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NY Jurist
Who Reportedly Testified
on Sale of Judgeships Before Grand Jury Takes Leave
By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
June 22, 2007
Brooklyn Justice Howard A.
Ruditzky left the bench on medical leave on June 8, Office of Court
Administration spokesman David Bookstaver confirmed yesterday.
Justice Ruditzky, 62, left
on leave at his request, said Mr. Bookstaver, who declined to
provide further details.
The judge had been widely
reported to have received immunity when he testified before a
Brooklyn grand jury examining whether Democratic nominations for
Supreme Court judgeships were for sale.
According to several
published reports, Justice Ruditzky confirmed for the grand jury
that a supporter had paid more than $40,000 in cash and postage
stamps to help him get a nomination in 2001.
The Brooklyn District
Attorney's Office has not brought any criminal charges.
Justice Ruditzky's lawyer,
Sheldon Eisenberger, did not respond to a request for comment.
Justice Ruditzky, who was
elected to the Civil Court in 1990, won the 2001 election for
Supreme Court.
Clarence
Says Jail & Farewell
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
June 6, 2007
Three-and-a-half
years after the Brooklyn DA's probe into county Democratic boss
Clarence Norman Jr. yielded the first corruption charges against
him, the former assemblyman yesterday thanked his lawyers in defeat,
wished his supporters well - and was finally cuffed and led off to
jail.
"God is with me, my
family's with me, I have my health," a characteristically upbeat
Norman said before being cuffed and starting his two- to six-year
prison term.
"Great day. Eventually
it'll be behind me."
Former Assemblyman Clarence Norman arrives
at Brooklyn court yesterday.
Norman, 55, had done
his best to stave off his trip to jail.
Having been convicted twice
on larceny charges - once for accepting an illegal campaign
contribution and again for stealing from his campaign funds - the
former Crown Heights power broker received the same sentence back in
2005.
But his lawyers obtained a
stay from an appeals court, allowing Norman to remain free on bail
while the higher court reviewed his case.
In the meantime, two other
cases against the former political boss went forward.
In 2006, Norman was
acquitted on charges he padded his Albany travel expense account.
But earlier this year, he was convicted once again, this time for
strong-arming cash out of judicial candidates.
Last week, Norman lost the
appeals on the first two cases and was ordered to appear before the
original trial judge, Martin Marcus, for execution of sentence.
He did that yesterday,
nattily attired in a dark blue, double-breasted suit.
As he waited more than an
hour for his lawyer to appear, Norman, surrounded by supporters,
including his minister father, appeared unperturbed at the prospect
of hard time.
The actual court
proceeding, when it finally got rolling, was anticlimactic.
"Mr. Norman is here to
voluntarily surrender for execution of sentence," his lawyer,
Richard Mischel, told the judge.
"Sentence is executed,"
Marcus replied, and the cuffs went on.
Norman finally began
serving his term on the same day that another disgraced public
servant, state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson, was himself
sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison.
It's Garson who indirectly
led to Norman's undoing.
In 2003, the then-sitting
judge was confronted with damning surveillance videos of him
accepting cash and cigars, and he offered to help investigators blow
the lid off judgeships for sale by the county party boss.
Garson wasn't able to
deliver the goods, but Hynes' team put Norman under the microscope,
uncovering an illegal $10,000 contribution from a lobbyist and the
improper deposit into his savings account of a $5,000 check made out
to his campaign.
It's those sentences that
Norman began serving yesterday.
An appeal is still pending
on Norman's most recent conviction, the one that came closest to
Hynes' long-sought goal of nailing his former ally for selling
judgeships.
In that case, a jury found
that Norman used his position as the county Democratic leader to
force aspiring candidates for civil court to fork over thousands of
dollars to two preferred campaign vendors.
If the appeal fails, he'll
do another one to three years on that case. Hynes yesterday linked
the two high-profile prosecutions.
"Our investigation has
proven that two powerful men, Gerald Garson and Clarence Norman Jr.,
used the political and judicial systems to line their own pockets
and the pockets of their cronies," the DA said.
"Today, the political and
judicial landscape of Brooklyn has changed."
He cited a federal judge's
decision last year declaring the state's judicial selection process
unconstitutional and ordering the legislature to design a better
system.
Norman
Gets a Jail Break
By Patrick Gallahue
New York Post
April 18, 2007
A judge is allowing Brooklyn's disgraced former Democratic boss to
stay out of jail while he fights his conviction for shaking down a
judicial candidate.
Appellate Division Judge
Robert Schmidt upheld a stay yesterday allowing ex-Assemblyman
Clarence Norman to remain free on $50,000 bail while he appealed his
conviction.
Sources speculated it could
be several years before Norman begins serving his 1-to-3-year
sentence imposed Monday.
He was also ordered to pay
back $10,000 he coerced from former civil-court judge Karen Yellen
during a 2002 primary.
'King' of
the Clink - Norman Is Jail-Bound
By David K. Li
New York Post
April 17, 2007
A judge yesterday sentenced
disgraced Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman to one to
three years behind bars for shaking down a judicial candidate.
Brooklyn Supreme Court
Justice Martin Marcus also ordered "King of Brooklyn" Norman to pay
back $10,000 he coerced from former civil-court judge Karen Yellen,
$1,000 of which went to a fellow politician and $9,000 to pay a
favored get-out-the-vote operative.
It was the third criminal
conviction in two years for Norman, who remains free on bail and has
vowed to appeal.
Norman was found guilty in
February of grand larceny in what prosecutors called a scheme to
extort judicial candidate Yellen.
Norman was also found
guilty of one count each of attempted grand larceny and coercion,
but was acquitted on five other counts.
At two trials in 2005,
Norman was found guilty of stealing $5,000 donated to his
re-election committee in 2001, and of trying to conceal $10,000 in
contributions.
He was acquitted last year
of unlawfully billing the Assembly for mileage on a Lincoln Town Car
leased by the Democratic Party.
Oral arguments are set for
tomorrow to determine whether Norman should be allowed to remain
free on bail pending his appeals.
"For now, this is a good
result," said lawyer Richard Mischel, as he strolled out of court
with Norman.
Yellen sat quietly by
herself in a corner of the Brooklyn courtroom as Marcus imposed
sentence. Her upper lip quivered before she forced a slight grin as
she appeared to fight back her emotions.
"It's somewhat closure for
me . . . it was justice," Yellen whispered outside court.
Yellen said it's "unlikely"
she'll ever seek election to the bench.
A sitting judge when she
lost during a 2002 primary, Yellen testified against Norman and
recounted how he yelled in the face of her campaign manager to
demand the strong-armed loot.
Prosecutor Kevin Richardson
painted Norman as a tyrannical monarch, who didn't hesitate to wield
authority against powerless subjects.
"Clarence Norman himself
demanded they do it [pay], or they were out!" Richardson said,
slamming his fist on the lawyers' table. "At that time, Clarence
Norman wore the crown. He was the king of Brooklyn."
With Post Wire Services
Disgraced
Clarence Norman Guilty of Grand Larceny
The Associated Press
New York Daily News
February 23, 2007
A former assemblyman and head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party was
convicted of grand larceny on Friday in what prosecutors called a
scheme to illegally solicit and pocket campaign contributions.
In a mixed verdict, the jury also found Clarence
Norman Jr. guilty of one count of attempted grand larceny and
coercion, but acquitted him of five other counts.
In the last of four criminal cases against Norman,
the Brooklyn state Supreme Court jury deliberated about three days
before reaching its verdict.
Norman had been named in four indictments stemming
from District Attorney Charles Hynes ’
probe into whether Norman and other party leaders sold judgeships.
