11/21/13 Letter To Moreland Spokeswoman Michelle Duffy regarding Alterations in the Official Trascript

Email to Registrants denying testimony at the September 17th Moreland Hearing

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Green, Heather (MAC)" <Heather.Green@moreland.ny.gov>
To: "Green, Heather (MAC)" <Heather.Green@moreland.ny.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 3:29 PM
Subject: Tonight's Moreland Hearing

Dear Registrant:

Thank you for your interest in testifying this evening at the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.  As mentioned in the release announcing the hearing that also appears on the Commission’s website, we are only seeking public testimony on the following three issues:

·        The adequacy of existing state laws, regulations and procedures involving unethical and unlawful misconduct by public officials

·        The electoral process

·        Campaign finance laws

In our release we specifically stated that “members of the public, as well as public officials, public policy experts, advocacy organizations and others are invited to testify or attend the hearings and are asked to address these issues.” We also asked that if you chose to testify that testimony be submitted by noon yesterday. It appears that either you did not submit your testimony by noon or your proposed testimony is outside of the scope of the hearing. Therefore we are notifying you that rather than provide oral testimony this evening that you submit written testimony

via comments@moreland.ny.gov.

Please know that only speakers who are registered to testify this evening will be admitted.

The Commission’s website is www.publiccorruption.moreland.ny.gov

October 30, 2013 Letter to Michelle Duffy, Spokeswoman, The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

---

Dear Ms. Duffy;

I testified at the first Commission hearing on September 17th, 2013 at Pace University. I recently looked at the transcript of the September 17th hearing that the commission posted with a link from your website. 

I compared the written transcript regarding my portion of the testimony with the audiovisual record of the hearing and found that there were many conspicuous errors in it. For example, my name "Galison" is represented as "Galveston" 19 times, and is not spelled correctly once. There are many other errors as well, some trivial and some substantive.  

I have several questions regarding the transcript and the errors therein.

1) Does "the record" of the proceedings reflect the above mentioned transcript or the audiovisual recording (video)? By "the record" I am specifically referring to "the record" that is mentioned on your announcement of September 19th which states "All written testimony that is submitted will be included in the record of the proceedings".

2) Did the Commission check the accuracy of the transcript against the audiovisual record (video) before publishing it on the internet?

3) Did the Commission make any corrections to the original transcript before it was published on the internet?

4) Will the Commission review errors brought to their attention by witnesses who believe that their testimony has been misrepresented?

5) Will the Commission make corrections to the written transcript if it becomes aware of errors in it?

6) If so, will the Commission publish the corrected version of the transcript on the internet?

7) Does "the record" include all written testimony that is submitted by witnesses as stated on your website? 

8) Where can "the record" be found?

Please answer all of the above questions as soon as possible as I am working on an article regarding this topic and my deadline is end of day tomorrow, Friday, November 1. 2013. If I do not hear from you by end of day November 1, 2013, I will be forced to report that you declined to answer the questions. With the exception of the first and last questions, "Yes" or "No" answers will suffice, but feel free to comment further.

Yours truly,

Will Galison

Reporter, Backstair News

NO RESPONSE FROM MICHELLE DUFFY

"Errors" in the transcript of Will Galison's testimony; September 17th, 20013 hearing

Peter L Zimroth Esq.

URGENT EMAILS REGARDING SUNNY SHEU SENT TO PETER ZIMROTH, FEDERAL MONITOR OF NYPD ABUSES.



__________________________________________________
Email of Aug 13, 2013. 

Subject: "The most egregious abuse of NYPD power - the surveillance, kidnapping, and murder of anti corruption whistleblower Sunny Sheu."


From: Wgalison

To: Peter.Zimroth

Bcc: milton ; assistjm

Subject: The most egregious abuse of NYPD power - the surveillance, kidnapping, and murder of anti corruption whistleblower Sunny Sheu.

Date: Tue, Aug 13, 2013 7:52 am

Mr. Zimroth;

Congratulations on your appointment as federal monitor of the NYPD.

There is a story that you may be unfamiliar with, that represents the ultimate abuse of power by the NYPD, and which has been covered up by many state agencies as well as the FBI.

On June 26th, 2010, my friend and colleague Sunny Sheu was bludgeoned to death on a remote industrial strip in Flushing Queens.

