The Westchester Guardian - VOL.II NO. XXXXVIII (Thursday, July 03, 2008)
Judge Candidate’s Startling Allegations About Westchester Courthouse
Editor’s Note: The following ‘White Paper’ statement by Court Attorney/Referee James Montagnino, candidate for Saratoga City Court Judge, originally forwarded to the Saratogian newspaper and published as a Reader’s View feature, is produced here with the author’s consent for the relevance of its claims with regard to the Westchester Courthouse.
By James Montagnino
I worked my way through law school as a mechanic and a truck driver. My legal career began 22 years ago in the Bronx D.A.’s Office, after which I served as an assistant D.A. in Westchester County. I prosecuted cases that ranged from DWI to the murder of a Yonkers police officer. Later, doing public defense work, I had the opportunity to see the other side of the justice system.
In 1995, I began my judicial career as principal law clerk to a county judge. Then, in 1999, I was asked to serve as a court attorney and referee in the matrimonial part in Westchester County. I presided over contested divorce cases for seven years from commencement to final judgment. I learned how difficult and challenging it is to make decisions that impact upon people’s lives. I also learned that with every ruling, a judge makes one temporary friend and one permanent enemy.
I saw the dark side of the downstate court system. Litigants with the right connections were able to get cases transferred away from judges who didn’t see things their way. On more than one occasion, a judge was even directed to change rulings that he had made because one of the parties had secretly contacted that judge’s superior to ask for a favor. With great reluctance, I did what I saw as my duty and reported this misconduct to the authorities in the court system.
“Litigants with the right connections were able to get cases transferred away from judges who didn’t see things their way. On more than one occasion, a judge was even directed to change rulings that he had made because one of the parties had secretly contacted that judge’s superior to ask for a favor.”
Within days of my complaint, some of the people involved in this “steering” and “fixing” of cases dug up a handful of litigants who were unhappy with rulings I had made. In retaliation for my having reported their wrongdoing, they tried to discredit me with claims of bias. After a full investigation, however, I was exonerated. As to my complaints of misconduct, they led to sweeping changes made in the way in which matrimonial cases were to be assigned and handled in the future.
I now work as a Court Attorney/Referee in the Supreme Court in the Capital District. My wife Nancy, whom I met and married in law school 22 years ago, is also an attorney. She now works with the mentally ill in the Adirondack Region. Our daughter Alexandra, 14, and our son Max, 11, are enjoying school here. Alex just completed a series of performances in a play at Caffe Lena, while Max is a patrol leader and first class scout in Troop 24.
My campaign committee will not seek or accept contributions from lawyers who practice in Saratoga. Instead, I am grateful for the support of people like former Mayor Valerie Keehn and the Skidmore Democrats, who have given this campaign their heartfelt endorsement.
I want to bring my years of judicial experience into service for our community. I believe that there’s no “small claim” when it’s your claim, there’s no “simple assault” when it’s your nose, and there’s no “petit larceny” when it’s your property.
I now work as a Court Attorney/Referee in the Supreme Court in the Capital District. My wife Nancy, whom I met and married in law school 22 years ago, is also an attorney. She now works with the mentally ill in the Adirondack Region. Our daughter Alexandra, 14, and our son Max, 11, are enjoying school here. Alex just completed a series of performances in a play at Caffe Lena, while Max is a patrol leader and first class scout in Troop 24.
My campaign committee will not seek or accept contributions from lawyers who practice in Saratoga. Instead, I am grateful for the support of people like former Mayor Valerie Keehn and the Skidmore Democrats, who have given this campaign their heartfelt endorsement.
I want to bring my years of judicial experience into service for our community. I believe that there’s no “small claim” when it’s your claim, there’s no “simple assault” when it’s your nose, and there’s no “petit larceny” when it’s your property.
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27 comments:
wish I could say, say it isn't so, but unfortunately it is. I know Jim Montagnino and know that he was railroaded by Frank. Getting rid of Frank would be a step in cleaning up the 9th JD.
you are right on the money about Frank N.
there are a great many very dirty rats that would like to destroy Jim Montagnino. I think he did the right thing, it's too bad that more people don't feel the same way.
