VILLAGE JUDGE STRIKES BACK
When The New York Times ran a three-part expose on the often disturbing and arbitrary justice meted in many of New York’s neglected town and village courts, it seemed likely that the judges, prosecutors, and defenders skewered in the articles (many rightly so) would be running for cover. But one judge in a South Nyack village chose the offensive instead. In People v. Morrison, Village Justice Dennis E.A. Lynch denied an unopposed motion for dismissal of a charge against a man found with a half-smoked marijuana cigarette. But really, his point lay elsewhere. As the New York Law Journal reports, “The heart of the decision, however, served as a rebuttal to the Times investigation, which documented failings of the state's local-court system, in which nearly three-fourths of the 1,971 justices are not lawyers.” Judge Lynch — who is a lawyer — charged that, “Neglecting the hundreds of caring, compassionate and competent Village Justices, the Times highlighted a few Village Justices that did not live up to that standard that most Village Justices do fulfill. . . . Few care that necessary judicial resources for the Justice Court system throughout New York State are usually underfunded, sometimes stretched to the limits and obviously overburdened. The few who care about the Justice Court system in New York State are its personnel who carry this burden on a daily basis. Those who don't care, just criticize.”

OFFICER HIT BY JUDGE SUCCOMBS
A police officer died yesterday, four days after being struck by an SUV driven by Senior Judge John Walker, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Dan Picagli had been on the police force for 17 years and was killed while directing traffic in the rain Tuesday night, The New York Times reports via AP. Police officials in New Haven, where the accident happened, say Walker won’t be tested for drugs and alcohol, and no charges have been filed. Walker, who stepped down earlier this month as chief judge of the court, is a cousin to former President George H.W. Bush and was appointed to the Southern District of New York in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. His cousin promoted him to the appellate court in 1989.

BLACK ROBES, UNMETERED
Federal judges in Brooklyn (well, their cars at least) have left one city park, but state judges are still using another for a parking lot, according to the Daily News. A space used as a parking lot in Walt Whitman Park next the old federal courthouse was turned back over to the Parks Department over the weekend — along with a $3.9 million check to spruce up the area as part of a deal tied to the opening of the new courthouse. Neighborhood activists are still working to push 50 more judges to get their cars out of nearby Columbus Park.