile individual requests a bench trial, more often than not the verdict has been not guilty. Even in open-and-shut slam dunk cases where the public is expecting a guilty verdict, not guilty has all too often been the result. This especially was going on in the late 70s and early 80s, until Operation Graylord.
Operation Graylord was a justice department sting operation that uncovered a number of judges that were on the take. The most celebrated case was a murder trial of a known operative of The Outfit. Harry Aleman was well known to Chicago police and the Chicago office of the F.B.I. as a hit man and high end thief, employed by a list of Italian-Americans with colorful nicknames. Need I say more? Mr. Aleman allegedly killed a witness in a trial against his employers. This killing was witnessed by a neighbor of the victim, who came forward. In spite of forensic evidence and an eyewitness, Mr. Aleman was found not guilty in a bench trial.
I bring this up because although it is the right of a defendant to request a bench trial over a jury trial, and that defendant is an elected official or a member of a criminal organization, my first reaction is to suspect that the fix is in. Elected officials and mobsters over the years have had a judge or two on the payroll, and it seems to always be a judge that nobody would suspect as being dirty.
Of course, I am not saying that Judge Erlbaum is in any way corrupt. But if Senator Monseratte is found not guilty in the face of testimony from the hospital workers and the videotapes of the security cameras, I will no doubt suspect His Honor, Justice Erlbaum. Time will tell.
