Judicial Reports: LexPress: As the City Council Turns

By Jesse Sunenblick
Posted: 07-06-07 

The courtroom soap opera of a city councilman's aid who threatened to assassinate a political rival trudges along, and a judge grants class-action status to a lawsuit over improper strip searches in Clinton County, among other news.

 
'IF IT TAKES AN  ASSASSINATION OF HIS ASS'
Gotham Gazette continues its coverage of the courtroom soap opera involving Viola Plummer, the chief of staff for black firebrand City Councilman Charles Barron. Plummer recently threatened to kill black Queens Councilman Leroy Comrie's political career — "if it takes an assassination of his ass" — because he abstained from a vote, initiated by Barron, over whether to rename a Brooklyn street after black community hero and reputed racist Sonny Carson. Plummer was first suspended for six weeks by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and was asked to sign a letter stating that she’d behave herself or else be fired. Plummer promptly sued the city for $1 for "severe mental anguish and emotional distress." The matter is now pending before U.S. District Judge William Pauley of Manhattan, who has chastised the city for deciding what’s “discourteous.”

 
MISDEMEANOR BODY HUNT 
Chief U.S. Northern District Court Judge Norman A. Mordue today granted class action status to a lawsuit filed against Clinton County by Phyllis Mitchell, 47, who claims she was illegally strip-searched at the Clinton County Jail in 2003 after being arrested on misdemeanor charges. As reported by The Press Republican, Mordue cited a previous Second Circuit ruling that held that “persons charged with a misdemeanor and remanded to a local correctional facility . . . have a right to be free of a strip search absent reasonable suspicion that they are carrying contraband or weapon.” An additional claim: “There were several hundred people during an eight-month time period that were illegally searched. I’ve talked to a number of people as part of our investigation,” said Mitchell’s lawyer, Robert Keach.

 
RENSSELAER GOP: SCRAP FURLOUGH SYSTEM
Responding to a Rensselaer County prisoner’s shooting of his ex-girlfriend only hours after being released on a one day job-search furlough, the Rensselaer County GOP has vowed to reform the furlough system. The Albany Times Union reports. "This prisoner was judged to be non-violent and then he obtains a gun in one day, travels to Troy and shoots someone? That does not make sense and there needs to be a clear explanation from the state," said Legislator Nancy McHugh. In 2006, 33,998 state inmates applied for the release program and 503 were approved. The state's June inmate population was 63,890.

 
THE CASE OF THE UNREMOVED, REMOVED CHILDREN 
From The New York Law Journal, the story of a judge who refused to dismiss a couple's claim that their constitutional right of intimate association with their children was violated even though the parents never lost physical custody of their adopted kids. Sandra and Donald Oglesby alleged that the Ellenville Central School District invented child abuse charges in retaliation for the couples’ accusation that the school inadequately protected their troubled twin girls from a pattern of self mutilation and sexual deviance. Senior Northern District Judge Neal P. McCurn ruled that this claim was so shocking that he would allow a constitutional suit to go forward. "While many cases make clear that parents have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in the custody, care, education and management of their children . . . the court's research has not revealed a single case where relief was awarded for violation of the right of intimate association without a loss of custody," Judge McCurn wrote. This could be the first.

COMPLAIN TO THE KIDS IN THE COURT
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports on the unveiling of the city’s OmbudsService booths, complaint-gathering stations staffed by college graduates and law students that will open soon in courthouses throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. “The OmbudsService booths collect comments, questions and complaints from citizens called to jury duty to give a better picture of how jury service in New York is working,” said Lee Chabin, acting director of the Citizens Jury Project, a program of the Fund for Modern Courts. The Citizens Jury Project was established in 1995 following the recommendation of the Jury Project, a panel formed by New York State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye to review and reform jury service in New York.

Posted by Jesse on July 6, 2007 09:02 PM to Judicial Reports