Three days earlier, Mr. Sheu had declared to the Office of Court Administration "Ethics Department" that he had evidence of financial fraud by NY Supreme Court Judge Joseph Golia,

The Queens M.E. determined the cause of death to be "Blunt Force Trauma to the head with skull fractures and braininjuries", and the manner of death "undetermined". The NYPD maintains that Sheu died of an "aneurism" with "no head trauma". There has been no investigation.

Weeks prior to his death, Mr. Sheu made a video, later posted on Youtube, in which he says he was kidnapped and threatened with death by two NYPD detectives of the Queens DA Bureau if he disclosed the evidence against Golia. His illegal, warrantless detention was verified by Queens DA spokesman Kevin Ryan. Sheu also stated that the he begged the FBI for witness protection against Golia and the two Detectives. He further stated that if he were killed, it would be at their hands. The FBI ignored Sheu's plea and his evidence of judicial corruption. Since his death, they have never responded to communications or accepted evidence.

109th Precinct detective Ardisano, claimed that there was no witness to Sheu's death, but detective Austin of the samesquad wrote a letter to the M.E., claiming that a witness.

The NYPD ignored FOIL requests and appeals for documentation of the circumstances of Sheu's death, including thew alleged witness' testimony. Finally, when subsequent requests were forwarded to Christine Quinn, the NYPD furnished documents so heavily redacted as to be useless.

In plain terms, The NYPD kidnapped and threatened a civilian with death if he reported corruption, then after his brutal murder sent false evidence to the Medical Examiner in an unsuccessful attempt to sway his determination, and has covered up this murder for three years.

Commissioner Kelly has ignored all correspondence demanding transparency and accountability.

Shortly before his death Sheu, who had been a computer communications expert in Taiwanese intelligence, showed me forensic proof that his email communications had been intercepted and manipulated by someone at www.nypd.org, the non-governmental internet presence of the NYPD.

Further information and documentation of the case can be found at www.sunnysheu.blogspot.com

A thoroughly documented article on the case was published by Truthout.org.

Mr Zimroth; this case demonstrates the underlying depravity and criminality of the police department whose policies you are investigating.

 

This is nothing less than a Government sanctioned assassination of an anti corruption whistleblower, covered up, if not committed and sanctioned buy the NYPD at the highest level.

If you want to make a real and lasting difference regarding abuses by the NYPD, you will use your office to investigate this crime, wherever and to whomever it leads.

I hope to hear from you regarding this critical issue. 

Thank you. 

Will Galison 


NO RESPONSE FROM PETER ZIMROTH

_______________________________________________


Email of September 15th  2013. 

Subject: "Moreland Commission Hearings."

From: Wgalison

To: Peter.Zimroth ; assistjm ; milton ; danny

; jason ; deblasio  Subject: Moreland Commission Hearings

Date: Sun, Sep 15, 2013 9:02 am 

Mr. Zimroth,

I am a part-time reporter for the Black Star News and Truthout.org. I wrote you recently about an assassination which is being covered up by the NYPD, who also appear to be complicit in its perpetration.

I have not yet received any response to your office.

This cover up of this crime seems to be so important to the NYPD that I fear I and other witnesses and reporters with information about it are also in danger of retribution. As you know Ray Kelly is an advisor to the committee and he knows my name well, from the letters the Blackstar news sent to him regarding the case.

Mu immediate concern is that I may be barred from testifying at the Moreland Commission Hearings, out of fear that I will further disclose this case on the public record, and put Mr. Kelly and others on the spot

.

I registered to speak at the hearing before the registration form was added to the page and again less than one hour after the form was added. I have metadata proving that I registered before the roster of witnesses could possibly have been filled. If I am barred from speaking at the hearing it cannot be because I registered late or because I do not have urgently important corruption to report. It will because my testimony is being blocked by corrupt commissioners.

From nines years of fighting official corruption in New York State, I am very familiar with many of the names on the roster of Moreland Commissioners. I don't need to tell you that many are deeply complicit in crimes and corruption.

New Yorkers are counting on you to make the Moreland Hearings more than a sham, a waste of taxpayers money, and a pretext for continuing the official corruption that has become the norm in NY government.

Your acknowledgment of receipt of this letter will give me confidence in your commitment to fighting corruption in New York.

Thanks very much, 

Will Galison 

NO RESPONSE FROM PETER ZIMROTH

Video:

Peter Zimroth denies receiving the above emails despite the fact that all other parties copied recieved them both...