At two trials in 2005, Norman was found guilty of
stealing $5,000 that was donated to his re-election committee in
2001, and of trying to conceal $10,000 in contributions. He was
sentenced last year to two to six years in prison but remained free
on bail while fighting the remaining charges.
At his third trial last year, Norman was acquitted
of charges he unlawfully billed the Assembly for mileage on a
Lincoln Town Car leased by the Democratic Party.
The longtime assemblyman was forced to resign
following his first conviction.
Norman Put on '$queeze'
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
February 7, 2007
A key adviser to a Brooklyn judicial candidate allegedly shaken
down by Clarence Norman told jurors yesterday how he begged the
former party boss' right-hand man to back off his demand for $10,000
- but was shown no mercy.
The adviser, Peter Weiss, said his 2002 plea to Norman's
then-Democratic Party lieutenant, Jeffrey Feldman, was rebuffed.
"I told him we had no money, that it wasn't fair," Weiss
recalled, referring to the re-election campaign of Civil Court Judge
Karen Yellen.
"I told him we had done everything that [the county organization]
had asked. He said his principal was adamant and the money had to be
paid."
Norman faces jail time for allegedly threatening Yellen and
another candidate with the withdrawal of party backing if they
didn't run their campaigns according to his word.
The former assemblyman's defense team says he was only trying to
get the two white candidates to spend their money in minority
communities.
Black
Judge Dissed
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
February 6, 2007
Disgraced
Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman would not back a
black judicial candidate in 2002 because he didn't believe an
African-American could win a boroughwide race, according to
bombshell testimony offered yesterday.
But Delores Thomas
proved Norman wrong then by winning the Civil Court primary, and now
she's telling jurors that the former assemblyman was anything but
the crusader for racial equality that his lawyers have claimed.
CLARENCE NORMAN
Was proved wrong.
Thomas, now a sitting
Supreme Court justice, testified that she first approached Norman
five years ago to ask for the county organization's support in the
upcoming Civil Court contest.
She said Norman's first
response was to tell her how much work it would be and how much
money it would cost and, most important, to remind her that no black
candidate had ever won a countywide race in Brooklyn.
"Ultimately, he told me he
couldn't support me because he didn't think I could win," Thomas
said. "I believe he told me something like I didn't have the right
last name."
Norman, 55, faces seven
years in prison for allegedly shaking down the candidates he did
endorse and threatening to withdraw his support unless they funneled
thousands to two of his preferred vendors.
His defense team has
consistently cast the embattled former county boss, who is black, as
a defender of equality who urged white candidates to spend their
money in minority communities.
Yesterday's testimony
seemed tailor made to dispel that image.
But defense lawyer Anthony
Ricco said the comments merely reflected his client's understanding
of the difficulties minority candidates face and was not an approval
of those difficulties.
"It is one of many comments
that have been made in the case that show that African-Americans
have been disenfranchised from the political system in Kings
County," said Ricco. "We're glad that they called her [as a
witness]."
Pressed further, he added,
"This is not a halo trial. This is a trial about politics."
B'klyn
Boss Greed's Elex 'Shakedown'
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
February 3, 2007
February
3, 2007 -- A failed Brooklyn Civil Court candidate told jurors
yesterday how then-county Democratic boss Clarence Norman went face
to face with her campaign manager, demanding she cave in to his
demands in return for the machine endorsement.
Karen Yellen, then a
sitting judge who went on to lose the 2002 primary, described the
fiery exchange inside the party headquarters on Court Street in
Brooklyn between Norman and her campaign manager, Scott Levenson.
'Ultimately, the words he used were, 'We
"Ultimately, the words
he used were, 'We will
will dump her.' - Karen Yellen
dump her,' " she
recalled of the July 2002
meeting. "He was very angry. It was very, very unpleasant. He rose up out
of his seat, leaned across the desk, and was in Scott's face.
"I know I was shocked
because the way it was done was not the way one expects it to happen
- unprofessional and astonishing."
Prosecutors allege that
Norman demanded Yellen take part in a $12,000 joint mailing with two
other candidates, which she considered a waste of money since she
couldn't trumpet her exclusive endorsements and risk upstaging the
other two.
"I was lumped in with these
other two people," Yellen said of co-candidates Robin Garson and
Marcia Sikowitz. "We weren't the same."
The mailing, prepared by
Norman's go-to vendor, Branford Communications, went out with a typo
- "aduls" rather than "adults" - in all 91,000 copies.
Norman is also on trial for
allegedly squeezing from Yellen another $9,000 for nonexistent
get-out-the-vote efforts in central Brooklyn. Yellen broke into
tears on the witness stand when asked about the final results of the
2002 primary.
"I lost," she said. "And I
was out of a job."
Norman's defense team made
much of Yellen's refusal to pony up the $9,000 to Norman's
consultant, William Boone, for distribution of literature in central
Brooklyn.
According to their theory,
the ex-judge thought pouring funds into those minority neighborhoods
would end up helping the minority candidates, Margarita Lopez Torres
and Delores Thomas.
"Much of central Brooklyn
was a minority area," she conceded.
"There were two other
candidates who were minority candidates. It was not that we were
ignoring the area."
But she bristled when
defense lawyer Anthony Ricco accused her of snubbing black voters.
"You said you only wanted
to spend money in white neighborhoods?" he asked.
"No," she shot back.
Norman, 55, has already
been sentenced to two to six years on two campaign-finance
convictions, but remains free on $110,000 bail while the verdicts
are appealed. Last year, the former assemblyman emerged victorious
from a third trial, beating charges he double-dipped from his Albany
travel expense account.
The current charges come
closest to - while still falling short of - Brooklyn DA Charles
Hynes' goal of exposing the corrupt system of judgeships for sale.
Yellen offered a
tantalizing taste of that sort of chicanery late in her testimony
when she testified that she forked over the $9,000 the day after the
primary - when she knew she had already lost.
"I thought that possibly I
could go up to the Supreme Court," she said, noting that nominating
conventions for that office followed soon after the primary. "That I
could get the nomination from the party if I paid the monies that
were demanded of me, that I could save my career."
Norman in
Threat: Aide
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
February 2, 2007
A one-time lieutenant of
disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic Party head Clarence Norman
yesterday said his boss threatened to dump a Civil Court candidate
who didn't want to run a joint campaign with local cronies.
Jeffrey Feldman, 53,
testifying in exchange for a dismissal of larceny charges he had
faced with Norman, claimed that Scott Levenson, a campaign manager
for Karen Yellen, angered Norman by questioning orders to cooperate
with two candidates in a joint campaign.
Norman "turned to Mr.
Levenson and said, to the effect, '. . . If you don't agree to this,
you're not going to have any support in this county,' " Feldman
said.
Prosecutors allege Norman
extracted $12,600 from the Yellen camp for the joint campaign, then
$9,000 for literature distribution.
It Was Pay or Be 'Dumped,' Norman Jury Hears
Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
February 1st, 2007
Clarence Norman was so furious when a judicial candidate balked at
paying his cronies thousands of dollars in alleged campaign costs
that the Brooklyn political kingpin threatened to "dump" her from
the ballot, a judge testified yesterday.
Brooklyn Housing Court Judge Marcia Sikowitz told a Brooklyn jury
that when she ran for civil court in 2002, Norman and a top aide
repeatedly pressed her and fellow candidate Karen Yellen to pony up
thousands of dollars for a well-connected printer and another pal of
Norman's or lose the Democratic machine's vital endorsement.
