A PUBLIC HEARING OR A CRIMINAL TRIAL?
Another breakdown of the prosecution’s tactics in the Sean Bell murder trial appears this morning in The New York Times, which writes that the DA’s kitchen sink approach — in which every scrap of evidence has been methodically presented — is more akin to a public hearing than a criminal trial. This includes the testimony of several witnesses the Times deems “unhelpful” — such as a friend of Bell who admitted he thought a patron outside the Queens strip club had a gun, perhaps justifying the detectives’ response.  “The whole world’s looking at this case,” said John Patten, a lawyer who represented one of the officers charged with shooting Amadou Diallo in 1999. “I gather what they’re thinking is, ‘Let’s just air it all out.’ There can be no claims anything has been kept back or hidden. They’re in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t position. They’re taking the only tack they can take.”  -J.S.

ANOTHER WAY TV'S BAD FOR YOU
Southern District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald yesterday sentenced the son of the late Joe Colombo — who gave the crime family its name — to a year and a day in prison, for his conviction on gambling conspiracy charges. Leading up to his sentencing, Christopher Colombo made the mistake of appearing as an actor in a questionable HBO show, ‘House Arrest’ — in which he frequented a topless club and tried to break into a church — which may have squelched any sympathy from Buchwald, Newsday reports. “To not give Mr. Colombo a prison sentence would basically give him the opportunity to make a mockery of the system because his future employment seems to be ‘House Arrest’ all over again. I do think his show . . . was disrespectful to the court system and was one of the largest mistakes a defendant has ever made. That show did not show you to be father of the year.”  -J.S.

STOPPING DRUNK COPS 
A judge on the New York State Public Employment Relations Board has tossed out Albany Police Chief James W. Tuffey’s 2006 zero-tolerance policy barring officers from drinking alcohol within eight hours of reporting to duty. The Albany Times Union has the story. The Albany Police Officers Union had argued that Tuffey should have consulted with them before instituting the new policy, and the Administrative Law Judge Susan Comenzo reinstated the old policy, ruling that the eight-hour rule wasn’t determinative of an officer being fit to work. “I feel it's a poor decision . . . the citizens lose on this one,” Tuffey said. “But you can rest assured that just because the policy is thrown out, we will closely monitor any individual coming into work.”  -J.S.

TWO JUDGES, THOUSANDS OF TRAFFIC TICKETS 
The Ithaca Journal reports on thousands of unpaid speeding tickets that accrued under former Junius Town Justice C. Ernest Brownell. Brownell’s replacement, Justice Stephen Brown, tried to resolve the situation — revoking the licenses of offenders — but was thwarted by Monroe County Family Court Judge John Rivoli (the administrative judge for town justices in Seneca County) who decided that any tickets predating 2000 should be dismissed. “We always try to do everything we can to help assist the justice courts in our county,” said Seneca County First Assistant District Attorney Robert Mascari. “To go back and sort through literally thousands of tickets in cases in which we don't handle the prosecution is unfortunately beyond our resources.” Meanwhile, both Brownell and Brown — neither of whom are lawyers — have had their scraps with the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Brownell was removed from the bench in 2004 after the commission ruled that he had used courthouse funds to pay a claim for a man whose vehicle had been damaged. And Brown was admonished by the commission in December, after he attempted to garnish the wages of a woman who failed to pay $550 in rent, even though there was no formal case before him.  -J.S.

A HELLUVA GOOD GUY
Former Kings County Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman has returned the $10,000 he extorted from one-time Civil Court candidate Karen Yellen in 2002 in exchange for a promise not to “dump her” from the Democratic line, the Daily News reports. Norman is in prison on a 3-to-9-year sentence for his crime, and is up for parole in October. Said Norman's lawyer of his client's repayment of the extorted funds, “It just shows Mr. Norman’s character as a law-abiding citizen, and that he will be a productive member of society on his release.” The Brooklyn DA’s office indicates that it will vigorously oppose any effort to release Norman this fall.  -L.N.