WEEKEND EDITION OCTOBER 18-20, 2013

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It’s Now Official

New York is Drowning in Bribes and Corruption

by PAM MARTENS

The insidious greed and public looting that Wall Street has nurtured to an art form in New York City is metastasizing like a virulent tumor strain throughout the state, fraying the social fabric and crushing people caught in its grip like bugs.

On Tuesday evening, September 17, 2013, Seema Kalia was scheduled to give testimony before the first public hearing of the New York State Moreland Commission on Public Corruption.  But according to Michelle Duffy, a spokesperson for the Commission, when Kalia’s name was called that evening, there was no response.

Kalia could not respond because she was abruptly arrested in the foyer of a courtroom on the very morning she was set to give testimony, ostensibly for contacting her ex husband, a portfolio manager on Wall Street, seeking back support payments. Kalia is being charged with violating a court order barring her from contact with her husband because she is alleged to have thrown one of his own men’s shoes at him in 2012 – a device characterized by the District Attorney’s office as a “weapon.” Typically, a misdemeanor charge of this nature would not result in jail time.

In Kalia’s case, however, she has been jailed at Rikers Island since September 17 and when she went before a Judge on October 4, she was sent back to jail for another 33 days after she declined to plead guilty to attempting to do bodily harm with a “weapon.” Her bond was doubled from $7,500 to $15,000. The earliest she might be released is November 7, her next court date.

Kalia alleges that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has stalled her case for almost a year by getting the court to agree to repeated adjournments. Two separate phone requests to the DA’s office yielded no response to clarify the allegation. (A faxed letter of inquiry to Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan DA, and Jocelyn Samuels at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department have also failed to elicit a response.)

The Moreland Commission testimony that did occur on September 17 at Pace University, in a room ridiculously too small to handle the mushrooming numbers of victims of the crime wave that New York is experiencing, mirrored the kinds of charges that Kalia has been making since 2011.  (The overflow of people wanting to testify, who were left outside on the sidewalk, staged protests.)

Preet Bharara, representing the U.S. Department of Justice as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the district that has failed to rein in the serial crimes by Wall Street’s biggest firms, said that “Public corruption, based on all the evidence, appears rampant. And the ranks of those convicted in office have swelled to absolutely unacceptable levels.” Bharara said that his office has had to prosecute “State Senators as well as State Assemblymen; elected officials as well as party leaders; city council members as well as town mayors; Democrats as well as Republicans.” It was likely little comfort to the audience that it’s a bipartisan crime wave.

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta Lynch, testified that there is a “pervasive problem of corruption by elected and appointed officials” in New York, citing former State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada who was convicted of stealing funds from Soundview Health Clinic, a federally funded clinic he operated in the Bronx. Lynch also called out former State Senator Shirley Huntley, who was sent to prison for her role in stealing funds from Parents Information Network, a non-profit organization she established to assist parents of New York City public schoolchildren.

Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union, testified that “there is a crime wave of corruption” and it has been increasing over the past 12 years.

When it came time for the general public to testify about public corruption, it wasn’t legislative leaders the witnesses railed against, it was corrupt judges. Multiple witnesses testified to having real estate property stolen through corrupt court proceedings. One witness, Dale Javino, said he was cheated out of his life savings in bankruptcy court and what happened to him “is like what happens in Nazi Germany…”

Leon Koziol testified that the retribution he sustained after reporting unethical judges to authorities “reads like a John Grisham novel…” Echoing the testimony of others, Koziol said a series of complaints over the years to the Committee on Judicial Conduct failed to reach the investigative threshold, “leading the common citizen to logically conclude that such commissions are a mere window dressing, which does more to facilitate misconduct than it does to rectify it.” Koziol concluded by saying it is one thing to ignore public corruption but quite another to target and punish the whistleblower.

Ellen Oxman said “I believe the topic that you all wanted to hear was the unethical conduct by elected public officials – they would be the judges of the courts of this state.” Oxman went on to say that “If you can have litigation in this state, in this country, with a judge who accepts forged documents, by lawyers who are not admitted into the case, and you don’t even know the litigation has come to pass, then we don’t have a democracy.”