Norman and his aide warned the women in early 2002 that it might
cost as much as $150,000 to run for office - but in July they
started to threaten the would-be candidates, Sikowitz testified.
"One of the people working for Karen Yellen was upset. He said,
'What if we don't participate, what if we don't do this?'" Sikowitz
said. "Mr. Norman said, 'We'll dump her!' He was upset. He was
angry."
Both women ended up paying the printer but did not hand over as
much cash as Norman allegedly demanded. They got the endorsement but
lost the election.
But under cross-examination, Sikowitz said she didn't think it
"unusual" for arguments over a political campaign to get heated.
Norman, already sentenced to two to six years in prison on other
campaign corruption convictions, is charged with strong-arming the
women.
Jury Hears of Threat by Norman
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
February 1, 2007
When a city judge balked at funneling thousands of dollars to a
consultant preferred by Brooklyn Democratic kingpin Clarence Norman,
the boss had three choice words for her campaign crew.
"We'll dump her," Norman bellowed inside the county
party's war room on Court Street, a witness testified yesterday.
The witness, Housing Court Judge Marcia Sikowitz, had hoped to
win election to Civil Court in 2002, and believed she was on her way
when she got the endorsement from Norman's powerful organization.
But in a series of meetings at the party headquarters, Norman and
his right-hand man, Jeffrey Feldman, allegedly laid out demands,
including a $16,000 payment to consultant William Boone.
Another candidate, Karen Yellen, openly rebelled, Sikowitz
recalled, prompting the rebuke from the county boss.
"I didn't want to be dumped, either," Sikowitz told jurors.
Sikowitz finished last in the primary.
Judge
with a Grudge
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
January 31, 2007
January 31, 2007
-- The Brooklyn judge credited with bringing down the borough's
corrupt system of filling judgeships took the stand yesterday
against the man who ran it - telling jurors that crossing disgraced
Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman Jr. nearly torpedoed her 2002
campaign.
Margarita Lopez
Torres, now a sitting surrogate, sued state election officials two
years ago, winning a stunning victory when a federal judge ruled
unconstitutional the entrenched system of Brooklyn party bosses
picking candidates for the primary.
Yesterday, she described
how Norman, the alleged master of that very system, yanked his
support for her in a closed-door meeting at his Democratic club.
Prosecutors trod delicately
on the reasons Norman booted her from the party slate in 2002, to
avoid prejudicing jurors.
But outside the presence of
the panel, they indicated that the surrogate told them she'd refused
to hire the daughter of Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), a
freshly minted law-school graduate, as her law secretary.
Lopez, who is not related
to Lopez Torres, has since replaced Norman as Brooklyn's Democratic
honcho.
Lopez Torres told jurors
she was demoralized when she realized she wouldn't have party
backing.
"You're on your own without
an organization. You have to start from scratch to build up an
organization that can get you elected," she said.
But Lopez Torres pulled off
a victory in 2002 anyhow, photocopying campaign literature at
Kinko's and relying volunteers culled from her family, friends and
neighbors.
Lopez Torres' testimony
barely touched on the issues of the trial, Norman's alleged
strong-arming of her competitors Marcia Sikowitz and Karen Yellen in
return for party backing.
But she did offer her
opinion that Norman was managing the two women straight to defeat by
forcing them to mount a joint campaign with a third white woman,
Robin Garson.
"I found it remarkable that
there was a slate of three white women and we didn't think it would
necessarily play well in certain parts of Brooklyn," she said.
Defense lawyer Anthony
Ricco dove into that opening, striving to cast Lopez Torres as a
narrow-minded campaigner who apportioned her resources with a map
and a red pen. "Do you ever take these kinds of facts into
consideration?" he asked. "This is a minority community? This is a
Latino community?"
"Yes," Lopez Torres said.
How
to Buy a Gavel-
Judge Wannabes Used Norman's 'Pay Pal':
Da
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
January 30, 2007
January
30, 2007 -- When Civil Court Judge Karen Yellen sat down, hat in
hand, with Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman, Jr., to ask for
his support in the 2002 primary, it wasn't her record he was
interested in.
Nor the awards the
judge, who was seeking re-election, had received. Nor even the
high-profile endorsements she promised.
It was a $12,000 check to a
Norman crony for an POWERBROKER:
Clarence Norman,
all-but-useless mailing and a
$9,000 payment
at trial yesterday, is charged with selling
directly into the pocket of a
shady political
Democratic Party support to judgeship
consultant, prosecutors
alleged yesterday, as they
candidates.
opened their fourth case against the former
assemblyman.
"Because I am the King of
Brooklyn, they're going to do it my way or the highway," said
prosecutor Kevin Richardson as he gave jurors his best impression of
the bullying party boss.
"If they didn't do what he
wanted, he was willing to cut off his nose to spite his face."
Norman, 55, has already
been sentenced to two to six years for campaign-finance crimes, and
was acquitted last year of charges he double-dipped from his Albany
travel expense account. He is free on $110,000 bail while the guilty
verdicts are appealed.
But the current trial on
grand larceny and coercion charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court
promises to deliver on Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes' long-awaited vow
to expose a system in which judgeships were routinely for sale in
the largest Democratic county in the country.
Because Democrats far
outnumber Republicans in Brooklyn, winning the Democratic primary is
tantamount to winning election. And winning the primary was an
uphill battle without Norman's loyal army of volunteers to collect
signatures, pass out flyers and litigate, prosecutors said.
Norman's lawyer, Anthony
Ricco, meanwhile, compared Norman to Martin Luther King Jr.,
likening him to a politician fighting for the rights of his
constituents.
"Just like that man who
wrote that letter sitting in that cell 50 years ago, he's fighting
that same fight," Ricco said, alluding to King's 1963 Letter from
Birmingham Jail.
According to prosecutors,
Norman met in May 2002 with the three anointed Civil Court
candidates - Margaret Cammer, Marcia Sikowitz and Yellen - and
demanded that they form a joint campaign.
Yellen balked, reluctant to
pay for a proposed joint mailing that Norman wanted handled by
Branford Communications, a favored firm.
"Do it my way or you're
out!" Norman allegedly bellowed, slamming his fists down on a table.
"And the room fell silent,"
said Richardson. "The threat was as loud as a bomb."
Even as late as primary
eve, Norman allegedly threatened to keep the boots off the ground
unless Yellen ponied up $9,000 to consultant William Boone for
election work in central Brooklyn.
It's that last demand that
could prove divisive.
Ricco said Yellen and
Sikowitz, both white candidates, were wary of "wasting" the $9,000
on voters in predominantly black central Brooklyn.
"These individuals were not
extorted by Clarence Norman," said Ricco. "He tried to inspire them
beyond their own ignorance. Ignorance of themselves and ignorance of
. . . the Brooklyn community."
Ricco promised reams of
election data that would show the futility of what he termed a
racist approach to campaigns. He said Yellen spent thousands in
white districts - only to fare better in the black neighborhoods
she'd written off.
7 Judges
Face Quiz at 'Boss' Trial
By Alex Ginsberg
The New York Post
January 24, 2007
When disgraced Brooklyn
Democratic ex-boss Clarence Norman's trial begins next week, the
witness box will look more like the bench.
Seven Brooklyn
judges - and the county's current political boss - were included on
a list of possible prosecution witnesses submitted yesterday.
Next week's trial, the
ex-assemblyman's fourth, will focus on whether he threatened to
withdraw county-machine support for civil-court candidates Karen
Yellen and Marcia Sikowitz unless they funneled thousands to
preferred election consultants. He's already been sentenced to
prison for campaign-finance crimes.
