Ex-NY Judge Still a Convict

By Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
New York Lawyer
January 11, 2010

Citing "overwhelming" evidence of guilt, an appeals court in Brooklyn last week gave short shrift to ex-Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson's arguments that his bribery conviction should be overturned. In a brief unsigned opinion, a four-judge panel brushed aside Mr. Garson's argument that the prosecution had injected into the trial crimes not charged in the indictment by insinuating he had accepted bribes "to fix cases."

Mr. Garson's lawyer, Jeremy Gutman, had argued that lead prosecutor Michael F. Vecchione had injected case fixing into the trial when he told the jury in his opening statement that a litigant in a divorce case before the ex-judge "never had a shot." The indictment and bill of particulars did not accuse Mr. Garson of accepting bribes to fix cases. Instead, Mr. Garson was charged with accepting thousands of dollars of gifts from a lawyer who regularly appeared before him and who was seeking lucrative court appointments and ex parte advice in one of the lawyer's cases then before Mr. Garson. The litigant Mr. Vecchione referred to as not having a shot was the subject of the ex parte advice.

During an eight-month investigation, the prosecution compiled hours of video from a camera hidden in Mr. Garson's robing room. The tapes captured the lawyer, who cooperated with prosecutors, handing Mr. Garson a box of cigars and a $1,000 referral fee. Mr. Garson served 21/2 years in prison before being released on parole on Dec. 23.

NY Judge-Turned-Convict Granted Early Parole

New York Lawyer
August 20, 2009
By Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal

NY-Justice Gerald P. Garson of Brooklyn was granted parole on Tuesday, 25 months after he began serving a three-to-10 year term for bribery and two related counts.

The state Parole Board set Dec. 23, 2009, as Mr. Garson's release date and stipulated that after his release he is barred from being affiliated with a law firm.

He is also required as a condition of parole to participate in an alcohol abuse treatment program and to submit to substance-abuse testing.

Mr. Garson's attorney, Jeremy Gutman, said in an interview that Mr. Garson's family and friends are "thrilled that he will be home with them next winter."

Mr. Gutman added that Mr. Garson would like to work after his release and has received several offers of employment in "various fields." Mr. Gutman declined to elaborate. Mr. Garson, 77, has been disbarred.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in a letter to the Parole Board had "strongly opposed" granting Mr. Garson parole.

"This was an overwhelming case of greed, of [Mr. Garson's] selling his office for drinks, lunches, dinners and gifts and a violation of the trust voters and citizens of Brooklyn placed in him," wrote Michael F. Vecchione, the chief of the Rackets Division who was the lead prosecutor in Mr. Garson's trial.

Mr. Gutman said Mr. Garson had "widespread support" for his release in letters submitted to the Parole Board from "neighbors, former colleagues, including retired judges, friends and family." Mr. Garson is married, has four children and a number of grandchildren.

According to statistics provided by the New York State Division of Parole, it is unusual for inmates to be released after their first appearance before the Parole Board. In 2008, only 22 percent of inmates in the category of felonies, which includes bribery, were released after their first appearance.

Another former Brooklyn justice, Victor I. Barron, who was sentenced to a minimum term of three years for bribery in 2002, was also released after his first appearance before the board. Mr. Barron pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting a $115,000 bribe before signing off on a $4.9 million settlement for a girl who had suffered brain injuries in a car accident.

After a month-long trial in 2007, Mr. Garson, was convicted of bribery for accepting free meals and drinks from lawyer Paul Siminovsky, who testified as a prosecution witness. In exchange, the jury found Mr. Garson had provided Mr. Siminovsky with court appointments, ex parte advice on a matter before the judge and unfettered access to his courtroom.

Mr. Garson also was convicted on two counts of receiving rewards for official misconduct: a box of cigars for providing ex parte advice and $1,000 for referring a client to Mr. Siminovsky.

Orange County Justice Jeffrey G. Berry, who presided over the trial, stacked his sentences for each of those counts to create a term of three to 10 years: one to four years for bribery and one to three years on each of the official misconduct counts.

Mr. Garson entered prison on July 7, 2007. Until May 2009, he was isolated in protective custody at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. Since May 12, he has been in the general population at the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick, about 60 miles north of New York City.

Appeal Pending

Briefing of Mr. Garson's appeal to the Appellate Division, Second Department, has yet to be completed. Last week, the prosecution filed its response to his appeal, and Mr. Garson's reply papers are due Sept. 30.

With that briefing schedule, experts said, the earliest the appeal would be argued would be at the end of November.

Mr. Garson's parole date was advanced slightly more than six months—to Dec. 23 from June 26, 2010—upon the recommendation of the Department of Correctional Services, which found that he had successfully completed a substance and alcohol abuse program and behaved satisfactorily while in prison.

Mr. Barron likewise had his release date advanced six months.

Mr. Garson is required to comply with the condition of his parole until June 2017. Should the Second Department reverse his conviction, he would be released from further parole supervision.

Additional conditions of his parole are that he must refrain from drinking alcoholic beverage and comply with curfews set by his parole officer.

The requirements that he submit to drug testing and participate in alcohol treatment programs are also at the discretion of his parole officer.

