YONKERS, NY: Joan Gronowski for City Council - Press Advisory

Joan Gronowski for City Council - Press Advisory.

Filed under: Joan Gronowski for City Council — wielandheusler @ 5:54 pm

Joan Gronowski for Yonkers City Council - 3rd District.

March 20, 2007

Joan Gronowski (D) will announce her candidacy for the 3^rd District City Council seat on Thursday, March 22^nd, at 1:00 pm in front of Woodstock Manor,755 Palisade Avenue, Yonkers.  Ms. Gronowski is a lifelong resident of Yonkers, and a former City of Yonkers employee.

For Information Contact:

Joan Gronowski:  914-476-6506

YONKERS, NY: Yonkers Insider Editorial - Big defeat for MacKay in Court - By Delfim Heusler

Yonkers Insider Editorial.

Filed under: Giulio Cavallo, Team Corruption, The Westchester Integrity Committee, Yonkers Insider Editorial, Politics — wielandheusler @ 2:48 am

Read Supreme Court Judge Levine’s Decision from Kings County.

Big defeat for MacKay in Court.

The Yonkers Insider writes this editorial on the big defeat for Frank MacKay in Kings County. It ruled that MacKay’s amendment to State Committee rules to give it the right to remove members and officers of county committee was declared invalid. The is a basic rebuking of MacKay by Supreme Court Judge Levine. Levine further ruled that this action violated the provisions of Election Law regarding the County Committees. This is a total loss and rebuking of MacKay. This will have far reaching implications as well. This decision will give no power to MacKay in trying to help protect his partner - Giulio Cavallo. MacKay can’t intervene and undo a fair and legal Westchester Reorg, thanks to this courageous decision. Much credit goes to Justice Levine who showed courage much like Supreme Court Justice Donovan did prior. The reign of Cavallo will soon be over, once the legal reorg happens. It will be a new day of Integrity returning to the Westchester County Independence Party, in terms of new leadership of Nader Sayegh and TheWestchester Integrity Committee. The rule of law will return to the Westchester County Independence Party and will be the end of the corrupt team known as Team Corruption. I will also attach the Levine decision to this article, so people may read it for themselves.

The Yonkers Insider

YONKERS, NY: More Cavallo Fraud - By Delfim Heusler

More Cavallo Fraud.

Filed under: Giulio Cavallo, Team Corruption, Westchester County Government — wielandheusler @ 6:01 pm

The members of the Department of Public Safety Advisory Board are:  

Lawrence Graham (Chair)

Michael Bruno

Dr. Giulio Cavallo

Donald Dozier

Napoleon Mitchell

Russell Tenenzapf

Source: Westchester County Department of Public Safety.

Editor’s Note: Cavallo is not a licensed and practicing Doctor. He should not be regarded as a Doctor and should not be allowed to put Doctor before his name.  This is more fraud on the part of Giulio Cavallo with the protection of his friends in Westchester County Government.

The Yonkers Insider

YONKERS, NY: News from Majority Leader Patricia McDow, Yonkers City Council

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

McDow calls potential reduction in MHA security

outrageous lapse of judgment

Hon. Patricia McDow, First District Council Member of Yonkers and City Council Majority Leader expressed disbelief and dismay at hearing about new Yonkers Housing Authority Executive Director Joseph Shuldiner’s plans to reduce patrols and security in MHA’s Housing Complexes.  She indicated that that kind of action will only result in promoting violence for the City as a whole.

“After touring Schroeder Street with our County Legislator and a representative from Congresswoman Lowey’s Office and expressing our concerns, this is his response?  Rather than making things better, his actions will make things considerably worse in housing complexes”, said the Majority Leader.

McDow referred to a March 6 tour that she made with County Legislator Ken Jenkins and Sara Rudow from Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s District Office of Schroeder Street housing.  That tour concentrated on the conditions at that complex, but also security concerns, which are never far from the legislators’ minds, especially with the warm weather coming.  As a result, Congresswoman Lowey forwarded a letter to Mr. Shuldiner pursuant to a request from Majority Leader McDow.  McDow feels that Mr. Shuldiner’s decisions regarding security should be made in light of how this will affect the entire City, not just MHA complexes.

“If things get out of control on MHA sites, the problems do not just stay with MHA.  Also, there is the concern for people who live in MHA complexes and how they will be affected by a lack of adequate security.  Less security will encourage the proliferation of drugs and violence.  Mr. Shuldiner can’t just turn his back on the residents”, she said.