The list of possible
witnesses includes surrogate judge Margarita López Torres, who was
elected in 2005 without machine support. She is likely to detail her
shabby treatment at the hands of the Kings County Democratic County
Committee.
Current Brooklyn Democratic
boss Vito López is on the list as well, though it's anybody's guess
what he'll say about how the machine operates now.
The list includes Brooklyn
Civil Court Judges Delores Thomas, Johnny Baynes and Robin Garson
and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson, as well as
former Brooklyn Civil Court Judge, Margaret Cammer.
|
How My Ex-hubby Paid to Be
Judge
Former Wife Claims Cash & Bribery 'Package Deal'
By Nancy Katz
New York Daily News
January 23. 2007
|
 |
| Tessa Abrams Mason says her
ex-husband, Reynold Mason, was expected to come up with cash
for all comers. |
|
|
 |
| Ex-Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice
Reynold Mason found out early, his ex-wife says, that
running for judge meant making big payoffs to pols and
hiring people he was told to. |
|
|
In a shocking new twist
in the exploding "judgeships for sale" scandal, the ex-wife of a
disgraced Brooklyn Supreme Court judge has revealed details of a
systematic payoff scheme that bought her husband his seat on the
bench.
Tessa Abrams Mason
alleges the couple spent nearly $100,000 - some of it bribe
money - to boost the legal career of her then-husband, former
Supreme Court Justice Reynold Mason.
In a series of
exclusive interviews, Abrams Mason implicated well-known
Brooklyn Democrats in the deals - including former state Sen.
Carl Andrews, who has close ties to Gov. Spitzer.
Brooklyn District
Attorney Charles Hynes, who has been probing court corruption,
was not familiar with Abrams Mason's story, said spokesman Jerry
Schmetterer.
But Schmetterer added,
"Based on the scope of our investigation, we take any
allegations about corruption seriously."
The startling accounts
were given to the Daily News over the past six months in dozens
of interviews and in an explosive unpublished memoir.
Although other jurists
have been caught up in the ever-widening probe, it is the
details provided by Abrams Mason that make her story so
compelling.
She tells how:
* Her husband had to
buy a package deal of payoffs to secure the party's backing.
* Andrews allegedly
took a $5,000 payoff in an
envelope at Mason's
Brooklyn law office - for which no services were received.
* Mason had to hire a
campaign manager and an election lawyer at the direction of the
local party.
* Once elected, he had
to hire a law clerk chosen by the party.
"They didn't care if
Mason was competent," his ex-wife, 46, told The News. "All they
cared about was [that] Mason had a deep pocket and could raise
funds and throw around money without asking questions."
Caught dipping
into escrow
Her ex-husband was
stripped of his post in 2003 after she told the state Commission
on Judicial Conduct that he dipped into an client escrow account
to fund the campaign - an accusation that the commission
substantiated.
Mason, 57, now a real
estate agent in Georgia, has been ducking court-ordered child
support payments for years. Recently a New York state judge
threatened him with jail if he didn't show up to explain why he
hasn't paid up the $200,000 he owed.
Reached by telephone
last week, Mason vehemently denied the charges of his former
spouse, whom he calls "a bitter woman."
"I never paid a bribe
to anyone," he said. "What they do is meet with you [and say],
'If you want our help,
you gotta do XYZ.' That's all they ever said."
"You work with them,"
Mason added. "You want to win. You bite the bullet and do what
you have to do."
But his ex-wife's
startling account of back-door deals and pay-for-play demands
seems to mirror much of what Hynes has uncovered in a corruption
probe now in its sixth year.
Hynes' work led to the
toppling of once-powerful Democratic boss Clarence Norman and
the indictment of three state Supreme Court justices and other
elected officials.
Norman's lawyer said
his client was focused on his next trial, due to get under-way
today with jury selection. "Any other allegations are simply a
scurrilous attempt to poison a jury pool," said attorney Edward
Wilford.
First race an
eye-opener
In 1994, Mason was a
46-year-old real estate lawyer just starting to make a name for
himself in Brooklyn's West Indian community when he decided to
run for the bench.
A native of Grenada, he
had married Abrams Mason, who worked as his office manager and
paralegal, a year earlier. The couple have three children.
Though Mason had
dabbled in local politics, his entry into the judicial race
proved an eye-opener for him and his new bride. In heavily
Democratic Brooklyn, the primary was the real election and he
faced stiff opposition.
Friends led him to pols
with close ties to Norman. One of the first stops was a meeting
with local Democratic district leader Marietta Small.
Small, who later held a
top patronage post in Brooklyn Surrogate's Court, taught the
couple the facts of life about judicial politics, Abrams Mason
said.
"Small was not
interested in money, but influence and power," she said.
"Everyone else was interested in payoffs."
To get Norman's
backing, Mason was told, he would have to take what his wife
described as "the package deal."
That included a
campaign manager selected by the bosses who would be paid
$15,000, an election lawyer who would get $10,000 and inherit
Mason's cases and clients if he was elected, and a law clerk
handpicked by Small once he got on the bench.
"At one meeting, Mason
was told you have to pay Andrews $5,000 cash and make donations
to other candidates," his ex-wife said. "Whatever money
politicians asked for, Mason had to have it right then and
there. We ended up spending nearly $100,000."
Not all of it was
reported by Mason's campaign, she added. Campaign finance
records reviewed by The News show Mason's campaign spent
$67,895.04.
But other expenditures,
like the alleged payment to Andrews, "weren't accounted for in
campaign records," she said.
At the time, Andrews
was an active Democratic leader in Brooklyn and a close
confidant of Norman. He was later elected to the state Senate,
worked for Spitzer in the attorney general's office, but lost a
bid for Congress despite Spitzer's backing.
Andrews was recently
hired by Spitzer to work in his Office of Intergovernmental
Affairs.
The Village Voice
recently identified Andrews as the bagman for a bribe paid to
Norman in 2001 to get another judge, Howard Ruditzky, a Supreme
Court seat.
Andrews
'insulted' by query
Andrews, 50, did not
return repeated calls for comment. But earlier, when asked about
the Ruditzky allegation, he replied, "I'm insulted by the
question and the implications behind that question. I guess my
only crime is being Clarence Norman's friend. Guilt by
association."
Yet Abrams Mason says
she clearly recalls the day when Andrews showed up at Mason's
law office on Glenwood Road in East Flatbush to pick up his
cash.
"Mason was annoyed. He
said, 'Why do we have to pay this guy $5,000? What is he going
to do for me?'"
As it turned out,
nothing. She recalled, "Mason took money out of the right-hand
drawer of his desk, where we keep our cash and records. He put
the $5,000 in an envelope and handed it to him. [Andrews] put it
in his jacket pocket. He didn't stick around. That was it!"
"Mason and I thought he
took the money to go neutral, because he did nothing. ... He
didn't do anything for Mason's opponent either."
"We never saw him
again, not even at a fund-raiser," she said.
In a telephone
interview, Small also denied any wrongdoing.
"I have no knowledge of
anyone taking any bribes," she said. "I would not ever be a part
of that. I would never be a part of anything like that. That's
the God's honest truth."
Abrams Mason insists
thousands in cash went to politically connected operatives who
supposedly spent it on such things as neighborhood
get-out-the-vote campaigns.
Some of it went to
district leaders who controlled large blocs of votes at local
housing projects, where "the voters were told who to vote for,
and this was a plus."
The support of Norman's
army of regulars helped Mason eke out a win in the Civil Court
primary by 145 votes.
By the time of his 1996
election to the state Supreme Court, the couple had split. But
he would tell her later he had to pay the Democrats even more
for that race.
