IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED
For the second time, Southern District Judge George B. Daniels has affirmed a controversial settlement between European life insurance companies and the families of thousands of Holocaust victims. The New York Times has the story. The lawsuits began more than a decade ago. Last February, Daniels approved a $500 million settlement (which critics call too low, but which is subject to the parameters of a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting such legal action). That didn’t pass muster with the Second Circuit, which ruled that "many people with a potential interest had not been sufficiently notified of the pending settlement,” according to the Times. Yesterday, Daniels reaffirmed the deal, noting that more than 50,000 letters sent last winter by lawyers who approved it was sufficient. Current U.S. Attorney General and former Southern District Judge Michael B. Mukasey had earlier dismissed a class-action suit against the firm, Generali.  -J.S.

SOMEONE SAID 'GUILTY, GUILTY' 
Newsday reports that the Long Island couple convicted of harboring two Indonesians as slaves have been denied a new trial based on the contention that two jurors inappropriately discussed the case in the weeks leading up to its conclusion. A photographer for The Daily News, Stephen Barcelo, claimed he’d heard the two female jurors in the courthouse parking lot engaging in “idle chat” with “laughing, horsing around” and alleged one said in a “pretty loud voice” the word “guilty” two or three times. “There was laughter, someone said ‘guilty, guilty,’ then they walked away,” Barcelo testified. Eastern District Judge Arthur Spatt said there was “no evidence that the defendants were denied a fair trial” and that evidence of jury misconduct was “vague and uncertain.” Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, who sentencing is scheduled for March 28, face nearly 20 years in prison.  -J.S.

BENNY GOODMAN'S WORST NIGHTMARE
Meanwhile, The New York Law Journal reports that Manhattan Acting Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone has dismissed a suit brought by 45 tenants in a luxury Upper East Side apartment building — once home to Grace Kelly and Benny Goodman — that disputed the new owners’ “arbitrary” and “capricious” condo-conversion plan. Stone wrote that under a 1975 Court of Appeals decision, the new owners’ conversion plan was valid if 15 percent of the apartments were bought by “bona fide tenants in occupancy” or their immediate families. Since 237 of the building’s 575 apartments were vacant, Stone ruled that the new owners only needed to sell 69 apartments, which they could achieve without a “single purchase by an existing tenant,” which meant that “the . . . tenants . . . had no right or ability to block the plan,” Stone wrote. “Not only are all existing tenants of Manhattan House not disadvantaged in any legally recognized way should the Plan become effective, if the Plan did become effective, their situation would only improve.” Said David Rozenholc, an attorney for the tenants, “He [Justice Stone] took it upon himself to reverse a [1975] Court of Appeals decision . . . so he could have an opportunity in 2008” to restate a 1985 position he took as a lawyer for property owners when he told The New York Times that he did not believe in rent regulation and did not support conversion law amendments to increase tenants’ bargaining rights.  -J.S.

A PRETTY DAMNED GOOD YEAR
The Daily News’s Denis Hamill has an exclusive interview with Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes in which the DA reflects on a “pretty damn good year” despite the dissolution of the murder case against former Mafia G-Man Lindley DeVecchio. Hynes cited as success stories his office’s prosecution of former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Clarence Norman and corrupt judge Gerald Garson — who was convicted of bribery even after a Supreme Court Justice and the Appellate Division initially dismissed seven of eight felony charges — as well as the murder trial of mobster Mario Fortunato. “As of this morning [Dec. 31], we have 15 fewer murders than last year, on track for the fewest murders since I took office in 1990,” said Hynes. “In 1990, Brooklyn had 765 murders. This morning we have 207. I certainly don't pretend to be principally responsible, but two of my alternate sentencing programs certainly have contributed.” He was referring to the Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP), started in 1991, and his prisoner reentry program for the formerly incarcerated, which Hynes said reduced the recidivism rate from six out of 10 ex-cons in three years to two out of 10. “I have little doubt that the recidivism reductions significantly reduced violent crime, including murder,” continued Hynes. “So, yeah, the DeVecchio case didn't go as planned. But when I look back on 2007, I think it was a pretty damned good year.”  -J.S.

2.3 MILLION ANGRY MEN?
The cops charges with shooting Sean Bell the night before his wedding are requesting a different venue for their trial, saying they can’t get a fair trial in Queens because of “pervasive publicity,” Newsday reports. As evidence, they cited the fact that 60 percent of the 600 potential jurors polled said they believed the shooting was “unjustified.” Queens DA Richard Brown has pledged to “vigorously oppose” the request, and Bell’s family’s lawyer said, "It is an insult to the people of Queens to suggest that out of 2.3 million people [in Queens], 12 people who can be fair and impartial can't be found.” If the defense motion is granted, Sean Bell’s purported shooters could follow in the footsteps of the cops who shot unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo. In 1999, after the Appellate Division, First Department granted their request for a change of venue on similar grounds, they were tried in Albany (instead of the Bronx, where the shooting took place) and acquitted.  -L.N.