The three board members who granted Mr. Garson parole are Joseph P. Crangle, a former probation officer and court analyst in domestic violence cases in Buffalo City Court; James B. Ferguson Jr., an former administrative law judge with the Division of Parole; and Debra Loomis, a former supervisor in the child protective division of the Washington County Division of Social Services.

There are 19 members of the Parole Board. They are appointed by the governor to six-year terms and earn an annual salary of $101,600.

Garson $$ Duo Get Jail

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
August 15, 2007

A judge slapped two minor players in the Gerald Garson bribery case with stiff sentences yesterday, sentencing a shady electronics dealer to 1 1/4 to 5 ½ years and a former court officer to 1 to 4 years for their roles in the Brooklyn matrimonial-court scandal.

Justice Jeffrey Berry slammed the retailer, Nissim Elmann, 46, for accepting cash from would-be litigants and funneling it to crooked lawyer and Garson buddy Paul Siminovsky.

"I think that you're just about as guilty as Mr. Siminovsky," said Berry. "He used you and you used him."

The court officer, Louis Salerno, 54, was convicted in 2004 of accepting $2,000 and electronics for promising to steer cases to Garson's courtroom. He will be sentenced after Garson's trial.

Ex-hubby Who Bribed Divorce Judge Caged

By Jennifer Fermino
New York Post
August 7, 2007

A Brooklyn father who admitted bribing a crooked judge with cash, cigars and nearly $10,000 in food and booze for help in his bitter divorce, was carted off to jail yesterday.

Avraham Levi, who is still battling with his ex over custody of their kids, was sentenced to three months behind bars.

He will also have to perform 150 hours of community service and serve five years' probation for his role in the judicial corruption scandal.

"I wish I'd never given the money," Levi said last month when he was sentenced. "Since those days, my life has been destroyed . . . I'm asking for mercy."

Justice Gerald Garson gave free advice, lucrative court appointments and client referrals to his good pal, Paul Siminovsky, who was Levi's lawyer.

Garson was found guilty of accepting bribes in April. In June, the disgraced judge began serving a 3- to 10-year prison sentence.

Siminovsky, 48, a successful divorce lawyer who enjoyed unusual access to Garson, was caught on tape being promised that he would get favorable outcomes for litigants by throwing drinks, dinners and cash Garson's way.

Ex NY Judge Makes Bid to Get Out of Prison

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
August 6, 2007

Ex-Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, 74, who began serving a minimum 3-year prison term on June 28, filed a habeas corpus application last Thursday in the Eastern District challenging his denial of bail pending appeal as a violation of due process.

Because of his age, frail health, and substantial legal claims, Mr. Garson contends that Appellate Division, Second Department, Justice Edward D. Carni (See Profile) violated Mr. Garson's due process rights when the judge denied his bail application on June 20. Mr. Garson also contended that he is being hampered in assisting his lawyers with his appeal because he is being held in Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica, about a five-hour drive from New York City.

Because Mr. Garson is being held in protective custody, he also claims he is not able to go to the prison law library but must make specific requests for legal materials to be delivered to his cell.

Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, declined comment.

Mr. Garson's habeas petition, Garson v. Perlman, 03197-07, has been assigned to Eastern District Judge Brian M. Cogan.

Cheaper to Keep Her: NY Man
Who Bribed Judge in His Divorce Headed to Prison

By Tom Perrotta
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
July 25, 2007

Avraham Levi, whose divorce case was the subject of ex-parte discussions between his attorney, Paul Siminovsky, and convicted ex-Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson, was sentenced yesterday to three months in prison and five months probation.

Mr. Levi, 53, pleaded guilty in June 2004 to conspiracy in the fourth degree and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. He admitted that he paid another man, Nissim Ellman, $10,000 to bribe Mr. Garson.

Mr. Garson, 74, began serving his 3-to-10 year prison sentence for bribery last month.

Garson out of Detox & into Prison

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
June 29, 2007

Disgraced former Judge Gerald Garson was given a clean bill of health yesterday - to start serving his three- to 10-year prison sentence.

"This wasn't up to the lawyers," said Garson's attorney, Jeremy Gutman. "This was a determination by doctors."

The 74-year-old Garson - hospital bracelets still dangling from his wrist after a five-day stint in alcohol detox - smiled and showed no signs of ill health as he walked into Brooklyn Supreme Court to begin his term behind bars.

He hugged his sons and wife, Civil Court Judge Robin Garson, then walked to the defense table, where he was cuffed and led away.

Garson was convicted in April of accepting thousands of dollars' worth of drinks, dinners, cash and cigars from a shady lawyer in return for referrals and inside advice on divorce cases over which Garson himself was presiding.

The judge who sentenced him, Jeffrey Berry, had granted Garson until July 5 to finish detox.

NY Lawyer Who Squealed on Judge Sentenced
 to Year Behind Bars, Despite DA's Plea

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
June 28, 2007

A judge's decision to disregard the prosecutor's recommendation for probation and instead impose the maximum one-year jail term for Paul Siminovsky, the ex-lawyer who played a key role in convicting former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, could discourage potential cooperating witnesses in the future, several veteran defense lawyers said yesterday.

