Knowing About A Judge's Bodily Functions

Gothamist has been trying to follow the bribery trial of aides of state Supreme Court Justice, Gerald Garson, because it's possibly the most insane display of nuttery from a judge since the judge who masturbated in court. Garson himself will be on trial later on, but for now, as his aides are accused of "steering cases" and "cash" his way, Garson's action are center stage. The NY Post notes a surveillance video of Garson accepting a bribe and that Garson made some off-color, possibly racist remarks, yet doesn't expand on them. Luckily, Newsday reveals some of Garson's comments, which remind us of a Dave Chappelle skit:

"Alright, lemme go take a pee," Garson said to [attorney Paul] Siminovksy [who allegedly offered Garson money], according to a transcript, "lemme make peepee ... I wanna make peepee and poopie and peepee."

Thank goodness for court transcripts, or else we wouldn't know our judges act like 5 year-olds.

Image at right from Gotham Gazette's judicial fun game, So You Want To Be A Brooklyn Judge. Check out the suit, The People of NY vs. Gerald Garson (PDF).

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By Jen Chung in News on August 19, 2004 9:40 AM

Comments [rss]

Perle

Jones, I thought George Bush came from Texas, not Long Island.

Jones

Larry, I agree that where there is one-party machine, corruption is more likely to arise. I live out on Long Island, where the Republicans dominated for many, many years. The result was a lot of fiscal disarray, mismanagement and corruption.

larry dvm

Actually, Abby, party has everything to do with this. I'm not claiming that Republican judges--or Republican anything else, including presidents--are unassailable, but that the unbreakable Democratic machine in most of this city is dysfunctional and destructive, and leads to corruption of the sort we're seeing here.

There are a lot of "liberal" readers of Gothamist who won't stop short of advocating violence in their passion for a single-party state. Check out tsoccol's comment from Tuesday: http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2004/08/17/who_didnt_see_this_coming.php.

Diversity, civil discourse, and participation make democracy function. That's a view that should be shared by liberals and conservatives alike. Even as the Republican Party in many places is sadly afflicted by racism, religious fundamentalism, and cronyism, in New York City the conservatives I know (and among whom I count myself) are the only people who are still dedicated to creating liberal democracy. It's too bad there are so few Democrats around unable to take off their ideological blinders and take up the debate without personal attacks--the same tactics they (at times justifiably) decry in conservatives.

It's disappointing, but not surprising to me that the rabid "liberals" who regularly post comments here have nothing to say about this scandal. I suppose that's because understanding and analyzing local politics requires self-education, not mere slogans.