""what Judith Kaye needs to hide and whom she needs to protect.
Andrew Cuomo's selection of Judith Kaye has been widely praised due to Ms. Kaye's alleged independence and integrity. In fact, Cuomo's selection of Kaye could possibly raise later ethical questions for Cuomo.
I, too, would appoint someone as an independent counsel who has an obvious and understandable indebtedness to Mario Cuomo for her own professional/judicial standing and social status if I needed to keep the Cuomos' long held knowledge of corruption in the OAG and Mario Cuomo's own protection of that corruption secret
One has to wonder if there could ever be any convictions in the Paterson matter when all any defense attorney would have to do is call either Mario or Andrew Cuomo as a witness and then easily destroy Mario and/or Andrew's own credibility? Is the OAG alleged investigation really being done in good faith?.
.... emails sent Ms. Kaye. As you read this first one, keep in mind recent polls showing Cuomo's own drop of 22% in favorability among blacks due to his involvement in the Paterson matter and then ponder what that drop would have been had Paterson remained a candidate for Governor and had the independence necessary to expose the scandals described below.""
Sent: Fri, March 12, 2010 2:07:37 AM
Subject: Cuomo's own secrets--Corruption in the OAG involving the NYSP
Ms. Kaye,
Andrew Cuomo's appointment of you as independent counsel to the OAG in the probe of David Paterson, the NYSP, and others does not entirely eliminate any conflict of interest/ appearance of impropriety on the part of Andrew Cuomo and the OAG. In fact, legitimate questions remain whether anyone connected with the OAG should even participate in your own alleged "independent" investigation.
Additionally, your own close relationship with the Cuomo family could give rise to appearances of impropriety on your part. The indebtedness you owe Mario Cuomo for your current professional standing/social status is both considerable and understandable.
Certainly, Andrew Cuomo had every reason to believe that I would contact you about NY's hidden political scandals once I learned about your appointment as independent counsel. These scandals involve the NYSP, corruption in the OAG under Robert Abrams, Mario Cuomo's protection of that corruption while Governor, and Andrew Cuomo's own refusal to follow the mandates of his current office. Other than Andrew Cuomo's appointment of Robert Abrams as special prosecutor, I doubt that he could have appointed anyone who could be perceived as more indebted to the Cuomo family than you. Perhaps that's why he chose you.
Enclosed in this email is the first of three emails I am sending you. This email and the two
emails that follow are lengthy so you may wish to print them out first. They were being circulated among select NY State Democrat Party officials and political operatives prior to Governor Paterson's recent decision not to seek a four-year term for governor. This circulation was designed to prevent Andrew Cuomo from entering the gubernatorial primary. Andrew Cuomo and his top deputies have already been sent the emails.
The three emails basically cover three separate areas --(1) NY's secret political scandals arising from the corruption in the OAG, (2) how the political arena was used to expose corruption in the OAG, and (3) how Andrew Cuomo's entry into the 2010 gubernatorial Democratic primary could have reopened old racial wounds because of his father's protection of former NYAG Robert Abrams during the Tawana Brawley matter. This third area/email also summarizes Andrew Cuomo's self-inflicted liabilities as a candidate for Governor and also quotes portions of certain relevant letters.
Since this third area/email was the most currently politically relevant, I am including it with this email. However, you may find the first email re: NY's hidden political scandals much more interesting since it details the political circumstances occurring at the the time Angel Diaz was found hanging in his jail cell and afterward. You, yourself, wrote the majority opinion affirming the right of a governor to supersede a district attorney in order to seek the death penalty. Perhaps you would have ruled differently if you had known of the enclosed.
Re: Andrew Cuomo:
Any attorney general in any state can hold his finger to the wind and determine what issues are important to voters and what issues will get him positive press coverage and high approval ratings. It would be hard to name one politically ambitious state attorney general who wouldn't go after child predators on the Internet, excessive bonuses paid to executives of bailed-out companies, and that old and dependable standby, Medicaid fraud.