With his expenses
mounting, Mason eventually dipped into the client escrow account
- a no-no that was exposed by his ex-wife.
The alleged wrongdoing
- much of it also detailed in her unpublished memoir, "The
Judge's Wife and the Political Mafia" - are unlikely to result
in new criminal charges because the statute of limitations has
run out.
She decided to go
public because the court battle over financial support for their
three children has dragged on.
When she could no
longer afford a lawyer, she drew up legal papers herself. She
eventually won a contempt order against him, demonstrating that
of all his political foes, Mason's ex-wife has been the most
formidable.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/491095p-413659c.html |
|
Judge
Scandal Could Tarnish Spitzer Shine
Anti-corrupt Gov Hiring Pol Tied to Norman?
By Lisa L. Colangelo,
Nancie L. Katz and Adam Lisberg
New York Daily News
January 15, 2007
|
 |
| Clarence Norman |
|
|
Gov. Spitzer took office two weeks ago with a corruption-busting
promise - but yesterday he welcomed into his inner circle a man
who has been named in connection with an exploding Brooklyn
bribery scandal.
Former state Sen. Carl
Andrews was one of several insiders who were invited into
Spitzer's midtown offices following a news conference where the
governor ducked a question about the corruption probe.
"With respect for the
alleged improprieties that have been the subject of
investigation in Brooklyn, obviously those cases continue and
they proceed," Spitzer said.
Andrews is reportedly
being considered for a high-ranking post in the Spitzer
administration - and while the governor said little, his exit
with the well-connected Andrews seemed to show Spitzer was not
publicly distancing himself from him.
The Village Voice
claimed in a story published Saturday that Andrews picked up a
bribe in 2001 - either $25,000 in cash or $3,000 in postage
stamps that could be used in a campaign - from a sex therapist
named Norman Chesler, who was hoping to get his cousin, Civil
Court Judge Howard Ruditzky, a seat on the state Supreme Court.
Andrews allegedly
delivered it to his longtime confidant Clarence Norman, a
corrupt Democratic Party boss who could be indicted for
allegedly taking as much as $70,000 in bribes to put Ruditzky on
the bench, The Voice reported.
Andrews told the Daily
News yesterday he has never met Chesler - and when asked
point-blank about collecting a bribe, said it was beneath his
dignity to answer.
"I'm insulted by the
question and the implications behind that question," he said. "I
guess my only crime is being Clarence Norman's friend. Guilt by
association."
Law enforcement sources
told The News yesterday that Andrews is not a target in the
long-running probe of whether Brooklyn judges have bought their
way onto the bench.
Andrews held a
community relations job under Spitzer when he was state attorney
general. Andrews later served as a Brooklyn state senator and
ran unsuccessfully for Congress last fall.
Ruditzky, Chesler and
Norman declined to comment. Norman's lawyer Edward Wilford said
he has not been contacted by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles
Hynes about the allegations.
Prosecutors would not
file any new charges against Norman until after his Jan. 23
trial on extortion charges, a law enforcement source said.
Spitzer's office did
not respond to a request for comment.
With Nicole Bode and Tamer El-Ghobashy
|
|
DA:
Norman Sold Judgeship for 50g - & 6g in Stamps
By Nancie L. Katz and
Rich Schapiro
New York Daily News
January 14, 2007
|
 |
| Clarence Norman |
|
|
Brooklyn prosecutors are seeking to indict deposed Brooklyn
Democratic Party chairman Clarence Norman for allegedly selling
a judgeship for at least $50,000 in cash and $6,000 in postage
stamps, it was reported yesterday.
The alleged corruption,
detailed by The Village Voice, has the potential to shake the
Brooklyn political establishment and push the Legislature to
overhaul how state Supreme Court judges are selected.
Norman - already
sentenced to two to six years behind bars for unrelated felony
campaign corruption - will be indicted by a grand jury for
allegedly demanding payoffs to elevate former Civil Court Judge
Howard Ruditzky to the state Supreme Court, The Voice says.
Sources told the Daily
News that Ruditzky was granted immunity and recently testified
before a grand jury, where he revealed he paid $70,000 for the
judgeship.
"A sitting judge told a
grand jury that he paid Clarence Norman $70,000 for the
nomination," one of the sources said.
The Voice said it had
pinpointed only $56,000 in payments.
District Attorney
Charles Hynes' case against Norman, according to The Voice,
revolves around the testimony of Ruditzky and three other
witnesses: Jeff Feldman, the executive director of the Brooklyn
Democratic Party; ex-Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson; and
Ruditzky's millionaire cousin, an overweight sex therapist named
Norman Chesler.
It was Chesler who was
at the center of the alleged payoffs, according to The Voice.
In 2001, Chesler began
helping Ruditzky in his bid to get reelected to the Civil Court.
According to The Voice, Ruditzky wasn't planning to serve if
reelected because Norman allegedly had promised to elevate him
to the Supreme Court after the balloting.
Norman had the ability
to promote Ruditzky because Supreme Court nominees are selected
by judicial conventions, a system that allows a Democratic
leader in a Democratic county to handpick jurists.
Norman was planning to
promote Ruditzky and then select his replacement for Civil Court
without having to run that candidate in a primary, The Voice
reports.
"If Ruditzky wins
reelection, we'll elevate him," Norman told Chesler, according
to The Voice.
But that plan crumbled
when Ruditzky lost. In stepped Chesler, who, according to The
Voice, was allegedly told by Norman, "We could use money for
activities in my community."
Chesler's first alleged
payment to Norman came in the form of postage stamps, two $3,000
rolls he bought at a post office, The Voice reported.
Chesler, who refers to
Ruditzky as "Rudy," also allegedly gave Norman $50,000 -
delivering the first half "wrapped in a large brown envelope,"
according to The Voice.
Bank records reviewed
by The Voice reveal a series of withdrawals totaling $43,950
that Chesler made from his company between July and November
2001. Notations contained with the record of the withdrawals,
also reviewed by The Voice, said that "CN asked for Rudy to come
up and give 50k for services," adding that "since they weren't
getting it on their own, they asked for help."
Chesler began
cooperating with Hynes' office after being indicted in a car
insurance scam, The Voice says.
Ruditzky, Chesler and
Norman's lawyer could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Sources told The News
last week that Ruditzky's grand jury testimony is being reviewed
by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Commission
administrator Robert Tembekjian declined to comment last week.
David Bookstaver,
spokesman for the New York State Office of Court Administration,
told The News on Friday that "it would be inappropriate to
comment about an alleged ongoing investigation."
Grand jury testimony is
secret, and when The News asked Hynes on Dec. 21 about Ruditzky
appearing before the panel, Hynes declared it was "untrue."
Hynes' spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, declined to comment Friday
on whether the office knew about the alleged bribe.
The author of The Voice
article, Wayne Barrett, revealed that his mentor, the late Jack
Newfield, had been investigating Brooklyn courts before his
death in 2004.
According to The Voice,
Newfield had scrawled Ruditzky's name into a notebook that
contained his last interview.
More than 30 years have
passed since Newfield wrote in 1972, "It is common belief on the
streets of this city that judgeships are bought and sold by
politicians for cash, and that once on the bench, some judges
continue to be up for sale - or at least for rent."
|
Norman
Pal Deal
By Zach Haberman and Alex
Ginsberg
New York Post
October 12, 2006
Brooklyn
prosecutors dropped all charges yesterday against the right-hand man
to disgraced Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman, ending their
nearly three-year-old case against Jeffrey Feldman in return for a
promise of cooperation.
