PAY RAISE CASE GAINS STEAM
Responding to the lawsuit by three judges arguing that the state Legislature should have enacted judicial pay raises pursuant to a provision in the state Constitution, last week the state Attorney General’s office filed papers for the defendants: Governor Eliot Spitzer, the Legislature and the Office of Court Administration. The plaintiffs of the lawsuit are Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. DeMaro and District Court Judge Edward A. Maron, both of Long Island, and Kings County Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack. Their principal claim, reports The New York Law Journal, is that Article §25(a) in the state Constitution, which prohibits a diminution in judicial salaries, demands a pay hike because the value of judicial salaries has been lessened by inflation since the last increase in 1999. Read the judges’ brief here; read the state’s brief here.

 
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER 
Newsday has the sordid story of former Nassau County District Judge David Gross, who has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring with an alleged mobster to launder stolen diamonds, watches and jewelry. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are recommending a four-year prison sentence. "Sworn to do justice, a sitting judge violated his oath as well as the law when he partnered with a member of organized crime to launder proceeds of criminal activity," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in a statement. Sentencing is scheduled for October.

CELL PHONE CALLS CANCEL COLD CASES 
Meanwhile, The New York Times has a piece about the increased reliance on cell phone records by prosecutors and police. “Many people know that cell phones can be used as global positioning devices in real time. Yet few are aware that phone companies keep records from transmitters for months or longer that can be used to trace approximately where a caller was at the time a crime was committed,” writes reporter Anemona Hartocollis. In February, personal trainer Paul Cortez was convicted of killing his former girlfriend, Catherine Woods, in a high-profile trial after cell phone records showed he made a flurry of phone calls to her in the moments leading up to, but not during, her murder (the signal also showed him moving closer and closer to Woods’s apartment). And in the case of former nightclub bouncer Darryl Littlejohn, who is facing trial in the death of Imette St. Guillen, police and prosecutors have said cell tower records from the day of the killing show movement from his home to near the location in Brooklyn where Ms. St. Guillen’s body was found. “It’s one of the most important developments in technology in the courtroom in the last five years,” said Mark J. Geragos, a Los Angeles defense lawyer who challenged cell tower data while defending Scott Peterson, the fertilizer salesman sentenced to death in 2005 for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.

 
PRIMARY COLORS 
And again from Newsday, the story of a controversial judge’s bid for reelection to the Family Court in Suffolk County that touches on yet another year of primary season politicking as the beleaguered judicial election system keeps on keeping on. Supporters of Family Court Judge Ettore Simeone say he is being unfairly targeted by state Independence Party chairman Frank MacKay, who has a beef with Simeone’s running on the Independence ticket against the chairman’s favored candidate, Democrat Theresa Whelan. MacKay is spearheading a negative publicity campaign exposing Simeone’s censure three years ago by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for failing to disclose his romantic relationship with a woman who repeatedly appeared in his court over 17 months, as well as other alleged ethics violations. “Say what you will about the primary, said MacKay. “It's his poor judgment and behavior that constantly gets him into hot water."

 
WESTCHESTER COUNTY FRAUD CASE CONTINUES 
And finally, The Journal News reports on Friday’s landmark decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, which held that a civil rights group can proceed with its claim that Westchester County fraudulently obtained $45 million in federal housing funds. The Anti-Discrimination Center says the county repeatedly obtained grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by falsely claiming that it had worked to further "fair housing." The Center becomes the first group nationally to use the federal False Claims Act of 1863 — which lets citizens who uncover fraud sue on behalf of the United States and keep a portion of the damages — to challenge a local government's claim that it had worked against housing discrimination. "I hope that other county and local governments will now realize that a failure to take seriously their obligation to affirmatively further fair housing will expose them to liability," said Craig Gurian, the center's Executive Director.