Robing Room Rumpus
During the most heated moments of the trial of former Supreme Court justice Gerald P. Garson yesterday, the press gained a few copies of a transcript from a robing room surveillance video. Michael S. Washor, Garson's defense attorney, angrily opposed these unofficial transcripts, which appeared similar to the transcripts used by the jury as they followed along with DA’s video taken by a secret camera planted in Garson’s office.
He urged acting Supreme Court judge Jeffrey G. Berry to collect the transcripts, but received a characteristically firm response from the judge.
“I do not give gag orders. I never have, and I never will. Obviously, you are grown-ups. You know how to prosecute cases, and you know how to defend cases,” Judge Berry replied. “I have no jurisdiction over those pieces of paper.”
The jury watched a few different videos on Tuesday, but the robing room footage looked like security camera footage from a convenience store: an off-kilter black and white image of Garson speaking with Paul Siminovsky about a sticky divorce case the attorney was handling in front of the judge. Garson hunched in his chair yesterday, staring at these ghostly images of himself spouting foul-mouthed advice.
The defense hopes to prove that this ex parte conversation — an unseemly interaction during a case between a judge and attorney excluding the other party’s counsel — demonstrates how the $10,000 Siminovsky spent wining and dining the judge might have influenced Garson’s opinions.
What follows is one dramatic excerpt from this transcript, as the pair discusses the divorce case between Siminovsky’s client, Avraham Levy, and his ex-wife, Sigal Levy. The conversation was recorded February 5, 2003.
Siminovsky: I don’t want to put [Avraham] Levy on tomorrow; I am not prepared to put Levy on tomorrow.
Garson: Well, subpoena the guy… this afternoon. You give him a subpoena. What’s today’s date, ah the fifth right?
Siminovsky: Fifth, right.
Garson: You know, you gotta calm down.
…
Garson: The bottom line is … [Sigal Levy]’ll walk away with nothing for, for 15 years…come on. He walks away owning, owning the house for the next 15 years, or he’ll buy her out someplace along the line for half of what she is entitled to when she wants some cash, and that will be it.
Siminovsky: You’re making less of it then it is. I wish you were right. This guy, he’s crazy this, I mean why would I… I mean this guy should have told me from the get-go he couldn’t do this.
…
Garson: Yeah, ah number two, yeah I, I know I am not talking … I am talking practical reality … this way. Number two, she is gonna have an interest in the house, but the house is not gonna be sold…
Siminovsky: Because…
Garson: Until … I am not gonna order the sale of this house.
Siminovsky: Right.
Garson: ... Goodbye. So both of these schmucks are walking out of court after…
Siminovsky: [Unintelligible]
Garson: What?
Siminovsky: You’re gonna award him custody of the house.
Garson: Of what?
Siminovsky: The house. Oh, you gotta award him custody, his father owns half of it and he owns a quarter of it.
…
Garson: No, yeah, I’ll award, I’ll award him exclusive use on it. She’s fucked…
Siminovsky: Okay.
Garson: You win…
Siminovsky: Okay.
Garson: He doesn’t, it doesn’t cost him a fucking nickel. But stupid schmuck went through this whole fight for nothing. Because, nobody’s gonna … you know what, they deserve it, they deserve both to hold their dicks. Subpoena the guy in we’ll jerk’em around and see what happens…see if we can get him to do something.
The jury watched a few different videos on Tuesday, but the robing room footage looked like security camera footage from a convenience store: an off-kilter black and white image of Garson speaking with Paul Siminovsky about a sticky divorce case the attorney was handling in front of the judge. Garson hunched in his chair yesterday, staring at these ghostly images of himself spouting foul-mouthed advice.
The defense hopes to prove that this ex parte conversation — an unseemly interaction during a case between a judge and attorney excluding the other party’s counsel — demonstrates how the $10,000 Siminovsky spent wining and dining the judge might have influenced Garson’s opinions.
What follows is one dramatic excerpt from this transcript, as the pair discusses the divorce case between Siminovsky’s client, Avraham Levy, and his ex-wife, Sigal Levy. The conversation was recorded February 5, 2003.
Siminovsky: I don’t want to put [Avraham] Levy on tomorrow; I am not prepared to put Levy on tomorrow.
Garson: Well, subpoena the guy… this afternoon. You give him a subpoena. What’s today’s date, ah the fifth right?
Siminovsky: Fifth, right.
Garson: You know, you gotta calm down.
…
Garson: The bottom line is … [Sigal Levy]’ll walk away with nothing for, for 15 years…come on. He walks away owning, owning the house for the next 15 years, or he’ll buy her out someplace along the line for half of what she is entitled to when she wants some cash, and that will be it.
Siminovsky: You’re making less of it then it is. I wish you were right. This guy, he’s crazy this, I mean why would I… I mean this guy should have told me from the get-go he couldn’t do this.
…
Garson: Yeah, ah number two, yeah I, I know I am not talking … I am talking practical reality … this way. Number two, she is gonna have an interest in the house, but the house is not gonna be sold…
Siminovsky: Because…
Garson: Until … I am not gonna order the sale of this house.
Siminovsky: Right.
Garson: ... Goodbye. So both of these schmucks are walking out of court after…
Siminovsky: [Unintelligible]
Garson: What?
Siminovsky: You’re gonna award him custody of the house.
Garson: Of what?
Siminovsky: The house. Oh, you gotta award him custody, his father owns half of it and he owns a quarter of it.
…
Garson: No, yeah, I’ll award, I’ll award him exclusive use on it. She’s fucked…
Siminovsky: Okay.
Garson: You win…
Siminovsky: Okay.
Garson: He doesn’t, it doesn’t cost him a fucking nickel. But stupid schmuck went through this whole fight for nothing. Because, nobody’s gonna … you know what, they deserve it, they deserve both to hold their dicks. Subpoena the guy in we’ll jerk’em around and see what happens…see if we can get him to do something.