The surprise move fueled
speculation that Feldman, who had a front-row seat to the backroom
deals of the Brooklyn Democratic machine for more than a decade, was
offering up plum details of judgeships bought and sold.
CLARENCE NORMAN
Feldman, 52, the
executive director of Norman's
Disgraced Dem boss
Kings County Democratic County Organization, had been charged, along
with his former boss, with forcing judicial candidates to hire
favored consultants in exchange for party backing.
He'd faced up to seven
years in prison on the 22-count indictment.
"We have concluded that
Jeff Feldman was nothing more than a messenger who delivered demands
to judicial candidates," said chief prosecutor Michael Vecchione.
"These demands, which are
the subject of this indictment, were at the behest of and on behalf
of his boss."
Vecchione told the
presiding judge, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus, that the
DA's office had inked an agreement with Feldman to cooperate on this
and future investigations.
"Relieved," was all Feldman
would say following the barely five-minute court appearance.
"I am grateful that this
personal ordeal has terminated with the dismissal of all criminal
charges," he added in a written statement.
"I look forward to
continuing my efforts to advance the causes and principles of the
Democratic Party and to enable the election of its candidates in all
branches of government."
The move was highly unusual
in that prosecutors generally do not reward cooperators until after
they've testified.
Nevertheless, Feldman's
lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, promised that his client would appear when
called.
"Mr. Feldman has agreed to
fully cooperate with the Kings County District Attorney's Office and
if called as a witness will testify truthfully," he said.
Feldman's sweet deal,
paired with prosecutors' mention of future investi- gations, all but
confirmed suspicions that Feldman was ready to assist in the DA's
ongoing probe into judgeships for sale.
"Jeff was in the middle of
everything," said one Brooklyn courts insider, adding, in reference
to judges suspected of buying their way onto the bench, "I'm sure
when they read about this, they won't be too happy."
Another source familiar
with the DA's probe said one of the main targets of the
investigation was Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Howard Ruditzky,
who The Post reported last year ponied up between $50,000 and
$100,000 for his spot on the bench.
Ruditzky did not
immediately return a message left at his chambers and courts
spokesman David Bookstaver declined to comment.
Disgraced
Norman in Blame Game
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
gust 1, 2006
Brooklyn Democratic Party
boss Clarence Norman is blaming his most recent criminal conviction
on the failure of another embattled pol - Assemblywoman Diane Gordon
- to step up for him.
In a 100-page brief filed
before the Supreme Court's Appellate Division yesterday, Norman's
lawyer says prosecutors and the judge should have granted Gordon the
immunity she said she needed to take the stand.
"Unquestionably, the
defendant was seriously handicapped by the sudden turn of events
regarding Assemblywoman Gordon," argues lawyer Richard Mischel in
the papers.
Gordon had been expected as
a witness at Norman's last trial in December to explain that the
$5,000 the Brooklyn boss was accused of pocketing was actually
payback for cash he'd advanced to her earlier.
But the East New York
assemblywoman unexpectedly declined to testify without a grant of
immunity, a development the papers call a "debacle."
Gordon is now under
indictment for soliciting a $500,000 bribe from a Brooklyn developer
in the form of a free house.
Clarence
Bid to Stay out of Jail
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
May 18, 2006
Disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss Clarence Norman, free on $110,000 bail while he appeals a
pair of criminal convictions, asked yesterday for a second
get-out-of-jail pass that would keep him out of the pokey until
mid-September.
In papers filed with the Appellate
Division, Norman's lawyer, Richard Mischel, says that the extra 120
days is necessary so that he can draw up the appeals for the
embattled pol's convictions.
Norman is seeking to overturn guilty
verdicts for accepting illegal campaign contributions and pocketing
$5,000 earmarked for his re-election coffers.
Shelly May
Rat on Norman
By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
March 7, 2006
Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver may testify against Clarence Norman at his trial on charges
he illegally sought reimbursement for travel to and from Albany.
As jury selection began for
Norman's third felony trial in less than a year yesterday, Brooklyn
prosecutors identified Silver as one of the witnesses they plan to
call.
If he takes the stand,
Silver likely would be asked if Norman - his former deputy speaker -
was allowed to be reimbursed for travel between Brooklyn and Albany
even though the borough Democratic Party he chaired was already
paying for it.
Norman, already sentenced
to two years in prison for the other convictions, could face up to
an additional seven years if convicted of larceny and 76 counts of
filing a false instrument for travel vouchers he submitted in
1999-2002 totaling just over $5,000.
Once a Brooklyn kingpin,
Norman was knocked from the Crown Heights Assembly seat he held for
23 years and his 15-year chairmanship of the Brooklyn Democratic
Party when a jury convicted him of campaign corruption in September.
He was also disbarred.
In December, a second jury
found him guilty of stealing a $5,000 check made out to his campaign
committee.
He has managed to stay out
of jail pending appeals of the two convictions.
Norman
Due Third Trial
By Zach Haberman
New York Post
February 15, 2006
The state's highest court
says ousted Assemblyman Clarence Norman will have to face trial —
again.
The Court of Appeals said
yesterday they would not listen to arguments by Norman's legal team,
who had hoped to get it to toss out charges that he cheated on his
Assembly-paid travel expenses.
The dethroned Brooklyn
Democratic Party boss, convicted twice last year of skirting
campaign-finance rules, will now face his third criminal trial in
less than seven months.
Norman is accused of filing
vouchers for travel expenses with the Assembly even though the Kings
County Democratic Party had already footed the bill.
He allegedly pulled off the
penny-pinching scheme at least 76 times for a total of $5,585.
"We are prepared to go to
trial on March 6," said Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the
Brooklyn DA's Office.
A lawyer for Norman did not
return a call for comment.
Norman was sentenced last
month to two to six years in prison for not reporting thousands of
dollars in in-kind political contributions and pocketing a $5,000
check intended for his re-election committee.
He also faces a fourth
indictment for strong-arming judicial candidates into using specific
people to print their campaign literature.
He is currently free on
$110,000 bail.
2 to 6 Years for Norman
By Zach Haberman
New York Post
January 12, 2006
Clarence Norman, at
Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, said "I accept full responsibility
for the situation that I have unquestionably put myself in."
Clarence Norman once served
the people now he'll serve time.
Blasting the one-time
Brooklyn Democratic Party boss as "devious and manipulative," Judge
Martin Marcus yesterday sentenced the beleaguered former assemblyman
to two to six years behind bars for violating campaign laws.
"As I stand before you
today, I want to make it clear that I accept full responsibility for
the situation that I have unquestionably put myself in," Norman said
in a statement before the pronouncement of his sentence, which his
lawyer had requested be only community service.
"I certainly acknowledge
that I'm here today in this situation because I have exercised poor
judgment," he said. "Never, never, ever did I deliberately or
consciously seek to break the law or circumvent the law."
After apologizing to his
family, Norman, 54, said, "I'm sorry that I have really let down my
constituents, the people who for 23 years placed their trust and
confidence in me, and I certainly hope they will indeed forgive me."
Norman, convicted of not
reporting thousands of dollars in political contributions and
pocketing a $5,000 check intended for his re-election committee,
admitted: "Unfortunately, I took a shortcut."
Upon hearing the news that
he will be going up the river, the disgraced political leader — as
he had done throughout much of his two criminal trials — folded his
hands together and sat with a cold, blank stare on his face.
"The mechanisms by which he
[skirted the election laws] were so devious and manipulative, and
the excuses he offered that he was preoccupied with other important
matters, that he was guilty of sloppiness, not guile were not
credible to either of the juries or to me," the judge said.
