UPDATE on Attorney "Ethics" Committees' Illegal Wiretaps

Former Insider Admits to Illegal Wiretaps for "Ethics" Bosses

Evidence was obtained on Thursday, January 24, 2013, confirming the position of a former New York State attorney ethics committee insider that various illegal actions were employed by New York State supervising employees to target and/or protect select attorneys. 

The Cleaner

Many of the most powerful attorneys in the United States are licensed to practice law in New York State, and if the business address for that lawyer is located in The Bronx or Manhattan, legal ethics is overseen by the Departmental Disciplinary Committee (the "DDC"), a group that falls under Manhattan's Appellate Division of The NY Supreme Court, First Department.

A few years ago, and during a wrongful termination case involving a former DDC ethics attorney, Christine Anderson, it was revealed that DDC employees had a nick-name for a supervising ethics attorney, Naomi Goldstein.  "Ethics" Supervising Attorney Naomi Goldstein was known as "the Cleaner."  

"Ethics" Retaliation Machine Was Real

There are usually cries of "retaliation" whenever charges of violating regulations of attorney ethics rules are lodged against a lawyer.  However, an investigation of activity at the DDC for a ten year period reveals starling evidence of routine and improper retaliation, evidence tampering and widespread coverups.

Importantly, an insider, who says he was involved in the illegal activity, including widespread wiretapping, has provided the troubling details during recent interviews.  He says he supervised the teams that acted illegally.  The insider says that he was Naomi Goldstein's 'man' - The Cleaner's 'man' - and that he would simply receive a telephone call from Naomi Goldstein, and who would say, "we have another target, I want to meet you…"  He also says that Thomas Cahill, a former DDC Chief Counsel, and Sherry Cohen, a former Deputy-Chief Counsel- and now in private practice helping lawyers in "ethics" investigations, were part of, and knowledgeable of, the illegal activity.  

The meetings, the insider says, were usually at a park or restaurant near the DDC's lower Manhattan ethics' offices, however he did over time meet Goldstein at his office, inside the DDC or in movie theater- a venue picked by Naomi.  Goldstein only needed to provide him with the name and other basic information, so that his team could begin their "investigation."

He specifically recalls Naomi Goldstein advising him to "get as much damaging information as possible on Christine [Anderson,]" the former DDC staff attorney who had complained that certain internal files had been gutted of collected evidence.

Naomi's "man" says that they then tapped Ms. Anderson's phones, collected ALL "ISP" computer data, including all emails, and set up teams to surveil Anderson 24/7.  He says he reviewed the illegally recorded conversations and ISP data, and then personally handed those items over to Naomi Goldstein.

Attorney Christine Anderson should not, however, feel like she was a lone target.  Initially, Goldstein's "man," indicated that "….over 125 [attorney] cases were interfered with…."  But a subsequent and closer review of approximately 1.5 million documents has revealed that there may have been many hundreds of attorneys, over the ten-year-period, involved in the DDC's dirty tricks, focused retaliation and planned coverups.

Previously identified "targeted" lawyers were only numbered in the "dozens," but that was before the years-old documents were reviewed. In initial interviews, the insider says that if Ms. Goldstein had identified the DDC ethics committee's newest target as an attorney, it was quickly qualified with whether the involved lawyer was to be "screwed or UNscrewed."  Unscrewed was explained as when an attorney needed to be "protected" or "saved" even if they did, in fact, have a major ethics problem.  But targets, it is now revealed, were not always identified as having a law license.

The DDC insider also says that litigants (most of whom were not attorneys) were also DDC targets.  The on-going document review continues to refresh the memory of the insider, after initially only remembering names from high-profile cases involving "big-name" attorneys.  But one fact remains constant, says the insider- the actions of his teams were clearly and "intentionally obstructing justice."