One Big Unethical Family
Posted on Tuesday, 12 of August , 2008 at 10:44 am
COMMENTARY
By June Maxam
BOLTON LANDING—It was only a week ago that 82-year-old Bolton town justice and retired cop Harry Demarest reversed himself in the case of the dog shooting Suffolk County police officer and dropped all convictions in one of the most controversial cases ever heard in one of Warren County’s justice courts.
While public outcry has subsided a bit, there is still a great deal of anger in the aftermath of the acquittal of Suffolk County cop John Sheehan who had been charged with animal cruelty and firearms counts in the death of Zeus, a two year old Boxer and family pet in Hague during the 2007 Memorial Day weekend.
The case is certainly not over as Warren County district attorney Kate Hogan has said her office will appeal. The problem is, although Demarest’s initial decision to find Sheehan guilty of two firearms counts is in writing, his decision to reverse the convictions, now claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to convict, was verbal which impedes the appeal process.
According to Criminal Procedure Law, which the octogenarian seems to have a problem understanding, a party seeking to appeal from a judgment or sentence must, within 30 days after imposition of the sentence or the judgment, file a notice of appeal. Hogan has said that she will ask Demarest, a retired cop himself, to put his decision in writing as she said she needs a written decision in order to appeal.
In the pendency of the Sheehan’s case, the professionalism and integrity of Hogan and her office has been evident, reaching above the stench of the overall case.
The North Country Gazette contacted the court last week and asked when the written decision would be available. The court clerk said there was no plan to do so. When asked if the proceedings had been recorded by a court stenographer and if a transcript was available, she said that stenographer Jayme Harvey had been present.
Jayme Harvey. It had to figure. The circle is complete.
As Yogi Berra says, it’s déjà vu all over again. One big happy family, together again—not the Gambinos or the Bonannos—but Warren County’s family.
Jayme Harvey has a history of delaying transcripts, of defying court orders for her to produce transcripts, of altering transcripts. And she has a history with Gary Hobbs.
Jayme Harvey was a court stenographer in two other controversial cases heard in a town justice court in Warren County, both cases involving Gary Hobbs—the harassment charges brought against North Country Gazette publisher June Maxam by Larry Cleveland and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in 1998, and the harassment charge and violation of an order of protection charge levied against Lake Luzerne resident Pete Brady in the 90s by the sheriff’s department for allegedly harassing Victor Grant, then Lake Luzerne supervisor and chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors.
Brady was initially arrested by the sheriff’s department following a verbal exchange with Grant on a town sidewalk when Grant alleged that Brady pushed him. When Brady attended the next town board meeting, Grant filed a complaint against him, saying his presence at the public session violated the protection order. Brady was arrested by Grant’s son, Victor Grant Jr., a sheriff’s deputy. Nice touch albeit highly unethical.
David B. Krogmann, now Warren County’s Supreme Court judge, was at the time the town attorney for Lake Luzerne—and Bolton—and Horicon—and Stony Creek. He was also the law partner of William Bacas, town justice in—–you guessed it—Queensbury Town Court, along with Michael Muller. Grant had been criminally charged—felony charges—for selling insurance to the town and helping himself to the commission monies too.
Krogmann came under fire in 1996 after Luzerne taxpayers petitioned the court for Grant’s removal from office. Although being paid by the taxpayers as town attorney to represent the town, Krogmann acted in a dual role, representing both the town as well as the person the taxpayers were trying to remove from office and forcing the taxpayers to pay him to represent Grant against themselves. Krogmann unethically served as the personal attorney for Grant both in criminal proceedings as well as removal proceedings and refused to voluntarily remove himself in that matter too, until the taxpayers forced the issue in court.
Only after he was legally challenged for allegedly having a prohibited conflict of interest, did Krogmann step down as Grant’s attorney before he was judicially removed, being replaced by—-Gary Hobbs—– then associated with Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes of Glens Falls. Although Hobbs’ was Grant’s personal defense attorney, his legal services were paid by the town of Lake Luzerne rather than from the pocket of Grant.
Ultimately Grant was removed from office and convicted on a plea bargained misdemeanor conflict of interest charge for his sales of insurance to the town while he was supervisor.
And Brady—well, his case was transferred to Bolton Town Court before justice Ed Stewart—where Krogmann was town attorney, and Brady was denied a jury trial due to the harassment charge being a violation, not a misdemeanor.
During the court appearance, Krogmann—who had no role in the Brady case—walked up and down in the court room carrying a folder under his arm marked Pete Brady, apparently for intimidation purposes.
Brady was found guilty by Stewart and when he tried to appeal, the stenographer—-Jayme Harvey—-delayed in producing the transcripts until the deadline had passed and Brady’s appeal was dismissed for failing to file.
