Judicial Reports: LexPress: 'Mad Dog' and the MS-13's

By Jesse Sunenblick
jsunenblick@judicialstudies.com
Posted: 03-13-08

A federal judge refuses to recuse himself after referring to members of the Latin American gang MS-13 as "animals" and "mad dogs." In other news, The New York Law Journal discusses the difficult decision about whether or not to prosecute former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

"THEY COME IN AS MAD DOGS" 
Attorneys for Wilver Lopez, an MS-13 gang member and murder suspect in Long Island, want a judge who has referred to members of the Latin American gang as “animals” and “mad dogs” to recuse himself, citing his prejudice on gang-related crime. The Daily News has the story. Eastern District Judge Leonard D. Wexler — who has several cases involving MS-13 gang members on his docket — made the comments during the November sentencing of another gang member, Josue Otoniel Rubi-Gonzalez. “It goes to prove that we have to have better regulations so we don’t have animals like this coming in,” Wexler said. “All the actions of the MS-13 —  they come in as mad dogs and they hurt good people who come in, who raise families and show concern.” Wexler, however, has refused to step down. Explaining his comments during a recent court hearing, he said, “It was a case where MS-13 members walked someone who they thought was an opposing member of a different gang and brought him into the woods and they stabbed him and beat him. And they found a pipe and they tried to push him into the pipe while he was still alive. . . . So a year later, the police found the bones. I thought that was pretty hideous, and mad-dog action on their part. I certainly did not have any bad words for the Hispanic community. In fact, I felt sorry for [the community].”

POLITICS VERSUS DETERRENCE  
The New York Law Journal has an interesting piece polling attorneys and a former prosecutor about the difficult decision facing Southern District U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia as he decides whether or not to prosecute former Governor Eliot Spitzer on prostitution charges. Said a former prosecutor, “If you are a prosecutor thinking about this situation you have to ask yourself if it’s fair to bring charges when we don’t normally prosecute johns. You always have to wrestle with the question, ‘Am I prosecuting this person because he or she is a public figure?’ ” The story cites the successful prosecution of Martha Stewart, and the failed prosecution of Democratic New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, as examples of striking a difficult balance between politics and deterrence. Then there is the issue of avoiding what some critics cite as the Bush administration’s politicization of the U.S. Justice Department. (Attorney General and former federal judge Michael B. Mukasey has pledged that politics will play no part in prosecutorial decisions.)

SUBWAY VICTIM'S AWARD REDUCED
Finally, The New York Times reports that the Appellate Division has slashed a jury’s multi-million dollar damages award to a woman who was hit by a subway train while stooping to pick up her Bible from a Manhattan station platform. Alice Huang’s $28.5 million award was reduced to $11.5 million. Her attorney, David Dean, called the decision “a fair analysis of the evidence. . . . Alice is such a lovely and genteel person that it’s possible that the jury, as we were, was impressed with that, and perhaps even overly appreciated her loss.” The transit agency, meanwhile, has vowed to take the decision to the Court of Appeals.

Posted by Jesse on March 13, 2008 07:40 AM to Judicial Reports