An attorney general may even make a reputation as a reformer by prosecuting public corruption, concentrating efforts on abuses of pension funds while ignoring abuses of tort funds and operational funds.
Attorney generals also defend state employees and agencies when they are sued. It was the abuse of this constitutionally-mandated responsibility that first gave rise to NY's secret political scandals. Andrew Cuomo should not have spent a minute's time contemplating whether or not to recuse himself from investigating Governor Paterson and the NYSP. His recusal should have been immediate given his reasonable expectation that Paterson already knew about NY's hidden political scandals. Andrew Cuomo's defense that Paterson asked for the investigation is no legitimate excuse for going ahead with an investigation rife with all kinds of conflicts of interest on his part.
PS: As you read the enclosed, please keep in mind that the trial that exposed the corruption in the OAG involved an out-of-jurisdiction arrest by the NYSP who came to a private residence in the Town of Hamburg, NY to effect an illegal arrest meant for the personal benefit of the father of a NYSP trooper.
The Town of Hamburg police (who had jurisdiction) were never involved in the arrest and the NYSP never sought/received permission from the Hamburg Town Police to be involved. After being arrested in Hamburg by a NYSP trooper who was assigned to the Clarence NYSP barracks and who came from Clarence, NY to Hamburg at the behest of his father, the defendant was taken out of district to the NYSP barracks in Orchard Park, NY and was also arraigned out of district in Orchard Park.
The alleged arraignment took place in the back room of an Orchard Park magistrate with only the magistrate and a NYSP investigator present. The magistrate, knowing how much money the defendant had on her, set bail high enough so it couldn't be reached and signed commitment papers in that backroom before the defendant, having been denied a lawyer, appeared before him.
The defendant's first lawful arraignment was held in Hamburg, NY after being incarcerated at the Erie County Holding Center for two days. All criminal charges were later dismissed with a judicial apology from the Hamburg Court magistate.
The OAG had no qualms about defending the NYSP members, even committing felonies in its defense and the NYSP have a history of ignoring jurisdictional boundaries and doing favors for others--all with the blessing of Andrew Cuomo and his predecessors in the OAG..
Below is the email re: Andrew Cuomo's entry into the 2010 gubernatorial Democratic primary:.
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One line in the Spin v Truth --Andrew Cuomo and the Myth of a Cuomo Dynasty section, page 5 of the 2nd email, requires further explanation:
"At the time of the (1992) Illinois primary, I had written to your father only once".
That one time couldn't be worse for establishing any future Cuomo Dynasty since this initial contact was during the racially charged and divisive Tawana Brawley matter.
Andrew Cuomo's entry into the primary for Governor could reopen old racial wounds and provide further racial polarization. Andrew Cuomo already has residual problems with some black voters due to his challenging Carl McCall in the 2002 NY State Democratic primary for governor. Now it's rumored he wants to challenge another prominent black for governor in the 2010 primary.
His racially insensitive and unapologetic "shuck and jive" comment during the last presidential primary campaign doesn't help either. His attempts to explain away his usage of this term was just more "jive talking" on his part.
What could prove to be especially damaging or even fatal to Andrew Cuomo's political ambitions is his father's own conduct during the Tawana Brawley matter since Governor Cuomo's conduct raises questions as to how far the apple falls from the tree--a legitimate concern for both black and white voters.
My first communication with Andrew's father occurred in late August 1988. At that time, Mario Cuomo received an extensive mailing sent certified mail from me criticizing his appointment of NYAG Robert Abrams as special prosecutor in the Tawana Brawley matter and the problems he faced with that appointment (due to what occurred during Rojicek v Cooley, Bell, and Buczkowski). At the time of Cuomo's receipt of the information, Brawley's black attorneys (Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason) were refusing to cooperate with Abrams and his Grand Jury and would not allow Tawana Brawley or her mother to testify before it. Among the myriad charges hurled at Abrams by Al Sharpton and the Brawley attorneys was the charge that white officials like Abrams automatically covered up crimes of white officials. They were demanding that Cuomo replace Abrams and appoint another special prosecutor instead.
