Attorney Probed in Threats Against Judges, Lawyer

Attorney probed in threats against judges, lawyer
The New York Daily News by ALISON GENDAR AND JONATHAN LEMIRE  - April 9, 2009

A Manhattan lawyer is under investigation for allegedly threatening a fellow attorney and two judges who handled his eviction case, police and law enforcement sources said Wednesday.  Investigators said Scott Stern sent a box cutter to one judge and threatened to beat another with a baseball bat because he was upset that he lost his bid to stay in his E.63rd St. apartment.  Stern, 40, is suspected of mailing a box cutter earlier this year to New York City Housing Judge Pam Jackman-Brown, the judge who heard the case, sources said. And on Feb. 17, Stern showed up at the chambers of Douglas McKeon, the Supreme Court justice for the Appellate Division who is handling the appeal in the eviction case, and demanded to see him, sources said. When McKeon refused to see Stern, he declared to the judge's staff, "I will come back with a baseball bat and beat the life out of him," police sources said. Investigators also believe that Stern sent threatening e-mails last month to James Fishman, who briefly consulted with Stern regarding the case, but never actually represented him, sources said. Stern, who joined the personal injury law firm of Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro in 2004, has not been charged with any crime.