Judicial Reports

Judicial Reports: LexPress: Judges in Flux, but Club Kalua Stays

By Jesse Sunenblick

Posted: 04-24-08

Bound for Albany as the new counsel to Governor David Patterson, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Yates decides to stay on the bench. In other news, after losing its liquor license a resilient strip club hardly misses a beat.

ON SECOND THOUGHT
The judge Governor David Patterson picked to become his counsel has changed his mind and will stay on the bench. “I very much would have enjoyed the opportunity to serve the governor and his administration, but serving as a judge is a position that I love, and that I find too hard to leave,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Yates said, as reported by The New York Times. “This is going to be one of the biggest losses for the administration that I can think of,” said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat. “Jim Yates is one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. For him not to be in the governor’s office will not be good for the state — he’s that good.”

INSPECTOR FISCH
Meanwhile, The Times' metro blog, City Room, reports that Patterson has tabbed Bronx Supreme Court Justice Joseph Fisch as the state's inspector general. Justice Fisch, 75, was appointed to the Bronx court in 2003 after serving since 1990 as a justice on the Court of Claims. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. “Judge Fisch is one of New York’s top jurists and I couldn’t be more pleased that a leader of his caliber has decided to take on such a critical watchdog role,” Governor Paterson said in a statement. “He brings an impressive mix of legal, law enforcement and government experience.”

NO RELATIONSHIP, NO DANGER
Joining with many other circuits and an earlier decision by Eastern District Judge Frederic Block, the Second Circuit yesterday tossed a lawsuit filed by a police informant who said the police department should be on the hook for the physical assault he sustained at the hands of the drug dealer he ratted out. The New York Law Journal has the story. Robert Matican's claim did not meet either of the two exceptions to a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Services, which held that "nothing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the state to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors." In the Second Circuit decision, Judge Wilfred Feinberg explained the exceptions and why Matican didn't qualify. "First, the state or its agents may owe a constitutional obligation to the victim of private violence if the state had a 'special relationship' with the victim...Second, the state may owe such an obligation if its agents 'in some way had assisted in creating or increasing the danger to the victim.'" But, he wrote, "The relationship between defendants and Matican does not resemble those that have been found to lie within the bounds of the special relationship exception ... Matican freely agreed to serve as a confidential informant in exchange for more lenient treatment." And the officers' failure to inform Matican of his attacker's release from prison or his criminal record falls "on the passive side of the line."

THE CLUB THAT WILL NOT DIE
Finally, The Times also reports on developments in the Sean Bell case — sort of. Despite losing its liquor license, the strip club where Bell was celebrating on that tragic night continues to eek out an existence, proving that the watered down $20 glasses of champaigne may have been less of a draw than people thought. “They’re like a cat,” Queens City Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr. said of the Club Kalua, which he has pushed to shut down. “They’re figuring out a way to absorb everything and keep going. It’s just a big frustration.” Responded the club's co-owner, Roger A. Duran: “We have our clientele still coming ... I guess the alcoholic ones are going to stop coming.” Asked by a reporter why he still frequented the club, a regular identified as "Boogie" said it was his civic duty. “It’s about supporting the community...These girls, they’re part of the community. Some of them got children. It’s about giving back.”

Posted by Jesse on April 24, 2008 09:05 AM to Judicial Reports