ALBANY — New York State Senators leveled withering criticism at the process for choosing the State's top judges on Tuesday, hammering the recent opaque selection of seven nominees for Chief Judge.

Yoel Oberlander, a previously convicted child sex offender who had been arrested for residing within 1,000 feet of a "child safety zone," contended that the 2007 law was preempted by Statewide laws aimed at supervising sex offenders.

Citing a recent amendment to the New York State Executive Law that gives local probation departments express authority to approve housing for sex offenders, Justice Kelly agreed that Local Law No. 1 of 2007 "impermissibly conflicts with the State enactments in the area," and declared the statute invalid.

Alfred O'Connor, a staff attorney at the New York State Defenders Association who was not involved in the case, said he expects similar challenges to local laws throughout the state and hopes "other judges give great weight" to Justice Kelly's decision. As far as he knows, the decision is the first to strike down a local sex offender residency law.

The New York Times reports that the State Court of Appeals on Monday ordered the suspension of Judge-elect Nora S. Anderson.

Anderson faces criminal charges that she committed financial fraud during her campaign to become a Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge.

The suspension will take effect on Thursday, the same day that Ms. Anderson was scheduled to take her seat on the bench, according to Gary Spencer, a spokesman for the Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court. A temporary replacement will be assigned by Ann Pfau, the state’s Chief Administrative Judge.

“I determined it was a mistake to call her ‘disapproved,’ ” Mr. Cuomo said during a recent interview. He made Ms. Kaye the first woman on the state’s highest court. Ten years later, the Governor made Judge Kaye the court’s first female chief Judge.

Now, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70, Judge Kaye will retire on Wednesday, ending a quarter-century on the bench having vaulted women to new heights in the judiciary.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended on Monday that Judge-elect Nora S. Anderson be suspended when she takes office next month in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court and that she not exercise judicial power until charges that she violated campaign-finance laws are settled. The New York Times has the story.

In a letter to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, the Commission concluded that “public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary, the courts and the administration of justice would be undermined” if Ms. Anderson presided over Surrogate’s Court cases at the same time she is facing criminal charges.

Commission Administrator and Counsel Robert H. Tembeckjian wrote that the agency was not taking a position on the allegations against Ms. Anderson, a lawyer who won a three-way race last month. A Grand Jury in Manhattan indicted her on Dec. 10 on charges of accepting $250,000 in campaign contributions from her boss and concealing where the money came from. Under state law, individual donors are not allowed to give any campaign more than $33,122.50.

A lawyer for Ms. Anderson, Gustave H. Newman, did not return a call for comment.

But New York City, whose numerous failures in safeguarding the building, which was damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, were revealed soon after the fire and then exposed in painstaking detail during a 16-month investigation, will not be indicted. That decision was based on the significant legal obstacles that would be presented by charging the city, the people briefed on the matter said.

Bovis Lend Lease, the construction management company that hired the subcontractor and was responsible for the work at the former bank tower, also will not be indicted. Bovis was overseeing demolition and asbestos removal at the 41-story building.

Details about the case were provided by people who said they could not be identified because the charges had not been made public. The charges are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday by Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly described himself as "stunned and disappointed" by a Brooklyn jury's acquittal of Robert Ellis in the shooting death of Officer Russel Timoshenko and the wounding of his partner, Officer Herman Yan, last year. Kelly's not the only one. The Post's editorial writers have their (obvious, somewhat undemocratic, and yet understandable) lamentations.

The jury deliberated 10 hours before finding Ellis not guilty of aggravated murder, deciding that he only drove the car that was pulled over by the two cops in a routine traffic stop in July 2007, which led to the shooting. The Post, of course, finds this wooly-headed and molly-coddling, though we could just as easily imagine the Post's laissez-faire crowd finding this an exercise in populist skepticism about the state.

But, no. Here's their take: "Are we heading back to the days when juries routinely let cop-killers walk free because they believed officers were no better than street thugs?" Stay tuned for future histrionics.

The verdict was a stunning setback for prosecutors. They had argued that the defendant, Robert Ellis, was one of two men who fired at Officer Timoshenko and his partner, Officer Herman Yan, during a traffic stop in the early-morning hours of July 9, 2007.

