Results tagged “newyorkstatesupremecourt”

On November 23, 1990 a bouncer outside of the Palladium nightclub (now an NYU dorm on 14th St.) was shot and killed when a fistfight escalated to gunplay. A year later, David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo were convicted of the killing and sent to prison, despite their defense that they were not even at the Palladium that night. Hidalgo's conviction was later overturned and Lemus was released from prison after 14 years, only to face a retrial by New York prosecutors. The New York Times is now reporting, however, that a former prosecutor for the city who was arguing for that retrial had serious doubts about the man's guilt even as he argued for his prosecution.

The Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation hauled Mayor Bloomberg to New York State Supreme Court today for failing to reappoint or replace eight of eleven commissioners to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The commissioners’ terms have expired, which, the Committee alleges, violates the Administrative Code and the City Charter.

Today's New York Times reports that Bistro du Vent, the ugly duckling of the Batali/Bastianich gastro-empire, may be on the selling block. Bistro du Vent, despite its respectable earnings of $2.2 million, is running short of its bretheren, and it seems likely that it is being cut loose in order to secure funding for the $12 million behemoth that is Del Posto, and in particular to fund their ongoing dispute with their landlord. They are being sued over equipment that was allegedly installed in violation of their lease, and there is a chance that they may be evicted rather than given a chance to remedy the situation. A decision is pending in New York State Supreme Court.

The New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan sounds like a tough place. Especially since a judge just charged a potential juror with contempt after the juror called a suspect a "scumbug." Stephen Caruso was being interviewed to be a juror in a kidnapping case, and Caruso told the court, "I have been held up three times at gunpoint," (the defendant used a fake gun to threaten his victim) and when asked if he would convict the defendant, he add, "I am already looking at him; I think he is a scumbag." Boom! Judge William A. Wetzel held Caruso in contempt of court, saying, "That is an insult not only to him, but to the other people in the room and me...I have interviewed upwards of 15,000 prospective jurors and have never seen such an inappropriate, vulgar, contemptuous occurrence." The Post notes that Caruso's lawyer thinks the judge might be biased against Wall Streeters, as Judge Wetzel asked Caruso if he was a "stockbroker or investment banker?" Caruso is, in fact, a financial planner, and he tells the Times, "I'm a little disillusioned with the whole legal process right now. I feel like I'm being punished for being honest," blaming his words on his emotional feelings about crime - he's been robbed twice (in New Orleans) and was held up by a gunman in a bus.