Norman, 54, got his first
taste of prison life immediately afterward, when the judge ordered
him to a holding cell behind the courtroom while Norman's lawyer ran
over to the nearby Appellate Division.
There, the lawyer argued
that the ousted party boss be let loose until a judge in that court
decides if the convictions should be overturned.
An Appellate judge freed
him if only temporarily on $110,000 bail pending a decision on
whether he should remain out of prison while awaiting a ruling on
his appeal.
Former
Brooklyn Democratic Boss Sentenced to Prison
The Associated Press
New York Daily News
January 11, 2006
A former assemblyman and
head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party was sentenced on Wednesday to
two to six years in prison for separate convictions on campaign
corruption charges.
At two trials in state
Supreme Court last year, juries found Clarence Norman Jr., 54,
guilty of stealing $5,000 that was donated to his re-election
committee in 2001, and of trying to conceal $10,000 in
contributions.
Prosecutors had asked
Justice Alan Marcus to give Norman of five to 15 years in prison.
The defendant still faces two more possible trials on related
charges.
"We respect Judge Marcus'
decision and look forward to the next two trials," said Jerry
Schmetterer, spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
A call to Norman's attorney
was not immediately returned.
Norman was named in four
indictments stemming from Hynes' probe into whether he and other
party leaders sold judgeships. The charges allege a pattern of
criminal mishandling of political finances, grand larceny and
conspiracy.
The longtime assemblyman
was forced to resign early last year following his first conviction.
Norman
Will Stay Silent to the End
By Zach Haberman and C.j.
Sullivan
New York Post
January 9, 2006
Prosecutors hoping to get
Clarence Norman to sing about the sale of judgeships will hear only
the sound of silence.
The dethroned Brooklyn
Democratic Party boss will not look to make any 11th-hour deal this
week to avoid serving prison time for two felony convictions and
gain leniency on the two remaining indictments he faces, sources
told The Post.
The Brooklyn District
Attorney's Office has long suspected Norman of being the ringleader
of a circle of dirty jurists who paid hefty sums to get on the
bench.
Sources say if Norman keeps
mum, the DA's investigation will effectively be "stonewalled."
"You would think he would
want to get out from under all this jail time," said a source with
knowledge of Norman's legal maneuvering.
A Brooklyn jury first found
Norman guilty of campaign-finance fraud in September, while another
convicted him last month for a $5,000 contribution check to his
re-election committee in 2001.
If he sticks to his guns
and refuses to come clean about the purported justice-for-sale
scandal, Norman could face as much as 15 years behind bars when
Judge Martin Marcus decides his fate Wednesday.
"I'm not worried, this too
shall pass," the disgraced politician defiantly told The Post
yesterday as he returned home from church. "We rest our faith in
God."
Norman's lawyer, Edward
Rappaport, insisted, "It's not that my client doesn't want to
cooperate.
"It's that he has no
knowledge of the things they say he does."
A spokesman for the
Brooklyn DA would not comment on any possible deal discussions,
saying only, "[Norman] will be sentenced on Wednesday."
Rappaport has filed a memo
with the judge asking for a light sentence of probation, sources
said, noting prosecutor Michael Vecchione recently filed a similar
letter asking Marcus to throw the book at Norman and give him the
full 15 years.
Despite Rappaport's best
attempts, courthouse insiders say there is very little chance Norman
won't be put behind bars.
"That's pretty definite,"
the source said. "The only question is how much [prison time]. He's
probably not going to get a matter of months."
"I think Marcus is going to
hit him harder than that."
If Norman does get
sentenced to hard time, Rappaport will immediately request Marcus
allow his client to stay in the courtroom for a short time instead
of being put in a holding cell.
During the interlude,
Rappaport would head to the nearby appellate court to file paperwork
requesting Norman be freed on bail while the lawyer appeals his two
convictions, sources said.
When asked about the real
possibility of his client being sent up the river, Rappaport said,
"Nobody's happy about going to jail, but he doesn't seem depressed."
"Whatever is going to be,
is going to be," he said.
Squeeze Play on Norman
By Jim Hinch
New York Post
December 17, 2005
A
day after his second straight felony conviction, disgraced Brooklyn
political boss Clarence Norman (left) was "in denial" as he faced a
stark choice: 'fess up or head to the pen, a source told The Post
yesterday.
"The window is closing, and
there is a very small opportu nity" for Norman to avoid serious jail
time by telling prosecutors what he knows about Brooklyn's alleged
judge bribery scandal, said the source, who is close to Norman's
case.
But "no one thinks [Norman]
understands the seriousness of the position he's in."
Norman faces up to 15 years
in the slammer — eight for his first political-corruption conviction
in September, and seven more after a jury on Thursday found him
guilty of stealing a $5,000 check made out to his re-election
committee. He will be sentenced Jan. 10.
He also faces two more
felony trials — one for allegedly double-dipping on state travel
reimbursements, another for allegedly coercing
Clarence Norman
judicial candidates into paying Democratic Party hacks for
"campaign" work.
Another source close to the
case said prosecutors' investigation into judges suspected of
bribing their way onto the bench has stalled out. So they're eager
to cut a leniency-for-information deal with Norman, who is suspected
of taking or coordinating the bribes.
Norman's lawyer, Edward
Rappaport, did not return a call for comment. A DA spokesman
declined to comment on the prospect of a deal.
|
Norman Guilty
of Stealing 2nd Conviction for Ex-Pol
By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
December 16, 2005
|
 |
| Former Democratic Party leader
Clarence Norman leaves court in Brooklyn yesterday after his
larceny conviction. |
|
|
For the second time this year, once-powerful Brooklyn Democratic
boss Clarence Norman was convicted yesterday of a felony - in
this case, for stealing $5,000 intended for his reelection
committee.
Norman, 54, did not
react when the Brooklyn Supreme Court jury, which deliberated
nearly a week, found the former assemblyman guilty of three
counts of felony grand larceny and falsifying records for
cashing the October 2001 check written by his political club.
"God is good all the
time," said Norman, the son of a preacher, outside the
courtroom. Prosecutors immediately asked for him to be put
behind bars, saying the felled Brooklyn king could take off now
that he faces up to 15 years in prison.
"He has every incentive
to flee," declared prosecutor Michael Vecchione.
But Justice Martin
Marcus set bail at $100,000. Norman, convicted of felony
campaign corruption charges in September, was locked in the
courtroom until late afternoon, when his parents put up their
home as collateral.
It was a precipitous
fall for the one-time Brooklyn boss who, until September, was in
charge of putting judges on the bench and was a senior
assemblyman.
"He's very
disappointed," said defense attorney Edward Rappaport, who said
he may appeal.
Yesterday was Norman's
second conviction out of four indictments. Now, the pressure is
on for Norman to cooperate in Brooklyn District Attorney Charles
Hynes' probe into whether judicial candidates were forced to pay
to get the party's lucrative endorsements.
Sentencing for both
convictions was set for Jan. 10.
At his trial, Norman
denied stealing the check, saying he considered it reimbursement
for a $5,000 loan he gave Assemblywoman Diane Gordon in
September 2001 to pay election workers for state Controller Alan
Hevesi's failed mayoral campaign.
But jurors didn't buy
it, one said afterward.
"The evidence was
overwhelming. The alibi was only Mr. Norman's word," said real
estate broker Michael McGrath, 33. "It would have been helpful
if he had someone to back up his story."
