CENTRAL PARK'S GHOSTS 
Newsday reports via an AP thread that Southern District Judge Deborah A. Batts has allowed — with contingencies — a civil rights conspiracy lawsuit to go forward against New York City filed by the five men wrongfully convicted in the 1989 Central Park jogger case. While dismissing claims of false arrest, assault, harassment, and negligence, Batts let stand the portion of the suit alleging that police officers and prosecutors coerced or fabricated statements and concealed evidence from defense lawyers that might have helped the men. Plaintiffs' lawyer Myron Beldock called the ruling “complex, long and interesting” and said that the families of the men — who were cleared in 2002 after another man, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime — “remain uncompensated and continue to suffer from the aftermath of terribly unjust convictions.” -J.S.

ESOPHAGEAL CANCER? TRY THESE! 
Meanwhile, The Times Union reports that Northern District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy reluctantly dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs by the widows of five veterans who died after being enrolled in fraudulent drug experiments at Stratton VA Medical Center. The patients’ records were doctored, and in some cases they were given inappropriate medications in studies designed to test certain drugs’ marketability. (For example, one esophageal cancer patient was given medication for breast cancer.) “Sometimes a court has to render a decision it would not like to render,” McAvoy said, referring to the absence of proof that the veterans, all terminally ill cancer patients, had died prematurely or been caused additional pain and suffering. The government said some patients may even have benefited. -J.S.

CITY SIDEWALKS, BUSY SIDEWALKS
Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman’s Gotham Gazette column details the strange case against Matthew Jones, who was arrested in 2004 for allegedly blocking pedestrian traffic in Times Square. After Criminal Court Judge Abraham Clott refused to dismiss the complaint, Jones agreed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, but the Legal Aid Society persisted, bringing the case to the Appellate Term (which affirmed) and then to the Court of Appeals, which unanimously reversed. “Something more than a mere inconvenience of pedestrians is required to support the charge,” wrote Court of Appeals Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick. “Otherwise, any person who happens to stop on a sidewalk — whether to greet another, to seek directions or simply to regain one's bearings — would be subject to prosecution under this statute.” -J.S.

ATTORNEY: YOU HAVE A "CUTE LITTLE THING GOING ON" 
Finally, The New York Law Journal reports that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead has ordered a special referee to oversee all future depositions filed by attorney Thomas B. Decea. The lawyer reportedly said a female opposing counsel had a “cute little thing going on,” called her “hon” and “girl,” and asked her why she was not wearing a wedding ring during a legal malpractice suit filed by a hedge fund against its former law firm. Saying that Decea’s behavior reflected gender bias and a “lack of civility, good manners and common courtesy,” Edmead said the appointment of a referee was a means of “guarding against future objectionable conduct” by Mr. Decea. Decea vowed to appeal, claiming he was quoted out of context. LexPress eagerly awaits his, uh, recontextualization. -J.S.

WORRIED ABOUT YOUR HEARING? TRY GETTING TO IT FIRST
Judges may have to be a little more lenient with latecomers to Bronx Family Court, according to The New York Times. The four elevators are so often broken that lines often stretch for several city blocks, and  “people sometimes wait for hours to get to hearings, which are held on the seventh and eighth floors. . . .Frequently, hearings have to be postponed because clients and witnesses cannot get to them.” Bill Nicholas of the Legal Aid Society told the paper that warrants have even been issued for people waiting for elevators downstairs. State court officials say that the Bronx Family Court’s problems are unique, and the city, which is responsible for courthouse operations, says it is “working diligently” to remedy the situation. But that isn’t happening fast enough, even according to United Court System spokesman David Bookstaver: “We are absolutely confident that when the work is completed the problems will be totally eliminated. Would we like to see the work done faster? Absolutely.” -H.B.