The Majority Leader is calling on Mayor Amicone and Police Commissioner Hartnett to work with Mr. Shuldiner to come up with a better solution that will not entail the wholesale reduction of security in MHA.

“If there are fewer security forces and housing police within MHA complexes, that means that Police Precincts will have to be called upon more often to address crime at those sites.  That will reduce available forces for other areas”, said Majority Leader McDow.

“As I said before, I understand that Mr. Shuldiner only recently took up a post that oversees property that has been in dire straits for a long time, but it is important that he doesn’t focus his attention solely on Mulford Gardens Hope VI site, to the detriment of the other complexes.  That would be disastrous”, concluded McDow.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY: County Legislator Jose Alvarado Press Advisory

ALVARADO and Mamaroneck POLICE hold press conference

SEEKING IDENTITY OF MURDER VICTIM

Who: County Legislator Jose I. Alvarado, (District 17, Yonkers) joins Lt. James Gaffney and Officer Edgar Prieto of the Mamaroneck Police Department getting the word out to the Spanish language media that help is needed.

What: Tips and information from the public may lead to the identity of a young woman whose body was found on the Shore of Harbor Island Park in Mamaroneck. As well as people who may have known her.

Why: “It’s important to get the word out to everyone in the region that since the victim may be Latino, it’s critical to double the effort in the Spanish speaking community,” said Alvarado. The victim has a strong distinguishing feature that is not commonplace—a tattoo of two cherries on a stem above the right breast.. Described as either Latina or African-American, detectives hope that Lower Hudson Valley tattoo artists can provide a clue to the woman’s identity. Alvarado said that all telephone calls regarding this matter will be treated as confidential.

When: March 15^th, 2007 at 11:00 a.m.

Where: Emelin Theatre, 136 Prospect Avenue, (situated opposite the police department), Village of Mamaroneck, Mamaroneck, NY

Anyone with information should call the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department at 914-777- 7780 or Officer Edgar Prieto at 914-777-7740, or Detective David Casterella at the Detective Bureau at 914-777-7743.

WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN: Federal Appeals Court Exposes Pirro’s Misconduct

“In twelve years on this Court I have never seen such a Brady violation.”
Last Tuesday, August 22nd, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed up a decision in the Anthony DiSimone case. The appeal was by Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore’s Office, as Cross-Appellee, in opposition to an earlier decision by Federal District Court Judge Charles Brieant, granting a writ of habeas corpus, on a challenge to sufficiency of evidence, which produced a conviction for Depraved Indifference Murder. The decision, which reversed the lower Court’s ruling, for “procedural insufficiency,” more importantly exposed the prosecutorial misconduct, and outright unlawful activities engaged in by former DA Jeanine Pirro, and now justified, and defended, by Janet DiFiore, her successor.

Specifically, although the main thrust of the original petition filed by DiSimone, with the Federal District Court, dealt with the sufficiency of evidence presented in connection with his conviction for Depraved Indifference Murder in the death of Louis Balancio, the real significance of the decision is its detailed exposure of the calculated, and unlawful activities engaged in by a malicious prosecutor bent on convicting an innocent Defendant, for her own purposes, at any cost. The case arises from a street brawl in front of the former Strike Zone Bar, on Central Avenue in Yonkers, in 1994, between some thirty local toughs that resulted in the death of the 21-year-old college student who suffered a total of thirteen stab wounds.

Defendant DiSimone, who continued to live in plain sight in the City of Yonkers, with his wife and infant son, became the target of one of DA Pirro’s more imaginative propaganda efforts. She would falsely claim that he had run off to Sicily, and that he was being pro tected by the Cosa Nostra. She would twice try to indict him, failing each time, while succeeding in indicting Darin Mazzarella, a known criminal charged in other homicides and present at the Strike Zone incident. Finally, only after empanelling a so-called “special grand jury” and offering immunity from prosecution, and placement into a witness protection program to Mazzarella, and his equally violent, and criminal brother Nick, in return for testimony against DiSimone,, was Mrs. Pirro able to secure an indictment against him.

