Anderson Advances, Federal Jury to Hear 'Ethics' Corruption, Whitewashing

CLICK HERE TO READ THE OPINION AND ORDER (April 27, 2009)

The Corruption of New York's 'Ethics' Oversight Going Public

A New York Federal District Court Judge, the Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin, ruled Monday that a federal jury, and  importantly the public, will hear testimony into exactly how corrupt the Manhattan attorney 'ethics' department is and how serious ethics complaints for favored attorneys have been improperly whitewashed.  Equally alarming is the expected testimony that will shed light into the systemic corruption within the attorney and judicial ethics oversight agencies. The widespread allegations of retaliation within and about New York's court system will be provided a proper public forum upon which accountability may be restored. 

The New York Office of Court Administration rattling federal lawsuit was filed October 26, 2007, in The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The allegations by Christine Anderson, a respected insider, revealed a previously hidden look into the systemic corruption within the statewide court system and, most horrifically, concerns the very body charged with overseeing ethics and integrity within the state's courts was supervised by a small group of corrupt individuals.  The named defendants originally included The State of New York's Office of Court Administration (OCA), and the Hon. John Buckley, Thomas J. Cahill, Sherry K. Cohen, Catherine O'Hagen Wolfe and David Spokony- all senior level state employees involved with the 1st Judicial Department's Departmental Disciplinary Committee (DDC), which is charged with overseeing the ethics of attorneys in The Bronx and Manhattan. The papers filed in federal court included, "Plaintiff requests the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the day-to-day operations of the DDC for an indefinite period."

Alan Friedberg, formerly the deputy counsel at the statewide Commission on Judicial Conduct, now heads the DDC. Mr. Friedberg has himself become a lighting rod for corruption allegations as has his former associate Robert Tembeckjian who runs the statewide judicial 'ethics' group as Chief Counsel.

An October 30, 2007 article in the New York Law Journal by Daniel Wise described Anderson's firing, "... in retaliation for complaining that her superiors had engaged in a 'pattern and practice of whitewashing and routinely dismissing complaints against certain select attorneys'" and noted that Christine C. Anderson had worked for the disciplinary committee for six years. The article revealed that Ms. Anderson asked that a federal monitor be appointed to oversee the disciplinary committee's operations, and explained that, "In 2005, Ms. Anderson charged in her complaint, she discovered that the chief counsel of the disciplinary committee, Thomas J. Cahill, and Sherry K. Cohen, its first deputy counsel, were "apparently engaged in a 'numbers game' and practice" of "selectively" dismissing complaints against attorneys for their "own personal and political reasons." Sherry Cohen was also accused of digging her nails into Anderson's hands, an act that appartently led to Cohen's attendance in an appropriate program.

"The first instance of a 'whitewash' alleged in Ms. Anderson's complaint occurred 'in or about 2003' in 'a highly sensitive investigation,' which had uncovered 'overwhelming concrete evidence of misconduct' by an attorney, Ms. Anderson alleged. The matter was dropped despite her recommendation that a formal complaint be filed against the lawyer, Ms. Anderson alleged.
She also charged that a large file she had amassed containing "indisputable evidence of misconduct" had been 'gutted.'" A second incident involved Sherry Cohen's whitewashing of a  complaint because, "'she had a prior working relationship' with the attorney for the lawyer under investigation and sought to avoid having his client formally charged 'as a favor.'"

CLICK HERE TO READ THE OPINION AND ORDER (April 27, 2009)