I know first hand how Frank and his crew did a hatchet job on Jimmy. They are all afraid that he would talk to the Feds. I for one would tell Jimmy to talk to the Feds. Frank and his friends all have big mouths, but, no back up. They're all punks.
as one who works in the so-called court system Jim Montagnino is right. He is a straight up guy, these other guys are very bad actors.
Hey Judge Francis Nicoali is it true that attorneys are rigging cases for money, political favors and also for what appears to be child pornography and child prostitution?
Don't know FN, but would love to see him and hack head Kaye in prison..the first two that need to go, along with many, many more....very soon!
Montagnino has it right, that's why they got rid of him. Nicoali & Co. can't stand the truth. Remember the Emperor's New Clothes story, they are in denial and coverup and making big money in the process.
Montagnino is a bastard. He was as rotten as the rest of them and when he got caught he cried foul. I know montagnino extremely well and the only people who would claim he was a good guy are usually crappy lawyers/law guardians and spouses that had enough money to buy their children from him. He is not a friend of dad's because of his idiotic scarsdale zipcode comment. Montagnino is responsible for the ongoing abuse of my children and the people who worked with him will be held accountable. Each and every one of them will see their day in court. I see a retired Judge spoke favorably of him in this posting. Check his IP.....it must be Shapiro. He liked to throw cases to montagnino and then became his lawyer. What a F....G criminal enterprise.
QUIZ
Bellow is the list showing all campaign contributions of my wife’s well connected attorney Neveen Nesheiwat since Jan 1, 1995
By using your skills in math and knowledge about the integrity (or God save, corruption) of Judge Francis Nicolai and the judicial assignment procedure in 9th Judicial District:
Try to determine the names of the two judges from the entire 9th Judicial District (all four counties) who were assigned to my divorce and Christmas shopping case
Click on the link and scroll a liitle down....
[url]http://pages.prodigy.net/peterpetrov/badwalker/toppage1.htm[/url]
QUIZ
Bellow is the list showing all campaign contributions of my wife’s well connected attorney Neveen Nesheiwat since Jan 1, 1995
By using your skills in math and knowledge about the integrity (or God save, corruption) of Judge Francis Nicolai and the judicial assignment procedure in 9th Judicial District:
Try to determine the names of the two judges from the entire 9th Judicial District (all four counties) who were assigned to my divorce and Christmas shopping case
Contributor Amt Contr. Date Filing Year Recipient Filing Sched Office Dist County Municipality
NESHEIWAT, ESQ., NEVEEN M
598 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 250.00 25-MAR-05 2005 COMMITTEE TO ELECT WILLIAM J. GIACOMO July Periodic A Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, ESQ, NEVEEN M
598 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 125.00 16-MAR-06 2006 FRIENDS OF JUDGE BELLANTONI July Periodic A Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, NEVEEN
132 TUCKAHOE RD
YONKERS, NY 10710 500.00 23-JUN-04 2004 FRIENDS OF NICK SPANO COMMITTEE July Periodic A State Senator 35 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, NEVEEN M
598 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 4,000.00 22-MAY-06 2006 FRIENDS OF JUDGE BELLANTONI July Periodic D Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, NEVEEN M
132 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 500.00 03-AUG-04 2004 FRIENDS OF JUDGE NEARY 32 Pre General A Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, NEVEEN M
132 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 250.00 23-AUG-04 2004 FRIENDS OF JUDGE NEARY 32 Pre General A Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
NESHEIWAT, NEVEEN M
598 TUCKAHOE ROAD
YONKERS, NY 10710 400.00 08-AUG-05 2005 JIM MONTAGNINO FOR SUPREME COURT 32 Pre Primary A Sup. Court Justice 9 N/A N/A
Total Contributions 7,385.00
Answer: Rory Bellantoni (Christmas Shopping),
Robert Neary (divorce)
The criminal activities in the Ninth Judicial District have reached a point of total and complete criminal enterprise and corruption. Rigging child custody cases for the purpose of child pornography and prostitution. Sadly this has reach the deaf ears of Kaye and this unethical corrupt public servant could care less. As well as Nicolai helping these type of cases move smoothly through the courts. Goro you are right is all about the money, the selling of children is at full force. I wonder if Nicolai gets any commission everytime a child is sold for prostitution and child pornography services in the Ninth Judicial District?
addressing the negative comments posted about Montagnino, I don't know and have never had any contact with him. Whether or not they are factual is not the issue in my mind at this time. The paramount issue is that someone inside has stood up and said important things to my mind. Our enemies would love to have us fighting among ourselves. Let's unite against the system that has screwed us all.
