BAD RULES
And the City Corporation Counsel, Michael Cardozo, is amping up his criticism of a bill standardizing jury selection rules for civil trials throughout New York. (The law designates a Supervising Judges in each Judicial District to whom litigants can appeal immediately if they believe jury selection procedures have been violated, and allows litigants to bring an Article 78 proceeding if they think the supervising judge has erred in the process.) Mayor Bloomberg’s office earlier sent a memo to Governor Paterson’s office, urging him not to sign the bill when the Legislature sends it to him next week. “This is bad public policy,” said Cardozo. “This is bad jury selection. It will cause substantial delay in the courts and no useful purpose will be served.”
 
GUILTY, YOUR HONOR
Former State Supreme Court Judge Ronald H. Tills has pleaded guilty to charges he recruited prostitutes for events sponsored by a fraternal men’s club called the Royal Order of Jesters. Western District Judge William Skretny will sentence Tills on January 2.

MUTINY IN THE BRONX
We missed this one the other day, and in case you did too, take a look: A mutiny of sorts is threatening the tenure of Bronx Democratic Party Chairman and Assemblyman Jose Rivera. As The Daily News reports, six of the borough’s 11 assembly members, dubbed the Rainbow Rebels, are refusing to go along with the official party endorsement of lawyer Maria Matos for a Civil Court seat. (They are backing another candidate, Elizabeth Taylor.)  The rebellion is led by Stanley Schlein, the Bronx Democratic Party’s former counsel, who was fired by Rivera last year. “This fight is not about a judge’s race,” an anonymous Bronx political leader told The News. “This is about who will run the party — Jose Rivera or Stanley Schlein. And even if Jose wins, the unity Bronx Democrats had is gone.”
 
CALVIN HARRIS APPEAL
The Appellate Division yesterday heard an appeal in the Calvin Harris murder trial. In 2007 the wealthy Tioga County businessman was convicted of killing his wife, but the conviction was tossed, and a new trial ordered, by Acting Broome County Supreme Court Justice Martin Smith, who ruled that an eyewitness account from a neighbor claiming to see Michelle Harris alive hours after she was allegedly killed was enough to set aside the jury verdict.

STOLEN SLOGANS
The bickering intensifies in a Saratoga County Family Court race, where challenger Kurt Mausert alleges that the the incumbent, Courtenay Hall, stole his campaign slogan, “A family man for Family Court.” Said Mausert, “It’s not defamatory, it’s a question. I’m asking the question, do the people think my slogan was stolen?”