DUAL JUDGE PROBE
Two Manhattan judges are being investigated by the Commission of Judicial Conduct over whether they should be charged with “colluding for political reasons” for issuing a decision highly critical of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau shortly before the Democratic primary last year. The Commission wants to know whether Supreme Court Judge Michael Ambrecht was influenced by his support for Morgenthau’s opponent, Leslie Crocker Snyder, and whether he consulted William Wetzel, who also sits on the Supreme Court bench in Manhattan, before issuing the decision. The New York Law Journal reports Wetzel was reported to the Commission for telling assistant district attorneys in his courtroom that they should support Crocker’s campaign and that he would assume a “top position” in the Manhattan DA’s office if she should win. The judges have denied that there was any impropriety in their actions and questioned the Commission’s reasons for probing whether Wetzel was involved in the decision. The NYLJ also reports that Ambrecht and Wetzel further charge the commission's probe “represents a direct assault on the independence of the judiciary. And they insist that the disciplinary panel is straying beyond its mandate by examining the legal underpinnings of a decision, a task reserved for appellate courts.” They have answered some questions and refused to respond to others, including whether the two judges talked about the ruling before it was released or whether Ambrecht, who told the NYLJ about the probe, knew of Wetzel’s vocal support for Crocker Snyder.

DEFENDANT, SOLOFF  THE HOOK
A police impersonator who allegedly worked for a drug gang fled to the Dominican Republic, and the Daily News is blaming Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Brenda Soloff. On Oct. 6 the paperwork for Henry Fiorentino’s indictment was sent to the wrong courtroom, and Soloff was forced to let him go, ordering him to return on Oct. 24. The Police Academy dropout was arrested as part of a two-year probe into the Hot Boyz gang, which often stole drugs from other dealers and resold them. “It's insane and incredibly stupid that after all this work a judge would let someone like Fiorentino walk out of the courtroom free as a bird," the News quotes an investigator who worked on the case. “He's sipping mojitos in the sunshine.” Now how about a little review here: Soloff had no indictment, no paperwork, no file. She was, as state Office of Court Administration spokeswoman Mai Yee says, legally bound to release him. According to court transcripts, the prosecutor had not been notified that the case was transferred from another judge to Soloff. But the transcript also includes an unfortunate quote from the judge. When another prosecutor in the courtroom could not reach the assistant district attorney in charge of the case he asked Soloff, “Would you like me to try again?” to which the judge responded, “Not especially.”

PORKIES, PART II
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno says he will give the Albany Times Union documents showing the names of all state senators who sponsored “member item projects” — otherwise known as “pork.” The paper had made a Freedom of Information Law request for the 8,000 pages of forms documenting how tens of millions of dollars were earmarked, but Bruno at first refused to provide them, and then later turned over a copy with the names of all the senators redacted. Last week Supreme Court Justice Robert Sackett declared that by withholding law makers’ names, Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had violated state law and the public’s right to know. The Assembly, which also provided redacted forms documenting the same type of spending, hasn’t commented yet on whether it will comply or appeal.


QUEER PATH FOR THE STRAIGHT UNION
The majority of domestic partnerships in New York City are composed of heterosexual couples, AM New York reports. Only a little more than a quarter of the domestic partnership registrations in the city were same-sex couples. The city’s eight-year-old domestic partnership law was intended to give some of the benefits of marriage to gay couples, but many heterosexual couples who don’t want to get married but do want the benefits — most important of which is often access to a partner’s health plan — have chosen to register their partnerships. The article conjectures that some gay couples may be holding out for the right to marry rather than register as partners, but gay activist Bill Dobbs simply notes that partnership “gives you options. . . . People want other ways to get benefits and be connected.”

 
LEXBLOGS
Above the Law put together a round up of all the judicial controversies playing out in elections around the country this year. Judges in South Dakota have the most to lose, as voters consider a proposal that aims to punish jurists for "unpopular decisions."

 
Some state ballots this month will include a measure to allow the recall of judges "for any reason." There's one proposal actually named "JAIL 4 Judges" — perhaps the most histrionic among the many other slights of the judiciary. [Newsweek] ... (More on judicial politics at the New York Times (subscription archive), Ohio State Law Journal, and Common Dreams.)"

 
Last week, Elizabeth Benjamin posed an interesting solution for state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's troubled campaign for re-election this year — become a judge instead!

 
"Also, Hevesi’s name will be on the ballot regardless, it’s all but too late to change that (unless he moves out of state, dies or is nominated for a judgeship)," she wrote on the Albany Times Union's political blog.