In the case of the North Country Gazette publisher, Gary Hobbs was appointed the special prosecutor in the convoluted First Amendment case after the district attorney’s office disqualified itself and for the next seven years, Hobbs cost county taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million dollars to maliciously prosecute the publisher in Queensbury Town Court before town justice Michael Muller where be obtained wrongful convictions, convictions which were eventually reversed and finally dismissed altogether after 7 ½ years. Hobbs lost the case but certainly benefited financially as did many others involved including Harvey.
Hobbs engaged in judge shopping in that case too, specifically asking to have the case transferred from Chester to Queensbury. In the Sheehan case, the case was transferred from the Hague town court of attorney Heather Knott to Bolton.
In the Maxam case, Harvey intentionally tried to derail the appeal. During the pendency of the appeal, Hobbs tried several times to have the appeal dismissed, the same ploy as had been done with Brady. Hobbs claimed that Maxam had failed to perfect her appeal in a timely manner but neglected to state in his motion, as he was well aware, that the appeal could not be perfected do to court stenographer Jayme Harvey refusing to comply with three court orders directing her to provide the transcripts of both pre-trial and trial proceedings.
Even though Harvey intentionally disobeyed a trio of court orders, the Warren County Court refused to place her in contempt. She was not penalized in any way.
After two years of intentional delay and three court orders, Harvey finally produced the missing 155 pages of transcripts but it was unequivocally proven that Harvey had “doctored” the record and altered the court record, in some cases even omitting crucial portions of the proceedings. Even though a certificated forensic investigator certified that the audiotapes which caught Harvey were clean and unedited which unequivocally proved that Harvey had falsified the transcripts, the district attorney’s office—for which Harvey was the grand jury stenographer and still is—-and the court refused to bring criminal charges against Harvey for falsifying a court record.
Unbelievably, the Warren County Court ruled that Maxam could not raise the issue of the altered transcripts on appeal. Hobbs and Harvey teamed up at a reconstruction hearing held in Glens Falls City Court, where Hobbs is now a part-time judge, and lied like hell in order to keep the altered transcripts as the record on which the appeal had to be made. At hearing’s end, Hobbs and Harvey left city hall together, laughing all the way down the sidewalk but as they say, he who lasts last laughs best and eventually, the wrongfully obtained convictions were overturned.
Harvey has admitted under oath that she and trial judge Michael Muller had discussed the content of the transcripts before they were finally provided to constitute the record for appeal, or in other words, “conspired” to try and ensure that the transcripts were sanitized.
A videotape containing not only proof that the publisher had not engaged in any criminal conduct but that the sheriff’s office and William VanNess had tampered with evidence and erased exculpatory material, was seized by Muller after he refused to allow an in camera hearing so the tape that VanNess showed to the jurors could be compared with the actual tape.
Muller said that if Maxam didn’t give him the tape, that he wouldn’t allow it to be used on appeal—not that he was going to hear the appeal and in that it had never been introduced into evidence, there was nothing in the law that allowed him to seize it. While Harvey delayed for two years in providing the transcripts, Muller refused for two years to return the tape and when it was finally obtained, it too had been tampered with and the exonerating section erased. Fortunately there had been witnesses to what the original tape contained. As usual in Warren County justice, no one was charged with the tampering of evidence and the family walked again.
As in the scope of how things work in Warren County, unbelievably VanNess is now the chair of the Public Safety Committee, manipulating decisions involving the sheriff’s department.
Harvey had initially refused to provide the transcripts of voir dire—the jury selection, claiming that Maxam didn’t “need” the voir dire for her appeal. However, the law says that the appellant is entitled to ALL transcripts of all hearings and the entire trial proceeding.
That was apparently an attempt to prevent Muller’s unlawful reconfiguration of the jury panel from becoming part of the record on appeal. By law, the first juror chosen is automatically the foreman. But Muller illegally reconstituted the jury panel after it was drawn, moving a sworn juror to the alternate position and moving the alternate, Robert S. Hogan, uncle of district attorney Kate Hogan, to the main panel and then handpicking him as foreman, all contrary to law. How ethical is the judge handpicking the uncle of the district attorney to head a jury?
By the way, did we mention that Queensbury town justice Michael Muller is the town attorney for the Town of Bolton?
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
One big happy family, together again. Muller, Harvey, Hobbs—-and now there’s Demarest who apparently is being led by the nose.
If Demarest does finally put his decision in writing so it can be appealed, will Harvey again delay the transcripts so Hobbs can move to quash any appeal by the prosecution, or if Harvey does manage to produce them, will they be doctored?
The more one learns about this case, the more reason there is for a state or federal investigation of the whole thing, especially the actions of Hobbs.
The North Country Gazette has learned that Hobbs is a training officer for the annual training sessions of town and village justices. Therefore, not only is Hobbs a judge in the same county as Demarest, but he is one of the instructors of Demarest at the mandated annual training sessions of town and village justices.