On Tuesday, Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey G. Berry of Orange County sentenced Mr. Siminovsky to a year in jail, citing the serious nature of his role in corrupting the judicial system.

Even the attorneys who claimed the sentence could have negative consequences said they recognized the judge's concern that serious misdeeds involving the corruption of the judiciary were appropriately punished.

Some defense lawyers said the crimes against the justice system were so appalling that it would be naive for a cooperating defendant to expect to avoid jail unless the judge had signed off on the deal before sentencing.

Mr. Siminovsky agreed to help prosecutors build a case against Mr. Garson after he was arrested in February 2003 and confronted with evidence that he had been involved in a separate bribery scheme in which his ties to Mr. Garson were being hawked to lure potential clients.

Mr. Siminovsky worked out a cooperation agreement that would allow him to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count of receiving an unlawful gratuity, with a recommendation of no jail time, his lawyer, Anthony M. Bramante, said yesterday.

Originally, the agreement would have allowed Mr. Siminovsky to keep his law license but the deal was subsequently amended and he surrendered his license in 2004.

Mr. Bramante said the deal was negotiated before he had entered the case and before charges against Mr. Garson became public.

Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, said Justice Berry had made it clear to all sides from the time he first learned of the cooperation agreement that he would not be bound by the prosecution's recommendation and he retained full authority over the sentence.

Mr. Siminovsky, who was taken into custody after his sentence was imposed Tuesday, will not appeal, Mr. Bramante said.

"He has acknowledged responsibility for his acts and now wants to get [his sentence] over with so he can get on with his life," Mr. Bramante said.

He added that both he and Mr. Siminovsky had expected Justice Berry to impose some jail time despite the prosecution's recommendation. But he added, "to say that we were surprised that he imposed the full year is an understatement."

"If a cooperation agreement can be disavowed by a judge," he added, prosecutors are going to have "a huge problem" in recruiting cooperators in the future.

Chilling Effect

Other defense attorneys not involved in the case also expressed surprise at the outcome.

Marvin Ray Raskin, a former president of the Bronx County Bar Association, called Justice Berry's decision to override the prosecution's recommendation "a horrific result" that will "no question have a chilling effect upon cooperators in future white-collar cases."

Benjamin Brafman of Manhattan agreed that disregarding the prosecution's bid for probation was "very unusual" and could possibly have "a chilling effect" on recruiting future cooperators.

But, he added, Justice Berry was clearly reacting to the "very serious" nature of Mr. Siminovsky's admitted criminal behavior and the fact that he had negotiated "a very lenient plea agreement." The plea deal limited his exposure to one year in prison, Mr. Brafman noted, a substantial gain over the 2-1/3-to-7 year term the judge could have given for bribery.

Jack T. Litman, of the Manhattan defense firm Litman Asche & Gioiella, said that judges "usually" follow prosecutors' sentencing recommendations' because cooperators might not step forward if they felt there is "no assurance that they would get what they had been promised."

Mr. Litman added, though, that Justice Berry must have believed that the "dark stain [Mr. Siminovsky helped cast] upon the integrity of the judicial system" justified the more severe sentence.

Gerald L. Shargel, another high profile defense lawyer, disagreed that Justice Berry's sentence could pose problems in the future. Given "the depth of corruption revealed in the case," he said, "how could anyone be shocked [by a 1-year term] no matter how much cooperation" was provided, he said.

"A recommendation is not a promise" and the only way to make sure that a prosecutor's sentencing recommendation is acted upon is to get the judge to sign off on it as is often done in state criminal cases, Mr. Shargel said.

Some lawyers contended that prosecutors normally resist agreeing to a deal where a sentence of no jail time is endorsed by a judge because of the damaging effect such a commitment would have on the cooperator's credibility as a witness.

Mr. Shargel countered that prosecutors are not concerned about chinks in their witnesses' credibility when they have solid evidence.

Rockland County District Attorney Michael E. Bonjiorno, president of the New York State District Attorneys' Association, said the rejection of the prosecutor's recommendation would not pose problems as long as the parameters of sentences and the judge's authority to reject the sentence were known "up front."

Cooperating Witness

In exchange for his plea deal, Mr. Siminovsky agreed to help build a criminal case against Mr. Garson, and, according to his trial testimony, he began wearing a wire on the day he was arrested, Feb. 25, 2003. He also agreed to testify in future legal proceedings against Mr. Garson.

Mr. Siminovsky arranged meetings in which he delivered both a box of cigars to Mr. Garson as a "thank you" for having provided him with ex parte advice in a divorce case he had before the judge, and $1,000 in cash as payment for the judge having referred two cases to him. Both episodes, which took place in Mr. Garson's robing room, were captured on videotape and provided compelling evidence against the ex-judge.

During the month-long trial, Mr. Siminvsky's testimony that he plied Mr. Garson with thousands of dollars worth of free meals in exchange for court appointments, ex parte advice and extraordinary courtesies, such as unfettered access to the judge's robing room, formed the linchpin of prosecution's case.

In pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, Mr. Siminovsky capped his potential maximum sentence at one year. But through his trial testimony, he acknowledged bribing Mr. Garson, an admission that put him on equal footing with the ex-judge's crimes and could have exposed him to a prison sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years.

In April, a Brooklyn jury convicted Mr. Garson, who had handled divorce cases since joining the bench in 1998, of bribery and two counts of receiving rewards for official misconduct. Justice Berry sentenced Mr. Garson to three consecutive terms, cumulating to 3-to-10 year prison term. Mr. Garson is undergoing treatment for alcoholism and is scheduled to enter prison on July 5.

Bribe-Taking Ex-Judge Given Extra Time to Detox Before Jail

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
June 22, 2007

Ex-Justice Gerald P. Garson yesterday was given an extra 12 days to detoxify from alcoholism before starting his 3-to-10 year prison term for bribery and related crimes.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry of Orange County, who presided over the month-long trial, granted the postponement after being told Mr. Garson was in "grave" danger of dying if he was imprisoned without proper detoxification.

Mr. Garson, 74, has bladder cancer and a heart condition, among other ailments.

After losing his bid Wednesday to remain free on bail pending his appeal, Mr. Garson was ordered to surrender on Tuesday. The new surrender date is July 5.

Justice Berry ordered Mr. Garson to start inpatient treatment by this morning.

Mr. Garson was convicted in April of accepting thousands of dollars worth of free drinks and meals from a lawyer to whom he gave court appointments, ex parte advice and uncommon courtesies.

     Garson Loses Bid to Delay Prison Term During Appeal

Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
June 21, 2007

An appellate judge ruled yesterday that convicted ex-Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson of Brooklyn must go to prison even as he appeals his 3-to-10 year sentence for bribery and related crimes.

Mr. Garson, 74, who handled divorce cases during his six years on the bench, will surrender to begin serving his sentence on Tuesday.

In a brief four-paragraph order, Justice Edward D. Carni of the Appellate Division, Second Department (See Profile), denied without explanation Mr. Garson's request for a stay pending appeal and dissolved an earlier order that had allowed the ex-judge to remain free on $15,000 bail while his stay application was decided.

"We are very concerned about Justice Garson's medical condition" and are exploring "other legal options," Mr. Garson's lawyer, Jeremy Gutman, said yesterday.

"We have raised very extensive, substantial issues, and are confident Justice Garson will be vindicated on the appeal," he added. Mr. Gutman said he had advised Mr. Garson not to make any comments to the media.

On June 5, the trial judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry of Orange County (See Profile), imposed three consecutive sentences on Mr. Garson that cumulated to 3-to-10 years. Justice Carni later that day issued a temporary stay keeping Mr. Garson's $15,000 bail in place until he decided the request for a stay until the appeal is decided.

In April, after a month-long trial, Mr. Garson was convicted of bribery for providing a lawyer who had become a cooperating witness with court appointments, ex parte legal advice and courtesies such as unfettered access to his courtroom in exchange for thousands of dollars of free meals and drinks, and, in one instance, a $250 box of Dominican cigars.

Mr. Garson also was convicted on a related count of accepting a reward for official misconduct and of accepting $1,000 in referral fees from the cooperating lawyer, Paul Siminovsky.

Three other defendants connected to the Garson investigation, who were either convicted or pleaded guilty, also will be sentenced Tuesday. They are: former court officer Louis Salerno, who was convicted of steering cases to Mr. Garson in 2004; Nissim Ellman, an Israeli businessman, who was accused of telling Brooklyn divorce litigants that he had an "in" with Mr. Garson; and Avraham Levi, the client of Mr. Siminovsky whose divorce case was the subject of ex parte discussions.
As of yesterday afternoon, Mr. Siminovsky's sentencing had not been scheduled. Mr. Siminovsky had pleaded to a single misdemeanor count of giving unlawful gratuities in exchange for a recommendation from the prosecution that he not serve jail time.

Mr. Garson spurned a plea deal last year that would have capped his prison time at 16 months. The deal also would have allowed him to remain within the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections, where his doctors would have been able to treat him.

Uphill Battle Seen

Appellate specialists said yesterday that stays are generally granted pending appeal in high-profile, white-collar cases. But, they added, it was expected Mr. Garson would face an uphill struggle to win a stay because of heightened sensitivity to judicial corruption, especially in Brooklyn.

Former Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman won stays pending appeal from a different Second Department justice, Robert W. Schmidt, that kept him out of prison for nearly 18 months pending his appeals of three convictions. He did not begin to serve a 2-to-6 year sentence until the Second Department affirmed his first two convictions at the end of May.

Appellate experts, however, noted differences between the appeals of Mr. Norman and Mr. Garson. Mr. Norman's appeals have raised numerous trial issues - such as whether immunity should have been granted to a key defense witness - while many of Mr. Garson's issues are closely intertwined with pretrial issues that have already been litigated and appealed, they said.

Only a handful of New York judges have been sentenced to serve jail time in the past 35 years, the most recent being former Brooklyn Justice Victor I. Barron, who served three years for bribery starting in 2002.

