FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT 
A former police officer whose admittedly aggressive and overbearing behavior on the Long Island Rail Road commuter train led to disorderly conduct and harassment charges was acquitted yesterday in a bench trial before Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Larry Stephen. The judge said he saw “. . . no crimes having been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. The case is dismissed and sealed.” Gothamist provides links to the various tabloid assessments of the case. John Clifford, also an attorney, has a history of acting up on the train, where he says his privacy is jeopardized by rude cell phone talkers and other antics. (He’s called the “eggman” for having once tossed an egg sandwich; another time he doused a woman with coffee after she accidentally spilled some on him.) This time around, Clifford slapped a woman on the hands for intervening in his dispute with a teenager over loud cell phone calls. The woman, Lydia Klein, became the first passenger to show up to court to testify against him. Acting as his own attorney, in court Clifford admitted to calling the cell phone abuser, Nicolas Bender, a “f--king faggot . . . I shouldn't have to put up with some 19-year-old nitwit waking up one girlfriend after another. I have as much right telling this guy he’s being an a--hole as he has a right being one.” Apparently, the commuter anatomy lessons will continue.

"I HAVE A PhD IN LEGAL FEES"
Donald Trump is suing the law firm that successfully represented him in a case against an overcharging golf course contractor — for allegedly overcharging him in legal fees. The New York Law Journal has the story and links to Trump's complaint. Trump says the firm, Morrison Cohen, should have advised him against pursuing one of the two claims in the golf course case — that a contractor walked away from an infrastructure project, causing a year’s delay. Trump won damages stemming from this and a second claim — that the same contractor overcharged him for earth-moving work — but the $40,000 he received from the infrastructure claim was nothing compared to his legal bill. “I have dealt with a lot of lawyers and paid a lot of legal fees,” said Trump. “I have a Ph.D. in legal fees. I know when fees are fair and when they are not. . . . Ninety percent of the conversations I had with [his attorney] David Scharf were about legal fees, not the case.” Westchester County Supreme Court Justice Kenneth W. Rudolph allowed the malpractice case to go forward last month.

DEFENSE CLOSES IN SEAN BELL CASE
The New York Times summarizes the defense’s case in the Sean Bell murder trial. The defense called its final witnesses on Tuesday, almost a month into the trial. Closing arguments are set for next week. Notably, the detectives facing murder charges did not testify, which the Times says indicates “that their lawyers were satisfied with the versions of the shooting that the men gave under oath in grand jury testimony last year, accounts that were read aloud by prosecutors during the trial.” Other notable evidence included the testimony of Officer Michael Carey, who fired three of the 50 shots and who testified that Bell ignored police commands to show his hands before driving his car into a police van.

UNKNOWN MECHANICS 
Meanwhile, northeastern New York’s Press Republican reports that the Appellate Division has overruled a Court of Claims Judge and ruled that New York State is not liable for the deaths of three camp counselors who tried to save their friend from a whirlpool swimming hole in the Boquet River near Elizabethtown. The boys’ families had claimed the state failed to afford “reasonable care” by not marking the Adirondack swimming hole with warning signs. Court of Claims Judge Frank P. Milano had allowed the case to continue, ruling that “a question of fact exists as to whether the decedents were aware of the magnitude of the danger posed by the aerated hydraulic in the whirlpool.” But the appellate court ruled that both the inaccessible location of the swimming hole and the dangerous high water conditions (after a summer storm) excused the state from liability. “The unknown mechanics of the whirlpool do not transform it into a latent danger imposing a heightened duty on defendant,” the appeals court wrote. “We find the defendant cannot be held liable for negligence or wrongful death under the particular circumstances presented.”