And Hobbs is bringing a motion for a mistrial AFTER the trial and sentencing when such motions can only be brought during trial proceedings? Sounds like Hobbs ought to go back for training himself.
The mandatory retirement age for elected judges such as the Court of Appeals and most trial courts is 70. The only exception is for justices of New York’s Supreme Court who may remain on the bench until age 76 if approved in a certification process every two years starting at age 70.
So why are town justices allowed to remain on the bench infinitely? At 82, Demarest should not be allowed in judicial office and his current term doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2009. It would be safe to say that if he doesn’t voluntarily decide to hang up his black dress after this Sheehan disaster, he will be challenged for the office. It’s also likely that he will be, if not already, the subject of multiple complaints before the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The manner in which the case was handled by the non-lawyer judge Demarest and the antics of defense attorney Gary Hobbs have overshadowed the facts of the case and cast a serious cloud over the town court and the county’s criminal justice system overall.
Sheehan admitted to shooting the 30-pound Boxer with a .38 caliber pistol last Memorial Day weekend on Summit Drive in Hague while he was jogging. He was initially charged by Warren County Sheriff’s officer Greg Dunn with animal cruelty and two misdemeanor firearms charges.
The case was moved to Bolton after Hague town justice Knott, an attorney, recused herself for unknown and unstated reasons. Knott told The North Country Gazette she had a conflict in the case but did not articulate what it was.
Initially, Sheehan’s attorney was said to be Laura Hoffman of Poklemba & Hobbs but by July 2007, Hobbs was listed as the defense attorney.
Did Hobbs judge shop again, picking the Bolton Court, or did Warren County Court Judge John S. Hall intentionally transfer the Sheehan case to the Bolton Court knowing that neither of the justices were attorneys which would allow Hobbs to remain as Sheehan’s attorney?
Ah yes, John Hall, he’s another issue in the scheme of things. Don’t forget, if the People appeal the Sheehan case, it will be heard by—–John Hall.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/05/05/no_fair_trial_rights/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/070206HallVacated.html
The Committee on Judicial Ethics has ruled that it is inappropriate for any judge to transfer a case to a non-lawyer judge, such as Demarest, solely to permit a lawyer-judge to remain as attorney on the case and it was obvious throughout the case that Demarest was the handpicked choice of Hobbs.
Section 100.5 (f) of the Rules of the Chief Administrator provides that a judge who is permitted to practice law shall not practice law “in any other court in the county in which his or her court is located which is presided over by a judge who is permitted to practice law”. No attorney-judge should transfer a case to a lay judge solely to permit a lawyer-judge to handle the case as attorney.
The appearance of impropriety in the Sheehan case is stifling, overwhelming, primarily due to the judicial moonlighting of Gary Hobbs.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/08/04/dog_dismissal/
The pattern of unjustness and in some situations, outright corruption, has long existed within the Warren County court system, primarily at the level of the town courts but into the county court court—especially under John Hall and particularly into state Supreme Court where David Krogmann now presides. In Warren County, it seems the more unethical one is, the higher they rise on the ladder and ultimately, they become judges.
Ethics are non-existent, conflicts of interest pervasive, the good ole boy network is prevalent and it is a network. The John Sheehan case is a prime example and one of the most bungled, outrageous examples of a system gone awry.
Although with great fanfare and a panoply of promises, Chief Judge Judith Kaye and the Office of Court Administration unveiled a plan for reform of the justice court system in 2006, there are still too, too many problems, one of them being the caliber of the judges themselves. Individuals who are 82 years old simply do not belong on the bench, no matter how nice a person they are.
It’s painfully obvious in this case that Bolton judge Demarest was manipulated by Gary Hobbs, perhaps intimidated if Demarest is among the town justices who Hobbs supposedly “trained”. Hobbs has been a prosecutor in Warren County, a judge, a defense attorney and considering his past history with falsified billings to the county, falsified affidavits about the filing of his oath of office as a special prosecutor, his outrageous provable false statements made in sworn court documents, it’s way past time that he be a defendant in Warren County.
There are many people who eagerly await an impartial review of the Sheehan case in a higher court—that is if an accurate and timely transcript is prepared by Harvey. Unfortunately, that review will be done by John Hall who has a documented problem himself with the law and criminal procedure.
The legal system of Warren County, particularly the operation of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department under former sheriff Larry Cleveland, the justice court system and the court stenographers is long overdue for a federal investigation. We hope the Sheehan case is the one that finally brings that to life as the wrongdoing, injustices and lack of ethics have become just too transparent and more than just unacceptable. 8-12-08
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This article may not be reprinted or republished in its entirety without the express written permission of The North Country Gazette.
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Category: Adirondacks, Animals, Courts, Crime, First Amendment, Government, New York State, Opinion, Police, Warren County
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