Anger in the Judiciary

Throughout the judiciary there was widespread revulsion at Mr. Garson's actions as portrayed in the videotapes and other evidence presented at the trial.

Mr. Garson recognized the scorn of his former colleagues when he told Justice Berry shortly before he was sentenced that he was "profoundly sorry for the public scrutiny that had been visited upon the judiciary as a whole" because of his actions.

One judge, noting that two Brooklyn justices had refused to write letters in support of leniency for Mr. Garson, said, "What he has done to the Brooklyn judges has been outrageous. They are under a cloud because of him."

Brooklyn Justice Karen B. Rothenberg, however, wrote a letter to Justice Berry supporting Mr. Garson. She said this was "a very sad chapter in the life of Gerald Garson as well as for the judiciary."
Having known Mr. Garson for more than 30 years, Justice Rothenberg (See Profile) added that the "measure" of Mr. Garson is more than what is represented by the charges against him.

Stay Arguments

In arguing to remain free on bail pending appeal, Mr. Garson had raised dozens of issues and also contended that his imprisonment could "probably" result in his death.

Mr. Garson, who has bladder cancer, revealed in his sentencing papers that he is suffering from severe alcoholism. Because of his frail condition, imprisonment without proper detoxification would result in death, he argued.

In opposing the stay, prosecutors addressed neither Mr. Garson's health claims nor his arguments that he was not a flight risk. Instead, they solely attacked Mr. Garson's potential legal claims, arguing they were without any "palpable" merit.

Under the case law, Justice Carni was empowered, but not required, to deny the stay if he found Mr. Garson's potential arguments to be without palpable merit.

Case Built on Tapes

The prosecution's case consisted of extensive surveillance evidence, including videotapes, body wires and intercepted phone conversation gathered during an eight-month investigation in 2002 and 2003.

But the centerpiece of the prosecution's case was Mr. Siminovsky, who began cooperating shortly after he was arrested in February 2003.

Mr. Siminovsky agreed to cooperate after he was confronted with evidence implicating him in working with the Israeli businessman, Mr. Ellman, to lure clients into believing he had an inside track in Mr. Garson's courtroom.

In assisting the prosecution, Mr. Siminovsky separately delivered a box of cigars and an envelop containing $1,000 in cash to Mr. Garson. Both episodes were recorded by a camera hidden in the former judge's robing room.

The prosecution also had extensive electronic surveillance evidence that Mr. Garson had coached Mr. Siminovsky on how to handle one of his cases without the lawyer for the other side being present.

In a videotape of the conversation in Mr. Garson's robing room made on Feb. 5, 2003, Mr. Garson was caught telling the ex-lawyer that his client, Mr. Levi, would win even though "he doesn't deserve it." A trial date in Mr. Garson's matrimonial part was scheduled for the next day.
In other tapes, Mr. Garson was heard telling Mr. Siminovsky what to put into a memorandum of law concerning the disposition of the Levis' house and what questions he should ask Mr. Levi and what answers he should give.

In ways not directly relevant to evidence of criminality, the tapes created enormous problems for Mr. Garson because they showed him to be callous, unlikable and offensive.

One passage captured Mr. Garson disparaging his job as a judge. The jury heard him say "one of the greatest things about this job is that I don't know what the f*** I have tomorrow until I get here and I don't give a s*** either."

He was frequently heard bad-mouthing women, and, in one instance, after describing a woman lawyer as 'very ugly,' he broke into the song "Make an Ugly Woman Your Wife."

Garson Loses Bid to Delay Prison Term During Appeal

Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
06-21-2007

An appellate judge ruled yesterday that convicted ex-Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson of Brooklyn must go to prison even as he appeals his 3-to-10 year sentence for bribery and related crimes.

Mr. Garson, 74, who handled divorce cases during his six years on the bench, will surrender to begin serving his sentence on Tuesday.

In a brief four-paragraph order, Justice Edward D. Carni of the Appellate Division, Second Department (See Profile), denied without explanation Mr. Garson's request for a stay pending appeal and dissolved an earlier order that had allowed the ex-judge to remain free on $15,000 bail while his stay application was decided.

"We are very concerned about Justice Garson's medical condition" and are exploring "other legal options," Mr. Garson's lawyer, Jeremy Gutman, said yesterday.

"We have raised very extensive, substantial issues, and are confident Justice Garson will be vindicated on the appeal," he added. Mr. Gutman said he had advised Mr. Garson not to make any comments to the media.

On June 5, the trial judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry of Orange County (See Profile), imposed three consecutive sentences on Mr. Garson that cumulated to 3-to-10 years. Justice Carni later that day issued a temporary stay keeping Mr. Garson's $15,000 bail in place until he decided the request for a stay until the appeal is decided.

In April, after a month-long trial, Mr. Garson was convicted of bribery for providing a lawyer who had become a cooperating witness with court appointments, ex parte legal advice and courtesies such as unfettered access to his courtroom in exchange for thousands of dollars of free meals and drinks, and, in one instance, a $250 box of Dominican cigars.

Mr. Garson also was convicted on a related count of accepting a reward for official misconduct and of accepting $1,000 in referral fees from the cooperating lawyer, Paul Siminovsky.