What Mario Cuomo did not expect or need during the Tawana Brawley matter was to be informed of a federal civil rights trial involving truthful charges of sexual assault by a white NY State Police investigator. The trial of Rojicek V Cooley et. al., proved unequivocally that Abrams and his office not only covered up crimes by white officials but also committed crimes (felonies) in order to cover up.
In my August 27, 1988 letter to Mario Cuomo, I warned him "not to be lulled into a false sense of security by Abrams' disclaimer . . . that my case was not the only case lurching luridly in Abrams' background . . . and that he had a potential scandal in Abrams' administration".
On September 8, 1988 Cuomo's Director of Criminal Justice, John Poklemba would respond via letter to me:
"Governor Cuomo has asked that I acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 27, 1988, regarding your case. As you correctly noted in your letter, the Attorney General is a constitutionally elected officer and not subject to the direct control or supervision of the Governor. . . .Thank you for writing the Governor and sharing this matter with us."
John Poklemba was handling the Tawana Brawley matter for Governor Cuomo and had previously met with the Brawley forces who were demanding the removal of Abrams.
Mario Cuomo had a decision to make at that time--whether to act as a Governor or act as a politician. Instead of protecting his constituency of white, black and other racial origins, Cuomo protected his white Attorney General and the white lawyers involved in my trial.
He could have used Rojicek v Cooley, et al. to heal the racial divisions caused by the Brawley matter since my case came to his attention before the Brawley grand jury was disbanded (one month later) but he chose not to do so. He could have granted the Brawley request for another special prosecutor but he chose not to do so.
He could have gone public with Rojicek v Cooley, et al to reassure his constituents that he would not tolerate obstruction of justice by any attorney, black or white, but he chose not to do so. He could have appointed a special prosecutor to investigate corruption in Robert Abrams' office but he chose not to do so.
Instead, Governor Cuomo, too "tawana'd out" by the Brawley matter, entered into a conspiracy of silence with his white Attorney General not caring whether his constituents and others who use the courts in NY had fair trials when they were adversaries of Robert Abrams and his office. Both Cuomo and Abrams turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to already proved accusations against white attorneys.
Abrams, with Cuomo's apparent blessing, then proceeded to go after Brawley's black attorneys with a vengeance for violations of the professional conduct code for lawyers--violations that were far less egregious than the violations (both civil rights violations and violations of criminal statutes) committed by the white attorneys involved in Rojicek v Cooley, et al. Alton Maddox has had his law license suspended for over twenty years (a record) for refusing to appear before the Grievance Committee to answer questions related to his representation of Tawana Brawley. Mason was disbarred for refusing to answer questions regarding the Brawley matter and other alleged unrelated acts of professional misconduct.
Because of the disparate treatment given black and white attorneys by Cuomo and Abrams, voters can reasonably view both Cuomo and Abrams as racists. The ability to paint Cuomo and Abrams as racists is not only possible but even justified given today's racially sensitive political environment when even words such as "Negro dialect" leads to charges of racism when used innocently by an older white politician who grew up in an era where the word Negro was acceptable (and still is).
NY voters, whether logical or not, could legitimately view Andrew Cuomo's desire to defeat prominent black candidates and his prior usage of a racially insensitive term as proof of racial animus learned from his father, answering for themselves just how far the apple falls from the tree.
Parenthetically, NY voters could simply vote Andrew Cuomo out of any office if they learn what hypocrites and frauds the two Cuomos really are.
Relative to Paterson v Cuomo, it remains to be seen whether or not a black man, in a reversal of history, finally keeps a white boy in his place.