The 29-page decision, authored by Justice Calabresi, the presiding judge of the three judge panel, who listened to the oral arguments offered by John R Bartels, Jr., attorney for Anthony Di-Simone, and Valerie A. Livingston, for DA Janet DiFiore, on June 21, disposes of the Defendant’s principle contention within the first half of the text concluding, “Because we find that DiSimone’s insufficiency claim was procedurally defaulted, we need not, and do not consider its merits:”

DiSimone, who was acquitted at trial of intentional murder, by a jury of his peers, was arguing that his conviction for Depraved Indifference Murder was not supported by the evidence produced at that trial, in accordance with a line of recent New York State Court of Appeals decisions in Gonzalez, Payne, and Policano, and several other cases over the past 2 ½ years. However, Sufficiency of the Evidence, although the basis of Judge Brieant’s habeas corpus grant, was not the only claim brought by DiSimone. There was the Brady violation claim, dealing with the obligation of the Prosecution to present to Defendants any, and all, information turned up by the Prosecution, which may be exculpatory to the Defendant, as well as the Confrontational Clause, the right of an Accused to confront his accusers as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Of these, the Federal Appeals tribunal was most interested in, and offended by, the particulars of DiSimone’s Brady claim. The Court, in its decision, summarized DiSimone’s Brady claim, stating, “DiSimone argues that the state violated its Brady obligation by failing to disclose, until near the close of the government’s case, information that a person other than DiSimone had asserted that he had stabbed the victim twice just before DiSimone allegedly stabbed the victim.”

This reporter was present on June 21st of this year for the oral arguments at the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals, when Presiding Judge Calabresi made his impassioned declaration, “In twelve years on this Court I have never seen such a Brady violation.” That declaration not only set the direction the Court would be pursuing that day but, in a broader sense, it represented a harbinger of things to come, as federal and state appellate tribunals become increasingly aware of the egregious and morally bankrupt practices engaged in by the Westchester District Attorney’s Office for twelve years under the Pirro regime.

In fact, on February 10, 1994, just six days following the Balancio murder, Yonkers Police Detective Robert Molinaro had interviewed a 21-year-old Yonkers resident, Luvic Gjonaj, who provided a signed statement indicating that on February 6, 1994, his cousin, Nickoun Djonovic, had told him that he had been at the Strike Zone bar on the Thursday night of the incident, and had gotten involved in the fight, and had stabbed two people, one of whom was Louis Balancio, who he admitted stabbing twice, once in the chest. Furthermore detectives had obtained a search warrant for Djonovic’s apartment, found, and seized a bloody jacket, corroborating his confession.

However, Mrs. Pirro was not interested in this evidence because it did not fit the scheme and the profile she needed to project. Pirro saw the tragic events at the Strike Zone as an opportunity to help her shed her well-earned reputation as a prosecutor who didn’t prosecute Organized Crime. Her husband Al’s connection to it helped reinforce that reputation. She was determined to make this brawl between young street fighters into a Mafia thing. And, so naturally a murderer, even a confessed murderer, named Nickoun Djonmovic, somehow just wouldn’t fill the bill, the way someone with an Italian sounding name would.

The Court observed, “DiSimone made three separate requests for Brady material.” First in pre-trial motions in January 2000, then one week before the start of the trial, in a letter dated September 25, 2000, and finally, on October 2, 2000, just before jury selection. At no point did Mrs. Pirro’s Office turn over the Gjonaj statement, instead, moving to suppress its admission, stating, “It is the People’s position there is no link in the chain of evidence that connects Nick Djonovic to the commission of this homicide.”

Mrs. Pirro, anxious to convict someone she had maliciously and dishonestly portrayed as a member of Organized Crime, would now engage in the worst kind of prosecutorial misconduct, including subornation of perjury, to achieve her ends. And, she was not alone in her evil conspiracy. Judge James Cowhey, who, not so coincidently, dated her mother, Ester Ferris, was involved in the conspiracy to convict an innocent defendant, right up to his eyeballs, as Judge Calabresi indicates, “The trial court did not turn the statement over to the Defense until eleven days after it had received it from the Prosecution, shortly before the close of thestate’s case.”

Cowhey then refused to grant a motion by DiSimone’s attorney seeking a continuance, and time to put together a strategy, based on the new information which had been withheld. He then proceeded to reject three motions for mistrial that were based on the glaring Brady violations.

The Appeals Court decision leaves little doubt that the materials unlawfully withheld from DiSimone, “tended to support a potential Defense theory that, whatever DiSimone’as involvement in the fight, he was not the cause of Balancio’s death.” Justice Calabresi states, “Whatever else it may be, it is not murder to shoot a dead body. Man dies but once.”

