"A VERY SERIOUS SIDESTEP" 
The Legislative quagmire over judicial pay raises also applies to indigent defense, The New York Law Journal reports. Two years after the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services, a panel convened by Chief Judge Judith Kaye, recommended appointing an independent indigent defense commission to help manage the conversion of  New York’s moribund, patchwork system into a more equitable state-run agency, the state Legislature has yet to act on a series of bills that would have nudged the process forward. “We are at a place now where this is being taken seriously, but we have taken a very serious sidestep,” said Jonathan Gradess of the New York State Defenders Association, told the Law Journal. Meanwhile, in The Albany Times Union Gradess opined in an editorial that with the legislative session again drawing to a close “New York has missed a golden opportunity to begin the long overdue process of improving our state’s shameful, county-based system of public defense services for people who cannot afford a private lawyer.”

"HE'S GOT A GUN" (I'VE GOT A TASER)
The New York Post reports that Joseph Guzman, who was with Sean Bell the night of his death and sustained multiple gunshot wounds, has refused to accept a plea deal by Manhattan prosecutors that would have spared him further penalties for his role in protests in the wake of the acquittals of the cops who gunned down Bell. “I'm big on respect and none has been shown,” said Guzman, who faces 15 days in prison. Meanwhile, New York 1 News reports that a new study by the Rand Corporation advised the NYPD to incorporate into training exercises with the sound of gunfire or the phrase “he’s got a gun.” The study also proposes giving tasers to officers in certain precincts. “It’s not an alternative to guns, if anything it’s an alternative to your fists,” said Bernard Rostker of the Rand Corporation. “You don’t want to use a taser if it's appropriate to use a gun; that’s a life-threatening situation to the officer or the citizen the officer is protecting.”

FAMILY VACUUM 
The Law Journal also reports on a public hearing last night in which Nassau County officials were grilled by local legislators on a plan to renovate, rather than relocate, the rundown Family Court building in Westbury. Judiciary Committee Vice Chairman David Mejias said the plan was “below the minimum standard” and Valley Stream Republican Legislator John J. Ciotti asked whether they were drawn up “in a vacuum.” The current courthouse was built in 1960 to house two judges. After Public Works Commissioner Raymond A. Ribeiro admitted that he hadn’t consulted with the county’s administrative judge, Justice Anthony Marano, or supervising Family Court Judge Carnell T. Foskey as to whether the proposal would meet their needs, Ciotti asked, “What if Judge Foskey or [Justice] Marano would say we need 14 courtrooms — wouldn’t it be a little too late at that point? Wouldn’t it make a sense fundamentally to sit in a room and say, what, functionally, do you want?”

BAD NEWS FOR KERIK 
Finally, Acting Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett recently refused to dismiss perjury charges against two brothers accused of providing free apartment renovations to disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik. WNBC Channel 4 has the story.  “The court has inspected the lengthy grand jury minutes and had concluded that there is substantial evidence in support of all charges,” Barrett in his decision.