Mr. Ellis could have faced life without parole if he had been convicted of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. Mr. Ellis’s lawyer said he could face up to 15 years in prison on each of the weapons charges, but said she thought they would run concurrently.

The shooting, on a Brooklyn street, was captured in grainy surveillance video. Officer Timoshenko, 23, shot twice in the face, clung to life in a hospital for five days. Mr. Ellis and one of his co-defendants, Dexter Bostic, who both have lengthy criminal records, were captured in the Poconos after a three-day search.

The jury, one of three simultaneously hearing the cases against three defendants, took 10 hours to reach its verdict.

In an interview, the jury foreman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that jurors had argued for hours — at one point, they stopped speaking to each other — but ultimately concluded that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence that linked Mr. Ellis to the murder and had called witnesses who had no credibility.

A strung-out Lillo Brancato was a bystander intent only on feeding a drug habit when his junkie friend murdered an off-duty cop, his lawyer said Tuesday in closing arguments. The Daily News has the story.

Defense attorney JosephTacopina provided the benign portrayal of "The Sopranos" actor before prosecutor Terry Gottlieb argued that Brancato's addiction triggered the fatal shooting.

Officer Daniel Enchautegui "was shot andkilled because Lillo Brancato wanted to get high," Gottlieb said in a90-minute summation. "And in order to do that, he had to commit aburglary.

"Officer Enchautegui went out to stop a burglary."

The two lawyers spun the same facts into strikingly different scenarios from the snowy December morning when Brancato's friend Steven Armento shot the 28-year-old cop.

A Bronx jury, beginning this morning, will determine which version rings true.

Court watchers urge the Attorney General to hold a disbarred judge responsible for millions in fees he allegedly funneled to a friend. Meanwhile, a hip-hop mogul is cleared of assault charges due to prosecution problems.

REPEATED DEFAMATION DEFEATED 
Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn ruled on a crucial piece of Internet law yesterday, deciding that Admission Consultants Inc. could not sue for republication defamation over comments repeated in the comments section of Business Week. An anonymous poster had left a statement against the company in the comments, and it was repeated in various "bump" comments that followed. The New York Law Journal quoted the opinion: "Under the 'single publication rule,' which New York follows, the publication of a defamatory statement in a single issue of a newspaper or magazine, although widely circulated and distributed, constitutes one publication that gives rise to the cause of action ... [That rule] applies here to the modification of an Internet Web site."

SUGE RELEASED
Las Vegas judge Abbi Silver just dismissed assault and battery charges against a hip-hop mogul. Marion "Suge" Knight. The founder of Death Row Records was arrested while allegedly hitting and threatening Melissa Isaac with a knife. The judge ruled that the DA's office had problematic evidence. Despite the dismissed charges, the mogul may still face more time in court. The New York Times reports: "Mr. Knight’s lawyer, David Chesnoff, said prosecutors had “discovery problems and witness problems.” The case may not be closed, however: the district attorney’s office filed a notice indicating it may seek a grand jury indictment and revive the charges."

In one of her final speeches, Chief Judge Judith Kaye declines to discuss judicial diversity. Meanwhile, a terminally-ill South Carolina man must face charges--30-years after he fled to New York.

GUN GAINS 
Pondering football star chances of escaping his gun charge without a conviction, the New York Daily News paints a picture of gun conviction stats around the city. It turns out Manhattan has the highest conviction rate, which doesn't bode well for the star who allegedly shot himself accidentally in a New York Club. "About 22% of Manhattan defendants get convicted on that charge, according to a News analysis of state Division of Criminal Justice data from 2003 to 2007. The conviction rate hovered around 10% in three other boroughs: 9% in Staten Island, 10% in the Bronx and 12% in Queens. Brooklyn had the lowest conviction rate at 7%."

30-YEAR ESCAPE 
A man dying of lung cancer should be extradited for crimes he committed 30 years ago, an Appellate panel decided last week. The New York Law Journal tells the story: "On April 8, 1976, Mr. Blake was sentenced under the name of Larry Wayne Barnett to seven years in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to forging a $495 check. Four months later, while he was serving time for the forgery and for a probation violation arising from a separate grand-larceny conviction, Mr. Blake escaped and fled to New York." The South Carolina governor did not pursue extradition, but the charges were recently renewed as 3 of the 4 Appellate judges ruled that he should face the charges in court.