He then gets tough with Janet DiFiore, who now appears to relish defending and justifying Jeanine Pirro’s outrageously unlawful prosecutorial misconduct, declaring, “ The government’s contentions to the contrary are wholly without merit.” He goes on, “In the first place, if there were questions about the reliability of the exculpatory information, it was the prerogative of the Defendant and his counsel, and not of the Prosecution, to exercise judgment in determining whether the Defendant should make use of it.”

The Court concludes that the information was favorable to the Defendant, and material, and that its late disclosure significantly influenced the outcome of the trial. The Court further notes the existence of one very small spot of blood supposedly connecting the Defendant, on a sweater that, interestingly was never proven to have belonged to DiSimone. The Court reminds that, “No witness testified to seeing the stabbing, and the murder weapon was not recovered.”

What the Court may not have known was that the Prosecution’s so-called Blood Splatter Expert was hired two days before the trial, and was paid more than $30,000 to make his assessments from photographs. Neither could the Court be aware of Mrs. Pirro’s antics. Appearing several times in the trial courtroom with the victim’s mother, and on television and in the press with her as well, all calculated to improperly persuade the jury.
Judge Calabresi declares, “We hold that there is a reasonable probability that had this material (the statement implicating Djonovic) been available the result in the case would have been quite different.”

Those who have observed the patterns and practices over twelve years in the Westchester District Attorney’s Office under Jeanine Pirro are only too well aware of the repeated outrageous prosecutorial misconduct, and outright criminal activity engaged in to achieve her despicable self-promotional agenda, The Anthony DiSimone case is but one of a long list of serious injustices perpetrated by Jeanine Pirro and a small number of misguided and selfishly motivated prosecutors whose criminal and reprehensible actions are just now slowly coming to light.
There are numerous innocent individuals, who, like Mr. DiSimone have been incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. They and their families have paid, and continue to pay, for the mistake the People of Westchester made three times when they entrusted Jeanine Pirro to be their chief law enforcement officer. Over Time, as the courts recognize the magnitude and the frequency of Mrs. Pirro’s evil, criminal deeds, underthe color of law, the taxpayers of Westchester will be burdened with the cost of compensating her victims.

The Depraved Indifference Murder Statute has been a “boondoggle,” abused and manipulated by prosecutors throughout New York State for 39 years, with the full knowledge and complicity of the state’s highest court. Not until March 2004, with the Gonzalez Decision, out of Rochester, did the Court of Appeals begin to seriously, if not wholeheartedly, come to grips with the injustices worked by ruthless prosecutors throughits nebulous and confusing language.

Some prosecutors more than others, those whose agendas were most self-promotional, such as Jeanine Pirro, and Charles Hynes, abused the statute to the level of criminality, frequently offering juries, and unwary judges, a smorgasbord selection of murder theories, Intentional, or Depraved Mind, counting on the notion that “juries love to compromise.”

Those of us who attended the oral arguments in the DiSimone case, emerged from the courthouse not quite sure of what we had witnessed, given that the principle claim involved Depraved Indifference Murder, and yet, the three justices had continued to dwell on, and ask questions, almost exclusively, about Brady violations. Later that day we got a glimpse of what was on their minds, when the Court posted information on the Policano case, and took the most unusual step, calling upon the New York State Court of Appeals for “certification” regarding the Depraved Indifference Murder Statute, and whether the rules of interpretation under which that court has been recently operating constitute “old, or new, law.”

In reality, the Federal Court was saying to the state’s highest court, “You’ve permitted this situation that unjustly, and unfairly advantages prosecutors to go on for nearly forty years. And, now, suddenly two years ago, you began dealing with it. Well, some of the residue is landing on our steps, so please give us some guidance to help us clean up your mess.”

WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN: The Candidates And Our ReadersRespond

Editor’s note: The following statements from Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Nicholas Spano, candidates for
State Senate in the 35th State Senatorial District, are in response to our editorial in the August 17, 2006
edition of The Westchester Guardian.

Statement by Democratic State Senate Candidate Andrea Stewart-Cousins

I would welcome the United States Department of Justice providing monitors for the upcoming State
Senate election. In Yonkers in 2004, just as in Florida in 2000, the Republican Party worked very hard to make sure that thousands of votes from registered Democrats were not counted, yet somehow, 23 voting machines in Yonkers were all misread in favor of Republican Nick Spano. Justice Department oversight is a much-needed step in ensuring fair elections, but it will take far more to clean up the mess in Albany left by Republicans Pataki and Spano.