Three other defendants connected to the Garson investigation, who were either convicted or pleaded guilty, also will be sentenced Tuesday. They are: former court officer Louis Salerno, who was convicted of steering cases to Mr. Garson in 2004; Nissim Ellman, an Israeli businessman, who was accused of telling Brooklyn divorce litigants that he had an "in" with Mr. Garson; and Avraham Levi, the client of Mr. Siminovsky whose divorce case was the subject of ex parte discussions.
As of yesterday afternoon, Mr. Siminovsky's sentencing had not been scheduled. Mr. Siminovsky had pleaded to a single misdemeanor count of giving unlawful gratuities in exchange for a recommendation from the prosecution that he not serve jail time.

Mr. Garson spurned a plea deal last year that would have capped his prison time at 16 months. The deal also would have allowed him to remain within the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections, where his doctors would have been able to treat him.

Uphill Battle Seen

Appellate specialists said yesterday that stays are generally granted pending appeal in high-profile, white-collar cases. But, they added, it was expected Mr. Garson would face an uphill struggle to win a stay because of heightened sensitivity to judicial corruption, especially in Brooklyn.

Former Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman won stays pending appeal from a different Second Department justice, Robert W. Schmidt, that kept him out of prison for nearly 18 months pending his appeals of three convictions. He did not begin to serve a 2-to-6 year sentence until the Second Department affirmed his first two convictions at the end of May.

Appellate experts, however, noted differences between the appeals of Mr. Norman and Mr. Garson. Mr. Norman's appeals have raised numerous trial issues - such as whether immunity should have been granted to a key defense witness - while many of Mr. Garson's issues are closely intertwined with pretrial issues that have already been litigated and appealed, they said.

Only a handful of New York judges have been sentenced to serve jail time in the past 35 years, the most recent being former Brooklyn Justice Victor I. Barron, who served three years for bribery starting in 2002.

Anger in the Judiciary

Throughout the judiciary there was widespread revulsion at Mr. Garson's actions as portrayed in the videotapes and other evidence presented at the trial.

Mr. Garson recognized the scorn of his former colleagues when he told Justice Berry shortly before he was sentenced that he was "profoundly sorry for the public scrutiny that had been visited upon the judiciary as a whole" because of his actions.

One judge, noting that two Brooklyn justices had refused to write letters in support of leniency for Mr. Garson, said, "What he has done to the Brooklyn judges has been outrageous. They are under a cloud because of him."

Brooklyn Justice Karen B. Rothenberg, however, wrote a letter to Justice Berry supporting Mr. Garson. She said this was "a very sad chapter in the life of Gerald Garson as well as for the judiciary."
Having known Mr. Garson for more than 30 years, Justice Rothenberg (See Profile) added that the "measure" of Mr. Garson is more than what is represented by the charges against him.

Stay Arguments

In arguing to remain free on bail pending appeal, Mr. Garson had raised dozens of issues and also contended that his imprisonment could "probably" result in his death.

Mr. Garson, who has bladder cancer, revealed in his sentencing papers that he is suffering from severe alcoholism. Because of his frail condition, imprisonment without proper detoxification would result in death, he argued.

In opposing the stay, prosecutors addressed neither Mr. Garson's health claims nor his arguments that he was not a flight risk. Instead, they solely attacked Mr. Garson's potential legal claims, arguing they were without any "palpable" merit.

Under the case law, Justice Carni was empowered, but not required, to deny the stay if he found Mr. Garson's potential arguments to be without palpable merit.

Case Built on Tapes

The prosecution's case consisted of extensive surveillance evidence, including videotapes, body wires and intercepted phone conversation gathered during an eight-month investigation in 2002 and 2003.

But the centerpiece of the prosecution's case was Mr. Siminovsky, who began cooperating shortly after he was arrested in February 2003.

Mr. Siminovsky agreed to cooperate after he was confronted with evidence implicating him in working with the Israeli businessman, Mr. Ellman, to lure clients into believing he had an inside track in Mr. Garson's courtroom.

In assisting the prosecution, Mr. Siminovsky separately delivered a box of cigars and an envelop containing $1,000 in cash to Mr. Garson. Both episodes were recorded by a camera hidden in the former judge's robing room.

The prosecution also had extensive electronic surveillance evidence that Mr. Garson had coached Mr. Siminovsky on how to handle one of his cases without the lawyer for the other side being present.

In a videotape of the conversation in Mr. Garson's robing room made on Feb. 5, 2003, Mr. Garson was caught telling the ex-lawyer that his client, Mr. Levi, would win even though "he doesn't deserve it." A trial date in Mr. Garson's matrimonial part was scheduled for the next day.
In other tapes, Mr. Garson was heard telling Mr. Siminovsky what to put into a memorandum of law concerning the disposition of the Levis' house and what questions he should ask Mr. Levi and what answers he should give.

In ways not directly relevant to evidence of criminality, the tapes created enormous problems for Mr. Garson because they showed him to be callous, unlikable and offensive.

One passage captured Mr. Garson disparaging his job as a judge. The jury heard him say "one of the greatest things about this job is that I don't know what the f*** I have tomorrow until I get here and I don't give a s*** either."

