LETTERS FROM THE BENCH 
A month after Westchester County Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Horowitz resigned amid allegations he’d refused to comply with the terms of his divorce settlement, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct offers an explanation. As reported in The New York Law Journal, the commission announced that Horowitz had, in fact, sought special police treatment for his girlfriend and ordered authorities to investigate the woman's estranged husband, as well as used official court letterhead to write letters concerning personal or family business matters. In a formal complaint filed yesterday, the commission charged Horowitz with two counts of misconduct. Horowitz has relinquished his right to serve again as a judge or judicial hearing officer. Horowitz defends himself against the charges in his answer to the complaint. "The actions which formed the basis for the Judicial Conduct Commission's proceedings were an anomaly, were not undertaken for personal or financial gain and were unrelated to matters he presided over," said Mr. Horowitz's attorney, Deborah A. Scalise. "Unfortunately, he had more than his share of personal issues and ultimately decided to resign from the bench."      –JS


LETTERS TO FEINGOLD 
Meanwhile, the Law Journal counterbalances the Horowitz piece with news that Eastern District U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf, whose nomination to the federal judiciary was held up after Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-Wisc.) accused her of overzealously pursuing the death penalty, has overcome that obstacle and will be considered by U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week. "I am satisfied that Ms. Mauskopf has not over-zealously pursued the federal death penalty as U.S. attorney," said Mr. Feingold, after Mauskopf had handed over documents that revealed how many times she had recommended that her office seek a death sentence. "Her record is in line with previous U.S. attorneys in her district."         –JS

 
LONG ISLAND RACE CASE GETS INTERESTING 
In what is sure to be a racially charged, taxing trial, the black Long Island man charged in the shooting death of what The New York Times describes as a “white youth who had followed his teenage son home after a racially tinged quarrel at a party,” has foregone a plea bargain. If accepted, the deal would have capped his prison sentence to at two-to-six years. John H. White, a construction worker, had moved his family from the Bronx to the nearly all-white Long Island hamlet of Miller Place a few years ago. “We feel that any prison time would destroy my client and his family,” said Mr. White’s lawyer, Paul Gianelli. “Mr. White was as much a victim as the man who was shot. The actions he took that evening were not criminal.”      –JS

 
THE 'SUBHUMANS' 
Meanwhile, The Black Star News takes aim at the speech of Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch outside the Brooklyn courtroom where the three men suspected of killing one New York cop and injuring another made an appearance. Lynch wants the case moved to federal court, where prosecutors can seek the death penalty. Despite the overwhelming evidence linking the three men to the crime, the News evokes Bob Marley and former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (not to mention Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon) in accusing Lynch of racism for calling the suspects “sub-humans.” The piece continues: “Obviously we understand what Lynch is really saying. He used the plural form, meaning he believes all the three Black men are sub-humans. But is he also sending out a message to other people, including other white cops that Black men in general are ‘sub-humans’? The phrase was not a slip of the tongue. It was a reckless racist statement that is meant to incite hatred towards Blacks and also to poison the jury pool.”               –JS

 
RACE AND CLASS (ACTION)
The Daily News reports that FDNY’s Vulcan Society seeks to join the Justice Department in its suit charging that the written exams that prospective firefighters took in 1999 and 2002 were unfair to black and Hispanic test-takers. Yesterday, the fraternal organization filed a federal suit seeking class action status for 335 black firefighters who “were and continue to be affected by the fact that they were delayed and impeded in their ability to obtain employment with the FDNY.” Mayor Bloomberg’s office contends that the city has already taken significant steps towards improving diversity in the department.             –LN


MEAN TIME 
Finally, Newsday runs a piece investigating the increasing amount of time it takes to dispose of cases in New York’s federal courts. Newsday claims the median time from the filing of a charge to acquittal or sentencing in 2006 in Brooklyn was 15.6 months, up from 10.1 months five years earlier. In Manhattan, the median time rose to 16.7 months from 12.3 months over the same period.         –JS