NOTHING IMPROPER ABOUT RAMOS
An Appellate Division, First Department panel has ruled that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos may continue to preside over the case concerning former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso’s allegedly excessive $187.5 million compensation package. The New York Law Journal has the story. Grasso had tried to make Ramos recuse himself on two bases: first, since in 2002 and 2003 an executive recruiter sent the exchange two letters recommending the judge for a position on its board; and second, since Ramos later suggested that the parties engage in settlement negotiations, which Grasso called an improper ex parte communication. But the panel rejected both notions, writing that the letters were “submitted well before this action was commenced and assigned to Justice Ramos,” and that overall, “There is nothing in the record indicating that Justice Ramos could not be impartial in this matter, or that he had a ‘personal bias or prejudice’ towards any of the parties.” Of Ramos’s participation in settlement talks, the panel wrote that he’d only met with the parties one time, during which Ramos “related nothing of substance and sensitivity.”

RAZOR ATTACK THWARTED 
From The New York Times comes word of a convicted drug trafficker’s attack on a prosecutor in Brooklyn Federal District Court. Victor Wright was facing a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole before Judge Frederic Block when he lunged at Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn Pokorny, with a razor he’d snuck into court. “He thinks she framed him, and you could see he really hated her,” said court reporter Ronald Tolkin, a former Marine who served in Vietnam and who pounced on Wright before he could do any damage. “The razor got knocked away and I told him, ‘You want to try something, try it on me,’ Only I wasn’t that polite,” Mr. Tolkin said.

MISCONDUCT MASTERED 
As reported previously in LexPress, the Judicial Conference of the United States adopted a new set of rules for handling judicial misconduct complaints. According to the Law Journal, The new standards instruct chief justices on when and how they should initiate disciplinary hearings, create new committees in each circuit to handle complaints, and finally, state that the investigations will be kept away from public scrutiny until after a judge is sanctioned. Before this announcement, the federal bench lacked consistent, nation-wide policy for coping with misconduct allegations. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Ralph Winter chaired the committee that created these rules, and added a juicy statistic about misconduct allegations on the federal bench: "Between 600 and 800 complaints are filed annually against judges, Judge Winter said, and only about one in 100 alleges something that 'requires further inquiry.'"

ADA FACING STATE PEN 
Newsday reports on the details of a plea agreement that would send disgraced former Queens Assistant District Attorney Beth Modica to state prison for one-to-three years. Modica was accused of having sex with underaged boys she met at booze-and-pot-fueled parties. Notably, Rockland County Judge Catherine Bartlett rejected the prosecution’s request to allow Modica to serve her time in county jail, which is considered less severe.

NIXZMARY CASE TO JURY SOON 
The defense has rested in the Nixzmary Brown murder case, The Daily News reports. “I think we built a pretty strong case riddled with reasonable doubt. The only question is whether this jury is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Jeffrey Schwartz, attorney for Nixzmary’s stepdad, Cesar Rodriguez, who is charged with abusing and then murdering the seven-year-old in a case that has drawn nationwide interest. (His wife, Nixzaliz Santiago, faces a separate trial.) Schwartz spent much of the day yesterday arguing for a mistrial. He contends the prosecution sprung a surprise witness — a jailhouse snitch — evidence that under the Brady rule should have been turned over to him sooner. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Hall shot down the motion. Closing arguments are scheduled for today.