Lawrence N. Gray, Esq.
20 Fireplace Drive
Kings Park, New York 11754
The Smithtown News
One Brooksite Drive December 11, 2009
Smithtown, New York 11787
Dear Editor:
The Daily News reported the forewoman of the jury that convicted ex-Republican Senate Majority Leader Bruno saying she hoped “there should be someone watching, requiring disclosure or requiring approval for what job you can take on.” Bruno quit CMA Consulting the day after the verdict. CMA got state contracts totaling $27.1 million after Bruno joined the firm. A few months after being elected to the Senate, John Flanagan announced that he was Of Counsel to the law firm of Forchelli, Curto, Crowe, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Cohn, LLP whose offices are not the 2d Senatorial District. The firm was founded by Armand D’Amato after Alfonse was elected to the U.S. Senate. Its website boasts clients such as Cablevision that owns Newsday that covers Flanagan -- and Burger King, Northrop Grumman, Home Depot, Citibank, Walgreen, Stop N’ Shop, Credit Lyonnais, Amerada Hess, Merrill Lynch (now BOFA), Washington Mutual Bank (now Wells Fargo), Sunrise Assisted Living, Dairy Barn Stores, Philips International, Eckerd Drugs, etc. These folks lobby the Legislature and appear before Albany regulatory agencies. I have requested Sen. Flanagan to disclose how much he is paid by this law firm, for exactly what services to what named clients? Running for re-election next year, he must lead by example. Voters must see the written agreement and verifiable proof of how much he is paid by it for exactly what legal services to what named clients? (A client’s name is never attorney-client privileged, nor the retainer, nor the fee.) These are fair questions. From Bruno’s own lips, as revealed at his trial, we know that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is getting $30,000 to $60,000 per month from Weitz & Luxenburg, LLP which is the negligence firm advertised on TV. Silver has blocked malpractice reform for decades. What is Sen. Flanagan’s deal? Actions speak louder than press releases. Where’s the Senator’s “follow through” against personal use of campaign funds as he postured in 2006? The Smithtown News witnessed the fact that in 2006, after ex -Smithtown Highway Superintendent Edmund (now felon) Lynch was caught looting his campaign account, Sen. Flanagan introduced Senate Bill S8258. He wrote about officials having “virtual carte blanche for expenditures that are, at best, tangentially related to their campaigns and official duties.” “Luxury vehicles, sky boxes, extravagant meals, international travel and home improvements” were examples. He observed “a growing and justifiable public perception that campaign funds are being used to enhance the post election life styles of candidates for public office. Such largesse turns the ideal of representatives serving the public on its head. Campaign donors have a reasonable expectation that their contributions will be used for the candidate’s election efforts and the execution of his or her public duties. They do not expect their contributions to subsidize personal spending.” Still waiting! If we can’t have ‘em honest, can we at least be governed well? The state is $3.2 billion short. Yet not one dollar can be cut from Medicaid or Education. SEIU Local 1199 and the Teachers Union won’t allow my (actually their) Senator to do so. But the perks and moola just roll in for our ever so privileged political class that thinks it was born to the purple. Your politics are broken. Your government is broken. Albany is called a cesspool, a sewer. Some like the water just fine.
Yours truly,
Lawrence N. Gray, Esq.
Posts
8 comments:
We need some real changes in 2010!
what we need is to start putting people in jail. More people than just Bruno. It is a nice start but thier are more people that should be in crowbar hotel.
Then we need to get rid of the DDC
and the panel that reviews judges.
If you hire someone to fix your house you can find out how many complaints and what was done about it. You hire a lawyer you can not find out anything about thier past.
Like always the complaints get thrown out. I have found lawyers that have been disbarred in other states they just go to another state and take the test and pay the barr fees till they get thrown out of that state.
Fewer than 1% of the complints filled at the downtown location are ever questioned.
they are thrown out. It cost 5 million dollars to operate that office and nothing gets done.
The money that they collect goes into thier pay and benifits.
The more lawyers the more money they make.
This guy better watch his back.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr.Gray at an American For Legal Reform meeting one night about a year ago. I was an instant fan.
We communicated by email. Mr.Gray had put me on his email list.
We parted ways after I disagreed with him on a very minor issue. It was about that cop down south that stopped a man with his family on the way to a hospital trying to get there to see his mother in law before she passed. Which, she did while the cop held him at bay to issue him a summons.
I learned that Mr.Gray has a son that is a NYS trooper on LI. He took great exception to my opinion, and discounted my 29 year career in the NYPD that stopped many cars in my career.
He just went wild. Called me stupid and ignorant. All I did was give an opinion that he didn't agree with. He took me off his email list.
With that being said, Mr.Gray is quite a gem in a land of rocks. He is smart, well spoken and well written, and IMO, he is usually spot on with most of his opinions about the justice/legal system in NYS.
I won't be expecting an apology from him very soon. LOL.
The shame of it all is that Mr.Gray has a lot more to offer than writing opinion pieces and writing letters to newspapers.
If he ran for something, I would still vote for him.
PeteF.
I hope this coming year Bernadette E. Lupinetti, Esq. pays for her crimes against children and families. The AG's office needs to stop protecting criminals like this monster.
I hope this coming year Bernadette E. Lupinetti, Esq. pays for her crimes against children and families. The AG's office needs to stop protecting criminals like this monster.
another Lupinetti mention..
http://nakedjudgeny.blogspot.com/2007/02/esther-yang-story.html
so.. the FBI has been investigating since when???
In a subsequent article (New York Post, Oct. 2, 2005) on the subject of judicial misconduct, Mr. Hamilton writes,
“…the Commission on Judicial Misconduct which says it's so overworked that it can't investigate many of its cases dismissed 73 percent of its 1,546 complaints. Dozens of complaints were dropped against a handful of Manhattan Supreme Court justices now under investigation by the FBI.
“Complaints in 2004 were dismissed against Gerald Garson, the Brooklyn judge charged with fixing divorces, and against Manhattan Supreme Court justices Marylin Diamond, Shirley Kornreich, Judith Gische, Joan Lobis and John Stackhouse. That group is being probed by the FBI for allegedly favoring companies to which they have financial ties.”
Adam Edelstein represents Esther’s ex-husband, on child custody matters. Adam Edelstein is a member of The Edelsteins, Faegenburg, & Brown law firm. They maintain offices in both Brooklyn and Manhattan. In a subsequent posting we will examine political campaign contributions made by the firm and the firm’s individual members.
We salute Attorney Gray for being a stand up guy! Why are not more Attorneys doing the same?
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