Much of the focus was on judges said to have been corrupted by the more powerful party in divorce or custody matters. Nora Renzulli, reading from a previous complaint letter she had written, explained to the Commission that “Just as in the Catholic Church hierarchy’s longstanding tolerance for sexual abuse of children by priests, there is a broader scandal brewing in New York Court System’s tolerance for legally sanctioned judicial misconduct when judges reward an aggressive and litigious parent with custody and child support, who then excludes the other parent from relationship with the children.” This was a refrain that would be heard over and over again that night.

Janice Schacter, a retired attorney, said that the Thomas Street location of the New York State Supreme Court “is pay to play; orders are not enforced, laws are not applied, domestic violence is treated with derision and conflicts of interest are ignored. Deference and preferential treatment are given to wealthy spouses and lawyers of prestigious firms.” Schacter also testified that the judge involved in her case attempted to censor her contact with the press by threatening to send her to jail at Rikers Island for 20 days. She said she was still having nightmares about it.

William Galison explained how he has spent years providing testimony “regarding egregious corruption in the nomination and confirmation” of Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge of the State of New York and Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, only to have his evidence ignored by investigatory bodies. After citing a litany of conflicts of interest in the confirmation process, Galison played a tape recording of a voice mail message left on his answering machine by a member of the Judicial Nomination Commission telling him that his evidence against the judge was going to be shredded.

A woman who stated at the outset that she would attempt to get through her testimony without breaking down, Margarita Walter, said her family had fled communist Cuba in 1959 seeking freedom and human rights in the United States. Instead, over the past 12 years, Walter said she has been subjected to “cruel and retaliatory tactics for exposing egregious misconduct and racketeering” in the Westchester courts, a wealthy suburb on the outskirts of New York City.

Walter’s allegations parallel those of Seema Kalia, the woman arrested on the same day she was to present testimony before the Moreland Commission. Both women have been denied access to seeing their children. Both have been stripped of their assets. Both believe their court cases were rigged. Both have filed complaints with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and the Commission on Judicial Conduct, to no avail.

The one thing that sets the two apart is that Seema Kalia is behind bars in Rikers Island over a misdemeanor charge which is incorrectly listed as a Class D Felony at the New York City Department of Correction inmate lookup web site. I provided the correct information to the Department of Correction, showing that the shoe-throwing incident had previously been reduced to a misdemeanor by the District Attorney’s office, and asking if someone might have provided phony documents to incarcerate Ms. Kalia. A response was promised by my deadline. None was forthcoming.

The idea that judges could be bribed or have quid pro quoarrangements with high powered lawyers is not charting new ground in New York City.

In 2007, New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerald P. Garson was convicted of accepting bribes from divorce attorney Paul Siminovsky. During an eight-month investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, a video camera secretly placed in Garson’s chambers captured Siminovsky plying Garson with expensive cigars and cash. In court proceedings, Siminovsky testified that he entertained the judge with drinks and meals in exchange for favorable courtroom treatment. Siminovsky pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail.

A Brooklyn rabbi, Ezra Zifrani and his daughter, Esther Weitzner, pleaded guilty to giving $5,000 to an intermediary who “clearly implied he was going to bribe Judge Gerald Garson” in November 2002. Garson, at the time, was the judge hearing a child custody dispute between Weitzner and her ex-husband.

To get around the random computer selection of judges to hear cases, court employees were brought into the conspiracy and given bribes to steer cases to Garson, according to the District Attorney’s office.

After years of appeals, Garson, who had heard over 1,100 divorce cases, served only 2 ½ years in prison before being paroled on December 23, 2009. His maximum term could have been as much as 15 years at the time of sentencing but he received a sentence of 3 to 10 years. His early release set off protests with signs saying “Crime Pays In New York City” and “Justice for Sale.”

At the time all of this was playing out, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn District Attorney, said judgeships were for sale in New York. Wayne Barrett, writing for The Village Voice, published an in-depth investigative report on January 9, 2007, writing: “It wasn’t just that a case could be fixed. The darker secret was that the bench itself had been bought, that its polyester black robes were on a perpetual special-sale rack, that smarmy party bosses, ensconced at 16 Court Street across from the supreme court they ruled, demanded cash tribute to ‘make’ a judge. The district attorney, Joe Hynes, who first heard the rumor 36 years ago when he was a young prosecutor running the office’s rackets bureau, said in 2003 that he’d have to be ‘naive to think it didn’t happen,’ that it was ‘common street talk that this has been going on for eons.’ ”

For years, myself and others warned that Wall Street was destined to collapse under the weight of its own corruption. It did. Now civic minded members of the public are blowing the whistle on a systemically corrupt court system desperately in need of a Federal investigation, not a state-run commission investigating fellow cronies.