Norman's defense fell
apart midtrial when Gordon - fearing her own legal troubles -
refused to testify. Rappaport had promised jurors she would
appear.
|
'Houdini'
Norman 'Just Stupid'
By Jim Hinch
New York Post
December 8, 2005
Dethroned Brooklyn
political boss Clarence Norman is either a criminal Harry Houdini or
just plain stupid, lawyers said yesterday in the wrap-up of Norman's
latest political corruption trial.
"Every great magician
learns the art of misdirection," said prosecutor Michael Vecchione
of Norman's alleged theft of a $5,000 campaign contribution to his
own re-election committee. But Norman's lawyer said the only thing
his client is guilty of is "stupidity" for cashing the contribution
check.
"We wouldn't be here" if
Norman had simply ripped up the $5,000 contribution and asked for a
reimbursement check made out to his personal account," said lawyer
Edward Rappaport.
Norman
Case May Go to Jury Today
By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
December 7, 2005
The larceny case against
Clarence Norman is expected to go to a jury today - after the
deposed Democratic Party boss insisted for three hours yesterday
he's not a thief.
The former assemblyman
underwent grueling questioning by Assistant Brooklyn District
Attorney Michael Vecchione over a $5,000 check Norman cashed that
was made out to his reelection committee.
Norman has said the October
2001 check was to reimburse him for cash he gave to Assemblywoman
Diane Gordon to pay Primary Day workers for Democrat Alan Hevesi's
failed 2001 mayoral campaign.
"It was for money I laid
out. Unfortunately, the check was written incorrectly," Norman said.
"You never went back at any
time to correct the so-called [mistake]?" Vecchione asked
sarcastically.
"No, I did not," Norman
said.
Both the prosecution and
defense rested yesterday and are expected to sum up this morning.
Norman faces
up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Norman Defense Is $Haky
By Jim Hinch
New York Post
December 7, 2005
Dethroned Brooklyn
political boss Clarence Norman stepped off the witness stand
yesterday sticking by his innocence, but was forced to concede that
his defense didn't always add up.
Norman told jurors
repeatedly that he didn't steal a $5,000 campaign-contribution check
because, even though he cashed it into his personal bank account, he
thought it was reimbursement for a loan.
But prosecutor Michael
Vecchione just as often made Norman admit that everything about his
handling of the check was unusual.
Vecchione displayed
documents showing that virtually every other time Norman sought
reimbursement for political expenses, he got them from his campaign
treasurer.
And Vecchione got Norman to
agree that the night he pocketed the check, he knew members of his
political club had recently written it as part of a series of
contributions to various Brooklyn political organizations.
The check reads
"contribution" on its memo line, not "reimbursement."
But Norman said the word
"contribution" was mistakenly written in by political operatives who
had made so many donations that night, they forgot Norman's check
was a reimbursement.
"I was happy" to get the
check, Norman said. "I was worried about getting my money."
Former
Brooklyn Party Leader in Rematch With Prosecutor
By Michael Brick
The New York Times
December 6, 2005
Clarence Norman Jr., the former
Brooklyn Democratic leader and assemblyman, took the stand in his
corruption trial yesterday as its focus narrowed to this question:
What was Mr. Norman thinking when he deposited a check written to
his re-election campaign committee into his personal bank account?
In a full day of testimony in State
Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Mr. Norman spent the morning explaining
himself and the afternoon parrying questions about his intelligence,
literacy and actions from a prosecutor who sought to undermine his
account.
This is the second trial for Mr.
Norman, who was convicted in September of soliciting illegal
campaign contributions, and his long volley with the prosecutor,
Michael F. Vecchione, first deputy district attorney, was something
of a rematch. Mr. Vecchione cross-examined a faltering Mr. Norman in
the earlier case, eliciting statements including, "I have no
independent recollection."
In contrast to that performance, Mr.
Norman appeared calm and self-assured on the stand yesterday,
measuring his replies in soft, explanatory tones even as Mr.
Vecchione yelled at him, sighed loudly and spun on his heel.
Mr. Norman is charged with larceny
for depositing the $5,000 check, written by a political club he
controlled and made out to his campaign committee, into his personal
bank account. He contends that the money was a reimbursement for
funds he had personally advanced to Assemblywoman Diane Gordon.
Mr. Norman's lawyer, Edward M.
Rappaport, had promised jurors that Ms. Gordon would testify, but
when she took the stand last month, she invoked the Fifth Amendment
to avoid incriminating herself for failing to report a contribution.
That left Mr. Norman to explain
things himself yesterday, and his first obstacle was a copy of the
check itself, displayed on a screen before the jury. In the memo
line, it said, "Contribution."
Dressed in a dark suit with a pocket
handkerchief, Mr. Norman clasped his hands and faced the jurors as
Mr. Rappaport led him through his version of events: Ms. Gordon, a
Democratic Assembly colleague, told him days before the primary
election scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, that she needed money to
support
Alan G. Hevesi's
mayoral campaign in her East New York district. Mr. Norman gave her
$5,000 of his own money and later requested reimbursement. He found
a check for $5,000 in an envelope on his desk. He felt confident
that it was intended as a reimbursement, and convinced a bank teller
to deposit the funds into his personal account.
"I was just trying to get my money
back," Mr. Norman said.
When Mr. Vecchione began his
cross-examination, Mr. Norman stopped looking at the jury. He raised
his eyebrows, and his gaze followed the prosecutor back and forth
across the courtroom. Mr. Rappaport often objected and there were
frequent sidebars with the judge, Martin Marcus.
Mr. Vecchione asked about Mr.
Norman's education and career, seeking to establish his familiarity
with election law. The questioning spanned loan procedures, the
workings of several political organizations and the competence of
certain party officials. Mr. Rappaport's objections slowed the pace,
and Mr. Norman derailed some lines of questioning with concessions
leading to tangents, but the focus returned repeatedly to two
issues.
The first issue, addressed directly,
was that Mr. Norman had deposited the check in his personal account.
"Is there an exception in the law
for Clarence Norman Jr.?" Mr. Vecchione asked. After an objection
was overruled, Mr. Norman responded, "Definitely not."
The second, broached less directly,
was the question of what Mr. Norman had been thinking.
"You know, do you not, that larceny
is when someone takes something that does not belong to them, would
you agree with me?" Mr. Vecchione asked.
Mr. Norman, who passed the bar on
the first try and once worked as an assistant district attorney in
Brooklyn, conceded that definition, adding a word.
"Intentionally," he said.
The trial is to continue today.
$Tate of
Denial
By Jim Hinch
New York Post
December 6, 2005
Dethroned Brooklyn
political boss Clarence Norman took the stand yesterday and told a
jury he "absolutely" did not steal a $5,000 campaign contribution to
his re-election committee.
But a prosecutor then
proceeded to poke hole after hole in Norman's explanation — that the
check was actually a reimbursement for money Norman had loaned
another politician for campaign work.
"Is there an exception in
the law for Clarence Norman Jr.?" prosecutor Michael Vecchione asked
incredulously after Norman claimed he somehow "knew" the check, made
out to his re-election committee in 2001, was really meant for him
personally.
"No," Norman conceded.
Norman described how he
found the check one evening in an envelope on his desk in his
Brooklyn Assembly district office.
He said he put the check
"in my bag," and took it to his local Chase Bank branch, where "the
people at the bank know me" and let him cash the check, even though
it wasn't made out to him.
Norman said he couldn't
recall who the "friend" was who let him cash the check. "Just a
teller," he said.
Norman said the $5,000 was
reimbursement for money he had loaned Assemblywoman Diane Gordon so
she could mount a get-out-the-vote effort for mayoral candidate Alan
Hevesi.
Norman said he loaned
Gordon the money personally because she needed it right away and
couldn't wait for cash from one of Norman |