The Governor bashes the judge-pickers, while another judge blocks a touchdown pass for the NFL's efforts to prosecute players over steroids.

BROOKLYN BAIL
Brooklyn judge Judge Stephanie Zaro  made headlines yesterday as she denied bail for Horace Moore, the young man accused of stabbing a Brooklyn bus driver to death earlier this week. Prosecutors have a confession from the man and he was picked out of a lineup by a witness. The New York Daily News has the tense courtroom scene: "'Your client is 20 years old,' Judge Stephanie Zaro told defense lawyer Ita Parnass, who had requested bail. 'He began his illustrious career at 15.'"

FOOTBALL FEVER 
A Minnesota judge barred the NFL from suspending two players yesterday, a rare intersection between the judiciary and sports rules. District Judge Gary Larson of Hennepin County put a temporary restraining order on the football organization's suspension of the Viking's defensive linemen Kevin Williams and Pat Williams for four games. The New York Times explains: "The Williamses were among six players suspended for four games for testing positive for a diuretic that can be used as a masking agent for steroids. They have argued that the substance containing the diuretic did not list all its ingredients, and that league scientists and lawyers had information about the substance but withheld it from players."

As Barack Obama's Attorney General pick is questioned, a Gotti family member gets a change of venue in a high-profile murder trial.  

In Albany, the governor dislikes the un-diversified picks to replace the Chief Judge. In Iraq, a judge deals a harsh sentence to a close ally of Saddam Hussein.

REPLACEMENT PROBLEMS? 
During a press conference yesterday, Governor David A. Paterson expressed disfavor with the list of nominees to replace Chief Judge Judith Kaye. He questioned the diversity of the list, which only included a single person of color. The list of nominees, compiled by the Commission for Judicial Nomination was: George Carpinello,  Evan Davis, Steven Fisher, Theodore Jones Jr., Jonathan Lippman, Eugene Pigott Jr., and Peter Zimroth. The Albany Times Union has the story. In addition, Judicial Reports covered the story earlier this year.

IRAQI DEATH SENTENCE 
An Iraqi judge made a momentous decision yesterday as Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's "Chemical Ali" cousin, was sentenced to death for his crimes against humanity in 1991. Already sentenced to be hung at a trial last year, the former Baathist official remained resolute. The AP described the scene at the trial: "Former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur also received a death sentence at the end of the trial, which began in August 2007. He shouted, 'Down with the Persian-U.S. occupation!' as the sentence was read. 'Shut up, you dirty Baathist,' snapped chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, referring to Saddam's Baath party.

A fight breaks out between a romance novel model and a scorned wife in Federal Court. Meanwhile, State insurers take a bold step in the gay marriage debate.

SAME SEX INSURANCE?  
New York State Insurance Department has told State insurance companies that they should recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages. Gay City News reports how the governmental body issued a circular while waiting for a final decision in the case of Martinez v. Monroe Community College in Rochester, which debates these issues. The paper reports: "The specific trigger for the new insurance advisory is a portion of the Martinez decision in which the court held that the college's refusal to enroll an employee's same-sex spouse would violate the state Human Rights Law, which forbids employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The court said that the community college, a public employer, would be engaging in prohibited discrimination were it to exclude the employee's same-sex spouse from its health insurance program."

KAYE'S LEGACY 
Chief Judge Judith Kaye--soon to retire--gets the feature treatment in the legal press today. Out of the more than 500 opinions she has written over the course of her 25-year career, only 65 were dissenting opinions, The New York Law Journal reports. The paper rounds up her majority record: "Her majority rulings have struck down portions of two death penalty laws, allowed homosexuals to legally adopt their partners' children and to succeed their partners in rent-stabilized apartments, opened car leasing to drivers as young as 18, made adults who serve alcohol to minors liable for damages caused by drunken party-goers, expanded state liability for injuries suffered by inmates at the hands of other prisoners."