Statement by Republican Incumbent State Senator Nicholas Spano

I welcome the monitoring of this year’s election. If this had occurred in the last election we would have
prevented many irregularities and fraud, that was conducted on Election Day by my opponent’s campaign.\
There were 8,000 paper ballots, 5,000 of which were thrown out.

In Our Opinion...

Two weeks ago we called upon the United States Department of Justice to “provide monitors and U.S. Marshals for the upcoming election for State Senate in the 35th Senatorial District, to ensure a fair and totally honest outcome.” We had contacted Mr. Herbert Hadad spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office
for the Southern District of New York, expressing our concerns that the upcoming rematch between Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Nick Spano might produce the kind of monumental dispute that was witnessed two years ago following their first contest.

Believing that each of the candidates would not wish to go through that kind of ordeal again, and that whomever would win would certainly not want to be viewed as having achieved anything less than an honest victory, we approached Mr. Spano and Ms. Stewart-Cousins seeking their individual endorsements of our proposal. Their responses appear opposite.

Having received the endorsement of each candidate, we intensified our enlistment activities with the Justice Department, this time going directly to the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington D.C., where we were informed that there certainly was a strong interest in maintaining the integrity of the election process, and that they would definitely respond to voters’ concerns.

This is not a partisan issue. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Conservatives alike must all recognize the importance of a secure, uncorrupted election process, not merely in the 35th District, but everywhere throughout the Westchester community.

We are calling, once again, for monitors and enforcement personnel to closely observe and regulate the activities near, and at, polling places, as pertains to the casting of ballots, recording and reporting of results, on both the first, and second canvass, as well as the handling of voters, and issues that may arise.

The Justice Department, having assured us that they will be “sensitive, and responsive” to citizens’ concerns, we now call upon our readers to take the time to communicate your feelings on this issue to:

The United States Department of Justice
John Tanner, Chief of the Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20530

Our Readers Respond...


Dear Editor:

Your article on New Rochelle expounds on Mayor Noam Bramson’s views of the city’s high rise buildings. His characterization of New Rochelle’s dramatic “transformation” does not address the many quality of life issues which have been detailed in the recent Draft Environmental Impact Statements (DEIS) and sharply contrasts to other views expressed which criticize these high rise buildings as out of place and architecturally undistinguished. (“Just How High Should Progress Go” by Joseph Berger, New York Times, August 6, 2006, and “Is Westchester Missing an Opportunity?” by Cheryl Winter Lewy, The Sound Report, August 18, 2006).

In the DEIS for the LeCount Square proposal, taxpayers are told that more police officers, firefighters and officers and another part time ambulance is needed. The DEIS for the proposed Church/Division garage also cites the need for more city service workers, but adds to this mix that the Department of Public Works would require an additional two workers, a motor equipment operator, and a vehicle. The Fire Commissioner stated a taller ladder is needed for “vertical response.” Noise levels in the areas of both projects are already at unacceptable levels according to HUD guidelines and city ordinances. Our sewage processing plant is
operating above its permit level and backups have occurred in cellars, especially during heavy rain storms.

To add to all this mix, in the August 20, 2006 Journal News (“Changes May Come to North Avenue” by Ken Valenti) it is stated that New Rochelle is seeking a consultant who will be given directions to “consider allowing taller buildings” to six stories for the North Avenue corridor (mentioning from the train station and Iona College). Why is the city seeking a consultant? Intersections with unsatisfactory traffic conditions have been described
in these recent DEIS’s and North Avenue has always been consid-ered a bottleneck. So how can a consultant honestly recommend more density on this avenue, and why is a consultant even asked this question?

Instead, don’t the taxpayers of New Rochelle deserve some historic preservation of the city and a return to “Common Sense?”

Peggy Godfrey
New Rochelle

Dear Editor:

You recommendations for a twin to the Tappan Zee Bridge is mistaken. More traffic lanes will encourage more cars, which will increase pollution and greenhouse gasses. More traffic lanes (including access roads for the bridges) will mean paving over more land, and too much of our natural and architectural heritage has already been lost to pavement. In addition, taking property for traffic lanes will decrease property tax revenues and add to housing problems. Furthermore, building a new bridge will be at least as expensive as the alternate you scorn.

