STICKY TAPE
The second day of former Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson’s trial seemed like a scene out of a television police procedural drama. LexPress was there, recording all the grainy surveillance footage, blustery attorneys, and nervy investigations behind this former judge's trial for third degree bribery and six counts of receiving reward for official misconduct.

The prosecution spent most of the morning questioning George Terra, the assistant chief investigator who led the sprawling investigation that snared Garson. Terra explained to the jury how the DA’s judicial investigation began when divorce court litigant Frieda Hanimov held wiretapped conversations with Nissim Elmann, a businessman who lied about having connections to Brooklyn judges. All the transcripts had been translated from Hebrew, and two male assistant district attorneys read the transcripts out-loud for the jury. ADA Joseph P. Alexis’s gruff baritone reading Elmann’s girly lines made the whole courtroom giggle.

Next, prosecutor Michael F. Vecchione submitted a short video clip of a silent hug between Nissim Elmann and Paul Siminovsky, the key moment when investigators began to track the Brooklyn lawyer who would eventually lead them straight to Brooklyn. This crime-movie moment was filmed by a camera pointing through the slatted windows of a surveillance van parked outside a gloomy Brooklyn warehouse. The clip ended with a jumpy shot of the license plate on Siminovsky’s Volvo as he merged into a sea of nighttime traffic, soon to be tracked by investigators.

The crusty detective Terra then explained the early-morning covert action that would produce key prosecution evidence, showing on a giant map of Garson’s old office where his investigative team secretly planted a microphone and video camera. As Vecchione pushed him for more details about the top secret break-in, Garson’s defense attorney Michael S. Washor interrupted with an objection, “We’re not claiming Watergate!” he quipped, and the courtroom tittered.

The afternoon session grew heated as Washor bucked against the prosecution’s video-taped evidence. “If they did not minimize each and every tape, these cannot be used,” he shouted, his face flushed red. Click here to read unofficial excerpts. Judge Berry replied with stern lecture about the case law for using wiretap evidence in the courtroom. Ultimately, the judge concluded that the attorney should have raised these objections during the preliminary stages of the case, back when then-Supreme Court justice Steven W. Fisher approved the inclusion of the tapes in Garson’s long-delayed trial.

“These are arguments that could have, should have been made in front of Judge Fisher,” he said. "I’m not an appeals court judge for Judge Fisher. In fact, he’s the Appellate Judge for me!” The whole gallery laughed as Berry reminded them of Fisher’s promotion to the Appellate Division, Second Department.

NEW WRINKLES IN JUDGING
New York judges might be getting older. Governor Eliot Spitzer is pushing to lift mandatory retirement restrictions for members of the bench. Currently, judges retire at age 70 and petition for two-year certification periods that can extend a term until age 76. According to the story in The New York Law Journal, Spitzer commented on the changes after watching the final swearing-in of Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 next year. Numerous law leaders celebrated Spitzer’s idea to permit judges to stay on longer, and the Office of Court Administration added this surprising statistic about certificated judges: “About 65 of the 375 Supreme Court justices are serving past age 70.”

LIPS UNSEALED
The so-called “lipstick bandit” will have her day in court. Three women from the Bronx office of the Human Resources Administration filed a federal lawsuit yesterday, alleging that they were harassed by their supervisor. The suit claims that Serena Reaves-Cain began abusing the women in 2005, pulling open one woman’s shirt, proposing one woman pose nude in a calendar, and kissing them — earning the nickname, the lipstick bandit around the office. The New York Daily News reports that the women are still employed at the office, but now work in a different part of the building. The employees are seeking “unspecified damages.”

PAK JUDGE ATTACK
Lawyers from around Pakistan are striking today in protest of the president’s firing of a high-profile Pakistani judge earlier this week. The New York Times reports that 3,000 lawyers marched in the city of Lahore, and a hundred other protestors were detained by the police — all of them protesting the suspension of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the country’s chief judge. In the city of Quetta, police used batons and tear gas to control 200 lawyers protesting the suspension. Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s office claimed that the judge was abusing his power, but did not clarify their allegations. The story noted a possible motive for the suspension of a judge who won’t tow the party line: “Musharraf is expected to seek re-election as president from the outgoing parliament — a step that opposition parties likely will challenge before the Supreme Court.”