KAFKA WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS
Financier turned con artist Martin Armstrong was sentenced to five years in prison by Southern District Judge John Keenan after the criminal portion of his trial for heading a ponzi scheme that defrauded Japanese investors of $3 billion, the New York Law Journal reports. But the seven years Armstrong has already spent in prison – on a contempt charge issued by Southern District Judge Richard Owen during the civil trial after Armstrong failed to turn over $14 million in assets he said he didn't have – probably won't count towards his new sentence. As reported by the Law Journal, the civil portion of Armstrong's case sparked a debate about the power of federal judges to jail for contempt, and continues to be vociferously fought by Armtsrong's attorney David Cooper, who argues that the bizarre legal limbo foisted on his client is illegal under the Anti-Detention Act, which states that no citizen shall be imprisoned unless authorized by an act of Congress, and by the so-called "recalcitrant witnesses" act, which gives the power to jail non-cooperative witnesses for up to 18 months. Meanwhile, Judge Owen has been removed from the civil dispute, replaced by Southern District Judge Kevin Castel, who will hold an April 27 hearing on the civil contempt. "I've never seen a criminal case in which defendant has been subpoenaed to turn over the things he stole," said Cooper. "The fact we aren't allowed to talk about seven-plus years in prison for refusing to turn over items he is supposed to have stolen is crazy. If that's the law, it's crazy."

PAY ME MORE OR I'LL SUE
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle offers the latest dish about the judicial pay hike debate – including Chief Judge Judith Kaye's five-step plan for securing the desired raises before the state legislature adjourns in June, culminating in her nuclear solution: a lawsuit. The legislature declined to approve judicial raises at the last moment. According to The Eagle, Justice Kaye will ask majority and minority leaders in the Assembly and Senate to ask their members, either in a joint session or separate conferences, to reconsider the question; invite the governor and the legislative leaders to the Court of Appeals “to discuss the crisis in the courts occasioned by the current impasse over judicial compensation reform”; use Law Day 2007 (April 30) as an occasion to emphasize the importance of “judicial independence, a cornerstone of our great nation, with appropriate judicial compensation at its core"; and consider an independent report by The National Center for State Courts, due May 15th, that will analyze the consequences of New York’s judicial pay freeze, both from a state and national perspective. Referring to the possibility of a lawsuit, Justice Kaye said, “Finally, however uncomfortable I may be, personally or as the head of the Third Branch, with unilateral action to increase judicial salaries, I feel I must leave no stone unturned and must further explore that unprecedented step.”

POLE POSITION
Meanwhile, Niagara County Supreme Court Judge Amy Jo Fricano slammed into a power pole while impaired by pharmaceutical drugs, causing a two-hour blackout for 1,200 New York State Electric and Gas customers in the town of Lockport. See this story in the Lockport Union Sun & Journal for the juicy details of the event, and this one for a bio of the judge, a former Erie County district attorney who colleagues call "a brilliant legal mind." Maybe without the hydrocodone. According to the Union Sun & Journal, a female witness saw Fricano's blue SUV slam into the pole. “My dog started barking,” the woman said. “I looked out the window and the (pole) was dangling. She hit right into it...She drove off as fast as she could."