He was frequently heard bad-mouthing women, and, in one instance, after describing a woman lawyer as 'very ugly,' he broke into the song "Make an Ugly Woman Your Wife."

Sobbing Ex-judge Gets Can for Graft

Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
June 6, 2007

Disgraced former judge Gerald Garson broke down yesterday as he was slapped with three to 10 years in prison for accepting favors, cash and cigars from a crooked lawyer he'd taken under his wing.

"For my former colleagues, of which your honor is one, I am profoundly sorry for the public scrutiny visited upon the judicial system as a whole as a result of my conduct," Garson, 74, told Justice Jeffrey Berry as he cried steadily.

GERALD GARSON                     Referring to the hours of videos shown to the Breaks down in court                         jury at his trial - tapes in which Garson is seen taking bribes and engaging in sophomoric banter with the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, he added, "As I watched the surveillance tapes, I was appalled, embarrassed and ashamed of my demeanor."

But the distress was short-lived. Rushing five blocks from Brooklyn Supreme Court to the Appellate Division, the former judge's lawyers got a stay of his sentence, which will allow him to remain free pending his appeal,

But the harshest words for Garson came from Sigal Levi, the Brooklyn woman whose agonizing divorce case provided the backdrop for the ugly drama.

"Mr. Garson, you stole my children," she said, referring to a decision granting custody of the two oldest boys to her husband. "You stole them from their two sisters and their younger brother. You stole them from their grandparents, their aunts and uncles.

"I didn't get what I deserved in your courtroom, but I hope and pray that you get what you deserve in this courtroom today."

Garson's Wife May Face Rap on Ethics

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
April 30, 2007

The wife of disgraced Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson, who was convicted this month of accepting bribes for fixing divorce cases, could be soon facing her own legal problems, the Daily News has learned.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct may begin investigating possible judicial ethical lapses by Robin Garson, a Civil Court judge, involving campaign funds and failing to report criminal behavior, a legal source said.

Her husband, 75, a former Supreme Court justice, was convicted on April 19 and faces up to 15 years behind bars at his sentencing on June 5.

"They decided to let the trial get over with, to let out what would be aired," said a well-informed source.

At Robin Garson's husband's trial, corrupt lawyer Paul Siminovsky testified that Gerald Garson asked him to solicit campaign contributions and provide free legal help for her 2002 judicial campaign.

In 2004, Robin Garson testified at a grand jury investigation of her husband's cousin, retired Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson, who was suspected of stealing thousands of dollars from his elderly aunt.

She said Michael Garson confessed to improperly taking $100,000 from his aunt Sarah Gershenoff. She also testified that a power of attorney the nephews used to pilfer Gershenoff's nearly $1 million fortune was forged, according to sources.

Robin Garson was Gershenoff's guardian at the time.

Ethical rules require judges to report criminal acts.

The commission is also reviewing a letter sent by the National Organization for Women about Robin Garson's behavior on the day of her husband's conviction.

The letter accused her of "exploiting her official status to obtain special privileges" at the trial, passing notes to defense attorneys and entering the courtroom through special doors reserved for officials.

Garson's lawyer, Richard Godovsky, dismissed the charges in the NOW letter.

"There is nothing against her," he said. "That's going to be clear."

The administrator of the judicial commission, Robert Tembeckjian, declined to comment, but confirmed the panel had received the NOW letter.

"We will deal with it as we deal with all complaints," he said.

We'll Sue Jerk Judge

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
April 21, 2007

A day after Brooklyn divorce judge Gerald Garson was convicted of taking bribes, women who lost in his courtroom said they will sue him for ruining their lives.

"All the damage is irreversible. It's already done. The kids are taken. They're brainwashed against the other party," said Frieda Hanimov, a mother whose undercover work began the probe into Garson's corruption.
Former judge Gerald Garson leaves Brooklyn
Supreme Court after the jury found him guilty.         At least 25 other victims have contacted her, and they are seeking a lawyer for a class-action suit, she said.

"He helped the ex-husbands so well to hide their money we can't get it back," she said. "Now, we're going to get it from Garson. Somebody has to pay the price for all this pain."

Garson was convicted Thursday of fixing divorce cases and awarding lucrative appointments to his crooked lawyer pal Paul Siminovsky in exchange for drinks, meals, cash and cigars. Their profanity-laced talks were caught on video and audio through five months' of secret surveillance.

After his March 2003 arrest, a court review of about 50 of Garson's closed cases found that only three or four had been handled improperly, a court spokesman said.

But the women scoffed at that number as low. "Garson should pay me," said Sigal Levi, whose ex admitted fixing their case for a $10,000 bribe and winning custody of their two oldest sons. "He took something from me that nobody is going to repair."

Meanwhile, District Attorney Charles Hynes vowed yesterday to seek the maximum 15-year sentence against Garson, 75, if he doesn't fess up to which judges paid to get on the bench.

The case against Garson resulted from a wider probe into the alleged selling of Brooklyn judgeships.