If one needs the ultimate proof that New York cannot heal itself, consider the amount of the bail bond that was set prior to sentencing after Judge Garson was convicted of accepting bribes while seated as a New York State Supreme Court Judge. His bond was set at $15,000.  That’s the amount set in Seema Kalia’s case for a misdemeanor charge stemming from throwing a man’s shoe.

Pam Martens has been a contributing writer at CounterPunch since 2006. Martens writes regularly on finance atwww.WallStreetOnParade.com.

Page 137 Transcript of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

Specific Disqualification for Conflicts of Interest
of Commission Members & "Advisors":

Milton Williams, Jr./Chairman, Fund for Modern Court

link to:  CJA's webpage for Appellate Division, 1st Dept appeal

in Mantell v. Commission on Judicial Conduct

Milt Williams and Jonathan  Lippman

Milt William's "Fund For Modern Courts" were advocates for the omination and confirmation of Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, and were complicit in the illegal confirmation hearings of Lippman in 2009.  

Betty Weinberg Ellerin"Justice Weinberg Ellerin served for more than twenty years as a judge. During that time, she served as Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for the New York City Courts and as Associate Justice and Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department."

link to: CJA's webpage for Appellate Division, 1st Dept. appeal

in Sassower v. Commission on Judicial Conduct

Richard Briffault "Richard Briffault is the Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School. His primary areas of teaching, research and writing are state and local government law and the law of the political process. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 1983, he was an Assistant Counsel to the Governor of the State of New York. He has served as the executive director of the Special Commission on Campaign Finance Reform of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, as well as a consultant to the New York City Charter Revision Commission and the New York State Commission on Constitutional Revisions."

link to:  Building Scholarship 

Daniel Castleman"Mr. Castleman spent nearly 30 years at the New York County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Castleman started his career there in 1979 as an appellate and street crime prosecutor. He then became a Senior Investigative Counsel in the Rackets Bureau handling political corruption and organized crime cases. After three years, Mr. Castleman became the Chief of the Rackets Bureau in 1990. In 1993, Mr. Castleman was promoted to Chief of the Investigation Division. Mr. Castleman then became Chief Assistant District Attorney in 2008."

 link to: CJA's webpage for Manhattan D.A. Morgenthau

Robert Morgenthau

(advisor)"Mr. Morgenthau was the District Attorney for New York County from 1975 to 2009. In his nine terms in office, his staff conducted approximately 3.5 million criminal prosecutions.... In addition, Mr. Morgenthau was known as a national leader in the prosecution of white collar crime. Prior to serving as D.A., Mr. Morgenthau...was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York..." 

       link to: CJA's webpage for Manhattan D.A. Morgenthau

Babara Bartoletti/Legislative Director, League of Women Voters

(advisor)"Barbara Bartoletti has been the Legislative Director for the League of Women Voters of New York since 1988, and a member of the League of Women Voters since 1978."

link to: League of Women Voters

Raymond Kelly (advisor) has been the subject of thousands of complaints regarding alleged corruption within the NYPD, including the cover up of the murder of anti corruption whistleblower Sunny Sheu.

NY State: Conflict of interest Law 

PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW 39

h. An officer or employee of a state agency, member of the legislature or legislative employee should endeavor to pursue a course of conduct which will not raise suspicion among the public that he is likely to be engaged in acts that are in violation of his trust.

i. No officer or employee of a state agency employed on a full-time basis nor any firm or association of which such an officer or employee is a member nor corporation a substantial portion of the stock of which is owned or con- trolled directly or indirectly by such officer or employee, should sell goods or services to any person, firm, corporation or association which is licensed or whose rates are fixed by the state agency in which such officer or employee serves or is employed.

4. Violations. In addition to any penalty contained in any other provision of law any such officer, member or employee who shall knowingly and inten- tionally violate any of the provisions of this section may be fined, suspended or removed from office or employment in the manner provided by law. Any such individual who knowingly and intentionally violates the provisions of paragraph b, c, d or i of subdivision three of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars and the value of any gift, compensation or benefit received as a result of such violation. Any such individual who knowingly and intentionally violates the provisions of paragraph a, e or g of subdivision three of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed the value of any gift, compensation or benefit received as a result of such violation.