Judicial Reports: LexPress: Avenues of Escape

By Jesse Sunenblick
jsunenblick@judicialstudies.com
Posted: 04-16-08

The NYPD agrees to alter its crowd control procedures for political demonstrations. In other news, the Court of Appeals takes a field trip to the Bronx.

OF HORSES AND POLICE BARRICADES  
As part of a settlement approved by Southern District Judge Robert W. Sweet, and stemming from a lawsuit filed in 2003 by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the NYPD has agreed to adjust its crowd control procedures at political demonstrations. As The New York Times reports, no longer will protesters be trapped inside pens surrounded by police barricades; instead, people will be provided pre-publicized “avenues of escape” when police approach on horseback The NYCLU case was filed by people trapped inside barricades during a 2003 anti-war demonstration. “This is a long overdue recognition by the Police Department that changes need to be made in the policing of large demonstrations,” said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the NYCLU.

NEGLIGENCE CASE DISALLOWED 
Queens Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Flug has dismissed a lawsuit filed against New York City, the MTA, and the Long Island Railroad by the victim of a brutal rape between Flushing Meadow Park and the Shea Stadium subway station, because “no part of the attack” took place on property owned by the entities. The New York Law Journal has the story. The woman was sitting on a bench with her boyfriend when five people attacked her. “A public entity cannot be held liable for the negligent performance of a governmental function unless the injured party has established a special relationship with the entity and, thus, created a specific duty to protect that individual,” Flug wrote. Of the woman’s claim against the transportation agencies — that they had a responsibility to prevent homeless encampments nearby—Flug wrote: “Such policy decisions regarding whether to eject the homeless and/or to conduct social service intervention are at the governmental end of the continuum and cannot be the basis of a negligence claim in the absence of a special relationship.”

A DAY IN THE BRONX 
The Court of Appeals is on the move. As reported by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the court on Wednesday will, for the first time since the 1800s, hear cases outside of Albany: the seven judges will be in the Bronx for the day, as part of Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s idea to expose local residents to a court that they otherwise (hopefully) would never see. There are five cases on the docket, including Matter of Suarez v. Byrne, a criminal double jeopardy case in which a man acquitted of murder argues that he can’t be retried on manslaughter charges. Let’s hope the field trip won’t extend the already long lines at the Bronx Hall of Justice.

REST IN PEACE (IN WESTCHESTER)
Finally, Newsday reports that Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Arthur Pitts has permitted the family of deceased artist Mark Rothko to move his remains from a cemetery on Long Island to Westchester. Several residents of East Marion had tried to stop the transfer, arguing that Rothko was the town’s only claim to fame.

Posted by Jesse on April 16, 2008 09:17 AM to Judicial Reports