They should show Nicolai the door and replace him with Montagnino. I'm shocked that Nicolai has been allowed to cause so much harm to so many people. I heard that he was warned to clean up his act and that he did, for a while. But he's back to his old ways now, and everyone is simply afraid of him again. Nicolai is a dangerous person, as is anyone who so corrupts our system of law. Think about it: many people have complained that the area's administrative judge FIXES CASES !!!! This is outrageous. I can only think that Nicolai has a big pile of something on his own superiors.
To manhattan court victim
Jim Montagnino, James Montagnino and/or James A. Montagnino is not taking a stand for anyone. He is seeking office in Saratoga after being yanked from White Plains Supreme Court Matrimonial Part. He sent a self-written propaganda letter to the Sartogian newspaper which was re-printed in the Westchester Guardian. When he was removed or "re-assigned" he left White Plains but other judges were also removed "re-assigned" Judge Denis Donovan, Liebowitz and others. Montagnino is an ego driven dope who wants any position of power because he feels that he is the only person who worked a blue-collar job to pay for school.
He spent years skillfully screwing good parents out of custody and money so why hadn't he turn these legal skills on the system prior to his election bid???.....it's because he doesn't care. He also claimed in his little self-promotional article that he is simply a victim of his court decisions and that he simply created lifelong enemies because of making decisions. He made enemies that will haunt him for the rest of his life because he messed with their children. This will not be forgiven or forgotten. BTW - Whatever "full investigation" was conducted against him never talked with me or any others that know him very well. I am glad his children are having fun playing concerts and being patrol leaders...Isn't that nice Jim....I wonder how all the other kids that you f....d over are doing?????
Jimmy is a self-serving egotistical piece of sh*t, His letter makes no sense. Why would the victims of the cases he fixed file complaints against him if he was exposing what he had done to them? Wouldn't they be the ones who would be thanking him?
The fact is that the complaints against him were submitted months before he made his statements of case fixing. What he doesn't want anyone to know is that in addition to fixing any cases he may have been told to, he was soliciting and available for hire by going directly to him.
He had been caught lying in court when he was confronted with evidence of his corruption, and then one of the attorneys he was in cahoots with turned on him to protect his own butt.
He has also publicly admitted to his biased statements. It's unbelievable that he sees nothing wrong with it. What may be more disturbing, is that not one single lawyer or judge who knows that he has repeatedly made these types of comments and other equally insulting comments about women, have done nothing about it. Remember, this guy was only a Referee, not a elected judge or even an "Acting" judge.
Another interesting thing about Jim I would like explained, How did he and his lawyer wife, both employees of the State afford not only a house in Westchester, but a second home in Saratoga? Not only did they own two homes, but they own their own airplane and horses they race. I have friends who are well off, some have two homes and some have owned their own planes and horses, but these people have a lot of money through work and their businesses. I don't know anyone who works for a government agency that could begin to afford anything close to what Jim has managed.
Everyone in Westchester knows that it has been Montagnino's ambition to become a judge. Apparently, things are just as corrupt in Saratoga as they are in Westchester. Montagnino wants to reinvent himself. Since he is apparently unknown up there, he seems to have made a couple of friends who he seems to have conned. In order for him to appear to be something he is not, he sent emails to attorneys in Westchester for them to vouch for his "integrity." The response was under-whelming. Maybe one person wrote in to vouch for him.
Montagnino never explained why, as a lifelong Republican, he suddenly switched to the Democratic Party when he was booted out of Westchester.
What makes his switch to the Democratic Party even more insulting, is the distain Jim has for Democrats, particularly the Kennedy family, who I certainly consider the epitome of what the Democratic Party stands for. In Jim's infamous lecture at Pace Law School, after making statements that equate maintenance with slavery, Jim went on to say:
"...I just want to make sure that you understand that I I was only kidding when I said maintenance could be defined the same way slavery could be defined……I have nightmares, I have a nightmare of Ted Kennedy asking me at the Senate confirmation hearings 'Ah, Mr. Montagnino, isn’t it a fact you publicly equated spousal support with slavery?' to which I replied, 'And isn’t it a fact that you once said Mary Jo ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it’?”