Instead, we should seek to increase river-crossing capacity without bringing in new vehicles. A good solution would be a light rail on the existing bridge. Two light rail tracks (one for each direction) can fit into the space of a single traffic lane. The light rail could run from Rockland County to Port Chester, eventually, but at least it should cross the bridge. The light rail can be built during rehabilitation of the existing bridge.

And if rehabilitating the existing bridge means temporarily reducing its capacity less than the end product will have, there can be ferries across the river with shuttle buses instead of massive parking lots to bring people to them. Some of the ferries can keep operating even after the bridge’s lanes are put back in service.

Jeanette Wolfberg
Mount Kisco

WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN: When Is An Alibi Not An Alibi?

The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

State Supreme Court, White Plains
Judge Lester Adler Presiding

Monday, August 21st Defendant Jesse O’Brien, charged with First and Second Degree Robbery, and Second Degree Assault, as well as lesser felonies, in a seven-count indictment arising from an incident in Yonkers, appeared for a pre-trial hearing before Judge Lester Adler. O’Brien was accompanied by his Attorney, Richard Candee, who announced at the start of the hearing that he possessed T-Mobil cell phone records and Sony Corporation computer usage records that would place his client, at the time of the incident with which he is charged, in a situation that would tend to make it “doubtful that he engaged in the criminal activity he is charged with.”

Responding to Mr. Candee, Assistant District Attorney Calvin Scholar, addressing the Court, declared that any such materials constitute an alibi, and, as such, needed to be turned over to his office. Attorney Candee responded, “Sony records of the use of his computer at, or about, the time of the alleged crime does not constitute an alibi, and thus we are not bound to turn over such records to the DA’s Office.”

Judge Adler, who had met with the attorneys, in chambers, prior to entering the courtroom, now offered, “By denying that you committed the act in this case, under New York State law constitutes an alibi.” Mr. Scholar followed with, “If Mr. Candee presents a witness by way of establishing an alibi, it is our position that we are entitled to that information.” Judge Adler then asked, “Is the person who was on the phone able to state that the Defendant was at some other location at the time of the crime? The Court would submit that the records would serve only one purpose at the trial, to convince the jury that the Defendant was someplace else. The spirit of the legislation is such as to prevent surprise of the Prosecution. It looks like, and should be treated like alibi material.”

Mr. Candee, visibly upset with Adler’s position, now said, “I do have a strategy, and that strategy does not involve turning over my entire case before it is necessary to.” Mr. Scholar now informed the Court and the Defense that he had two witnesses waiting to be examined, Yonkers Detective Chiarello and Police Officer Rodriguez. He suggested that Mr. Candee might have wished to interview them privately before their appearances.

Candee, reluctant at first, then complied with a request by Adler that he, in fact, speak with the officers.
Following a brief adjournment, during which Mr. Candee availed himself of the opportunity to interview each officer, Judge Adler opened the hearing with, “By prior decision of this Court the Court has granted a hearing on the Defense motion to suppress identifications offered by the Prosecution.”

Mr. Candee immediately followed with a statement raising his concerns over a possible Brady material issue as might be involved with what he referred to as “conflicts” posed by the question of whether the perpetrator was described as White or Hispanic. There followed the presentation of Prosecution witnesses Yonkers Detective Sgt. Kevin Scully, and Detective Anthony Chiarello, as well as Police Officer Rodriguez. The purpose of the hearing was essentially to establish the reliability of the identification of the Defendant by police sources.

Analysis:

The issue here was whether Defense materials that are not being offered specifically to establish that an accused was somewhere other than at the crime scene, at the time of the alleged crime, but that might tend to suggest that he was not, must be treated as alibi evidence subject to release upon request by the Prosecution, under the rules of state legislation governing alibi evidence.

WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN: Our Readers Respond - Westchester Public Affairs

Dear Editor:

Ms. Camacho should be applauded for attempting, albeit poorly, to make the argument for bilingual education.
As our public schools flounder with accommodation and forced tolerance for varying heritages, sensitivities, beliefs, religions and most importantly languages, we witness the corresponding failures of same in our schools and its students. Conversely, our private and parochial school students continue to thrive, excel and produce more college-bound students and subsequent graduates than ever before! In fact, other-language families that insist on the best for their children are enrolling their children in these same schools, whether financially difficult or not. Their heritage, language duality and beliefs are practiced at home, as it should be.

Supporting multi-culturalism does exempt those same people from becoming part of our society’s thread through assimilation. Forcing us to accept what they want will only further resistance and ultimately exclusion from the
very fabric Ms. Comacho argues for.