While I would love to see such a public reversal of history, I doubt Paterson will risk political suicide by going public re: Andrew Cuomo and the Cuomo legacy--not when he or his operatives can work quietly behind the scenes to keep Cuomo out. A quid pro quo arrangement such as a later lucrative appointment by a then Governor Andrew Cuomo could also be promised to both entice Paterson to drop out of the primary or as a reward for remaining silent about NY's hidden political scandals.
Paterson, as do others, also has the option of using black activists or others to destroy any Cuomo dynasty.
In the event Andrew Cuomo doesn't enter the primary, I would expect a statement from him similar to the one given by his father when he was forced to remove his name from consideration as a US Supreme Court Justice nominee, i.e. he loves being the peoples' lawyer, he's not finished with important NYAG business, ad nauseum.
Reporters attending any press conference where Cuomo announces his decision not to enter the primary race for governor could then take out their pens and stenographer pads and record Andrew Cuomo's spin for not entering the primary as fact. A few polite, perfunctory, and irrelevant questions may even be asked.
The only question reporters should ask is "Is there anything in your background or father's background that prevents you from entering a gubernatorial primary when a majority of state and national Democrats want you and polling numbers show you easily beating both Paterson and Lazio?"
With that question, reporters would actually witness a white boy "shucking and jiving" his way through a press conference--even if that press conference were being held in an Iowa or New Hampshire living room.
Cuomo's not entering or dropping out of the gubernatorial primary does present a problem for him with the state and national Democrat Party and President Obama since he, rather than Paterson, is viewed as the party's savior and not the liability he really is.
Politician and savior are incongruent occupations.
According to a newspaper article, Tawawa Brawley's mother and stepfather allegedly wrote letters to then Governor Spitzer and NYAG Andrew Cuomo asking that the Brawley matter be reopened. Irrespective of whether the Brawley matter was a hoax or not, Andrew Cuomo will never reopen up the matter since doing so could possibly result in damage to both his political career/ambitions as well as damage to his father's reputation/legacy.
Personally, I think Andrew Cuomo should view me as more of a threat than anyone connected to the Brawley matter. In a letter dated August 26, 1988 sent certified mail to Abrams (included in Cuomo's mailing), I wrote: "You may or may not be successful in denying me my lawful right to justice by riding on the coattails of the Brawley case. We both know, however, there will be other coattails to ride".
Never did I expect that same coattail would be available to ride years and years later.
Andrew Cuomo's rumored entry into the gubernatorial primary is one more coattail to ride.
I have no dog in the Democratic primary fight for governor unless Andrew Cuomo enters the ring. My dog remains in the NY Attorney General's office and is only let out on occasion to ride on coattails.
If I had been able to find one NYAG among the last five (Abrams, Koppel, Vacco, Spitzer, and Cuomo) who believes that fair courtroom trials are the cornerstone of a democracy, my dog could be laying contentedly in Illinois at my feet while my sister and I leisurely search the Internet for names of the last five Illinois Attorneys General. We can only recall the names of the last two.
Andrew Cuomo, despite numerous opportunities, has refused to send my dog home and I miss her.
Hopefully, NY voters won't miss the the character flaws (in addition to racial animus) demonstrated by Andrew Cuomo that prove that Andrew Cuomo is not fit to be NYAG let alone Governor of New York. To wit:
When Mario Cuomo delivered his 1984 keynote address at the National Democratic Convention, he spoke eloquently of a nation divided into two cities, one for the rich, powerful, and politically protected and one for the poor, powerless, and politically unprotected. When it came to a true test of his rhetoric, though, Governor Cuomo chose to live in the city of the rich, powerful, and politically protected.and left a powerless. but more principled victim who occupies the other city, to fight alone.
Andrew Cuomo has always resided in the same city as his father. Despite his rhetoric and public relations makeover, he is still the same Andrew Cuomo. Like his father, he also left a powerless, but more principled victim who occupies the other city, to fight alone.
While I don't know either Cuomo personally, both have been described by others who know them as petty, vindictive, mean-spirited, egotistical individuals who never let go of grudges. Such negative personality traits, combined with arrogance, leads to bad executive decisions, including ignoring the number one rule of politics: When a problem first comes to your attention, deal with it.