Clearly, this was not the first time Montagnino had made such comments.
As for Jim's attorney wife Nancy who toils in support of mentally ill, if her work is any thing like Jim's, the mentally ill have much to fear. Jim does not believe in any type of illness, mental or otherwise. He has repeatedly "ruled" that any type of physician, lab, medical test or hospital report are not worth the paper (or film) they are written on. As far as he is concerned, he is the ultimate medical authority, and there is no one who has any illness as far as he is concerned.
Finally, it would be nice for Jim to explain how he was not only educated through the parochial school system, but went to Regis High School in NYC (probably one of the best Jesuit schools in the country) and yet his wife not only worked for the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion since she was in high school, but was the Director for many years, and in this position wrote approved numerous articles that were Catholic bashing and downright anti-Catholic. I don't think hypocritical begins to describe this.
I am not a fan of Jimbo and I want to be sure the good people of Saratoga know what they are getting.
this guy has a whole bunch of friends based on the posted comments. my question is why kill the messenger? take what he has and get all the snakes!
are Janet D & Frank Nicolai still an item? Must say Janet D is a very active player, she is like a queen bee. The thing you have to understand is who is sleeping with whom, once you get that information them you can figure what's really going on. One thing for sure, there certainly is a lot of sleeping around going on in Westchester Co.
Gross. Does Janet's boyfriend know about Frankie?
which one? Everyone knows that Janet does have more than just one, she couldn't get through life with just one. Understand that she has a particular one with questionable connections, but hey, it's all in the family if you know what I mean, guys & gals!
Montagnino isn't offering up anything more than he did when they booted him from westchester. He is simply spinning his removal story for an election. If he had 1 ounce of integrity he would have been figthing the "wrongdoers" since the day he was removed ....just like the rest of us who fight for YEARS to undo the damage he has done to our lives and children. He is the snake and if he is looking to come clean then he should implicate himself with all the lawyers and firms that he worked with. But I won't get my hopes up.....I am still waiting for OJ to find his wifes killer!
FRANCIS NICOLAI HOW MUCH ARE YOU GETTING FOR THE CHILD CUSTODY CASES BEEN RIGGED FOR THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN? SHOULD THE FEDS BE LOOKING AT YOUR COMPUTERS SINCE THIS THERE IS ONE PARTICURLAR CASE WHERE YOU NAME APPEARES AND EVIDENCE IS CLEAR AS TO YOUR PARTICIPATION OF THE FRAUD. IN ORDER TO ALLOW, FACILITATED, PARTICIPATE, ENABLE AND INTEND TO GIVE CUSTODY TO THE PARENT FOR THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF THE MINOR CHILDREN.
Frankie, how much are you and your brother getting to fix the trotters these days?
And Kaye, Phau, Lippman, Plumadore, etc all are aware of these illegal allegations about him and other judges, but still they make not even one move to correct, even if given proof!
I believe that criminals should uprise against the judicial system, stating selective prosecution!
If your judge was part of the June 2006 matrimonial shake-up and the same lawyers/law guardians that these disgraced judges appointed continue the "judicial steering" into the family court....what can you do?
BTW - Thank God for this "exposecorruptcourts" ....I don't no how I would have survived the White Plains Courthouse. One of my biggest concerns is now that Montagnino and the rest were reomoved, what about the lawyers and law guardians that worked with them to screw people. How do we get to them. Many of these same bastards carry their abuse over to the family court...... If your judge was part of the June 2006 matrimonial shake-up and the same lawyers/law guardians that these judges appointed keep the "judicial steering" into the family court....what can you do?
Attorney Joel Bender, law guardian Faith Miller, forensic psychologist Mark Abrams....there names are but a few...of those that have destroyed lives through corruption and selfish agendas.
Law Guardian Bernadette Lupinetti marry to ADA Patrick Lupinetti from AG Office. It does not matter how many complaints were filed against her nobody did anything she had the umbrella of her hubby. I wonder if this why Thomas Testo IG for the Courts ignored all of the reports against this woman. Who has destroyed many families and separated many children from their good moms. She is involved in shaky deals in the Orange County Court, and Judges protect her and help her break the law. This woman is dangerous and is involved in case where the child is involved in child porn and child prostitution after she advocated to eliminated the mother and for the father to get custody of the children.
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