Stop thinking as a Hispanic, and more like the American they believed they could be by coming here (hopefully legally). This includes learning the English language, for free at night school, as other immigrants have. They will then find more acceptance, success and a bigger slice of the American pie they can dig into. If not, they will always be those “other people” with their hand out looking for something-for-nothing.

Z.K.
White Plains

Dear Editor:

Thank you so much for this paper! I couldn’t help thinking how it will change a lot of people in some very positive ways. Thank you for your excellent piece on Pirro! She and her husband are so vile, I never understood how she could be re-elected. The paper is well thought out and prints out real news from real people. I was particularly pleased to see the Living Latino in Westchester column. I was an ESL instructor for many years, so the article was just right on the mark. Perhaps a follow-up article could be done on the award-winning Washington Irving Elementary Bilingual Program inTarrytown. Perhaps even an occasional piece in Spanish and the other languages that are used here would be of interest.

The huge linguistic diversity that the county now has would make for an even broader readership. Spanish, though, is essential. On another point, given the fall of Joe Lieberman, I also would like to suggest a story on the candidates that are challenging their rivals in the Sept. 12 primary elections. As you may know Johnathan Tasini is challenging Mrs. Clinton, Jessica Flagg is up against EliotEngel, and there are others throughout the
county running for state offices.

For many years I have felt disenfranchised from local goings-on. I went to high school in DobbsFerry and then basically left the country as there were no jobs after my finishing my undergrad degree at CCNY, which it seems lost far too many people though it was tuition-free. This was in the mid-1970s when the reactionary Herald Statesman was still the only paper widely read.

O.F.
Yonkers

In Our Opinion...

What is George Pataki, a ‘lame duck’ governor who, at last polling, garnered a 9% approval rating, doing in Iowa? Last week found Pataki back in Iowa where, we are told, he was “campaigning and raising money for legislative candidates, and testing the waters for a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.” Really?

Many in Iowa, and in other parts of the country, well removed from New York, believe that his greatest vulnerability lies in the general perception that he is a Northeastern Moderate. Of course, we, here, in what was once the Empire State, know that fact may ultimately be the least of his problems. Simply stated, George Pataki has been a huge let down to voters across New York, Democrats and Republicans, moderates and conservatives, alike.

Pataki, who ran on a platform that promised fiscal conservatism and a trimming of state government in order to bring taxes under control, quickly showed his colors upon taking office in 1994. Within weeks of moving into the governor’s mansion Pataki went about pulling money from programs for the elderly and the disabled, cynically
balancing his budget on the backs of those who were virtually defenseless and who could least afford it. At the same time, he filled the ranks of state government and the many hundreds of state authorities with his cronies and pals, many of whom proved to be common criminals.

For example, there was Robert Boyle, appointed by Pataki as Chairman of the Port of New York Authority, and the Javits Center. Boyle, who ripped off the Hudson Valley Hospital Center, in conspiracy with Al Pirro, for more than $600,000 was frequently described, together with Pirro, byPataki, as his “best friends and fundraisers.” Incidentally, Pataki was a member of the hospital’s board of directors when Boyle, it’s chairman, and Pirro, pulled off their fraudulent scheme.

Then there was Jack Gaffney, former Supervisor of Cortlandt, and fatherin-law of Pataki’s, and Jeanine Pirro’s, campaign director, Kieran Mahoney. Pataki appointed him Chairman of the Bridge Authority. However, a six-
figure salary wasn’t enough for Greedy Gaffney, who double billed, and converted more than $188,000 according to charges brought against him by the DA of Ulster County. He ultimately copped a plea to a reduced charge when Eliot Spitzer, at the behest of Jeanine Pirro, stepped into the case.

Closer to home, there’s George’s wife, Libby, who, from the start, made it clear that she was going to make being the governor’s wife a windfall no-show job, with two major corporations at a time, to the tune of more
than $350,000 year. One of those Corporations, for which she was a “consultant,” was EsteLauder, particularly amusing to her old friends and her former cosmetics consultant, who knew her before she became the First
Lady of the State, and knew she couldn’t put her eyeliner on straight.

In short, while George, Libby, and their cronies were busy stuffing their pockets for the past twelve years, New York State has been in deep decline, particularly upstate. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. At the same time, extraordinarily high property taxes, and inadequate public schools have driven many families from the state. Such is the Pataki Legacy. And, now he wants to do the same for the whole country.