Andrew Cuomo received the same two lengthy emails you have received certified mail. Additionally, similar emails have been emailed to his executive secretary (Holly Levy) numerous times as well as to Mario Cuomo and Robert Abrams at their respective private law firms and top deputies of Andrew Cuomo in the OAG.
I have never been able to determine Andrew Cuomo's own OAG email address. According to Holly, Andrew Cuomo can't figure out how to print emails so all emails have to go to her for printing and delivery (although Cuomo brags about his hobby of tinkering with and fixing engines of classic automobiles).
Andrew Cuomo's liabilities are self-inflicted.
As NYAG, he allowed his arrogance to interfere with whatever intellect he has. As NYAG, Andrew Cuomo has refused to follow the law and the mandates of his office. As a government attorney paid with tax dollars, his first duty is to seek and insure justice regardless of whether an injustice occurred in either a civil case or criminal case and regardless of when that injustice occurred. This heightened obligation is due to the recognition that government can and often does abuse its power.
A victim who for years has stood on principle and who has refused to be the first one to motion a Court for redress does not negate any NYAG's responsibilities.
Evidently, game playing is another hobby of Andrew Cuomo's. He's not paid by taxpayers to play a waiting game. Any motion by Cuomo would have only required a simple, short statement requesting the District Court in Buffalo to set aside the judgment in Rojicek v Cooley, et al due to Fraud Upon the Court and in the interest of justice--a motion that would have automatically been granted. Rather than admitting to fraud and criminal acts that included bribery, he could have taken an even more ambiguous route, simply claiming that lawyer over-zealousness has resulted in an unreliable judgment.
I am persona non grata in Buffalo where federal magistrates laugh with lawyers over kitchen sinks and US attorneys slander and maliciously prosecute US citizens engaged in lawful protest--protest designed to protect the public, to expose corruption in the District Court and the NY Attorney General's Office, and to send a message to other victims that going to the US Attorney's office is a complete waste of time.
Furthermore, as Andrew Cuomo is well aware, I have been adamant about the OAG motioning for a new trial and not me and I have no intention of ever changing my position about this since it was the OAG that colluded with my attorney, committed the criminal acts, and paid the bribes. How much more clear could I be?
Both Mario Cuomo and I knew that in public corruption cases one always follows the money. Following the money in NY would lead to the comptroller's office--a fact acknowledged by Andrew Cuomo, himself, when he obtained a guilty plea from Ray Harding, former head of the NY Liberal Party, in October 2009.
Furthermore, Andrew Cuomo has not demonstrated loyalty to the NYS Democrat Party and his lack of loyalty should not be rewarded by the party. The true story of NY State's secret political scandals would have disappeared with settlement that included the mandatory disclaimer of any wrong doing and the obligatory agreement of confidentiality.
The NYS Democrat Party can thank Andrew Cuomo for keeping the story of NY's secret political scandals alive and in the political arena.
Politicians must laugh at the white NY establishment press. New York's version of Watergate was written by two sisters from Illinois, neither of whom have press credentials. We are capable of writing additional chapters with or without the help of NY's black press.
Perhaps Andrew Cuomo should consider breaking the sad news to his paramour, Sandra Lee, that she won't be bringing any of her great garnishes to the Governor's Mansion next year and for the three years following (unless,of course, she's visiting Governor Paterson).
On a more somber note, it should be noted that one of Mario Cuomo's daughters (Andrew Cuomo's sister) was allegedly sexually assaulted by a rapist who has never been caught. Both have dishonored her and other victims of sexual assault by their willingness to add years and years of continued victimization directed towards another sexual assault victim.
How proud she must be of her father and her brother. ""
Sent in by Reader..
Posted here by
Crystal@CrystalCox.com
Investigative Blogger
Don't Forget that Proskauer Rose Law Firm is VERY Connected to Ex-Judge Judith Kaye.
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