                Jury Finds Garson Guilty on Bribery Count

Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
April 20, 2007

A Brooklyn jury yesterday convicted disgraced former Justice Gerald P. Garson of bribery in the third degree and two counts of receiving rewards for official misconduct.

In addition to being convicted on the over-arching bribery count, Mr. Garson, 74, was convicted on two lesser charges of receiving rewards for official misconduct.

On the lesser charges, the jury determined that Mr. Garson had accepted a box of cigars from an attorney to whom he had provided ex parte advice on a case and $1,000 for having referred two clients to the same attorney.

Both of those episodes were captured on videotape.

The jury acquitted Mr. Garson of the four remaining counts of receiving rewards for official misconduct, all of which related to his receipt of payments for having referred cases to the attorney.

Mr. Garson faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Over the objection of the district attorney, Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry (See Profile) ruled that Mr. Garson could be released on $15,000 bail pending sentencing and appeal. Sentencing is scheduled for June 5.

The verdict on the central bribery charge was a major victory for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and a team of prosecutors lead by the chief of the office's rackets division, Michael F. Vecchione. The 11 men and one woman on the jury deliberated for close to two days.

The prosecution's case consisted of extensive surveillance evidence, including videotapes, body wires and intercepted phone conversation gathered during an eight-month investigation in fall of 2002 and winter 2003.

But the centerpiece of the prosecution's case was a lawyer who wined and dined Mr. Garson. That lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, testified to buying thousands of dollars in drinks for Mr. Garson in exchange for ex parte help on one of his cases and lucrative law guardianships.

Mr. Siminovsky agreed to aid the prosecution in February 2003, after investigators confronted him with evidence that he himself had received bribes. In assisting the prosecution, he separately delivered a box of cigars and an envelop containing $1,000 in cash to Mr. Garson. Both episodes were recorded by a camera hidden in Mr. Garson's robing room.
Mr. Garson's lawyer, Michael S. Washor, delivered a slashing attack on Mr. Siminovsky's credibility repeatedly calling him a weasel and an actor in a "grade D" movie in his summation.

In the bribery charge, which was at the heart of the prosecution's case, Mr. Garson was accused of giving Mr. Siminovsky ex parte advice on a case pending before the judge, lucrative court appointments and favors, such as unfettered access to the judge's robing room in exchange for thousands of dollars worth of drinks and meals over a 14 month period starting in January 2002.

The jury also had to resolve six other lesser felony counts accusing Mr. Garson of accepting rewards for official misconduct. One of those counts mirrored the portion of the bribery charge accusing Mr. Garson of giving Mr. Siminovsky ex parte advice on a case before the judge. In the five other reward for misconduct cases, Mr. Garson was accused of accepting a fee from Mr. Siminovsky for the referral of each of five clients.

The bribery count carries a maximum sentence of 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison. The maximum penalty for accepting rewards for official misconduct is 1-1/3 to 4 years.

Last September, Mr. Garson had spurned a plea that would have capped his prison time at 16 months. After Mr. Garson rejected the deal, his original counsel, Ronald P. Fischetti, was granted permission to exit the case because of "irreconcilable differences."

The prosecution had extensive electronic surveillance evidence that Mr. Garson had coached Mr. Siminvosky on how to handle one of his cases without the lawyer for the other side being present.

In a videotape of the conversation in Mr. Garson's robing room made on Feb. 5, 2003 - 20 days before Mr. Siminovsky began cooperating - Mr. Garson was caught telling the ex-lawyer, that his client, Avraham Levi, would win even though "he doesn't deserve it." A trial date in Mr. Garson's matrimonial part was scheduled for the next day.

In other tapes, Mr. Garson was heard telling Mr. Siminovsky what to put into a memorandum of law concerning the disposition of the Levis' house and what questions he should ask Mr. Levi and what answers he should give.

In defending the ex parte aspect of the case, Mr. Washor conceded ethical lapses, but attacked the prosecution's claims that Mr. Garson had accepted anything of value.

He sought to raise doubt in the jurors' minds through his cross-examinations and his closing. Mr. Garson did not testify, and other than offering four stipulations, which took only 20 minutes, presented no evidence.

On the payment issue, the prosecution had a videotape, recorded after Mr. Siminovsky began cooperating, showing the ex-lawyer thanking the judge for the "pointers" as he handed Mr. Garson a box of cigars in his robing room.
The prosecution also had Mr. Siminovsky's testimony about the thousands of dollars worth of meals and drinks he had bought for Mr. Garson. That testimony was backed up by records of Mr. Siminovsky's credit card bills.

In his closing, Mr. Vecchione had pointed to those bills, showing that Mr. Siminovsky spent $3,149 on Mr. Garson before his arrest on Feb. 25, 2003.

On the day Mr. Siminovsky was arrested he agreed to wear a wire. In exchange, prosecutors allowed him to plead to a misdemeanor and agreed to recommend that he receive no jail time as long as he cooperated as anticipated. Mr. Siminovksy subsequently gave up his law license.

Mr. Washor dismissed the pre-cooperation payment evidence as the normal earmarks of a friendship. Aside from Mr. Siminovsky's testimony, he contended, there was no proof that all the entries on his American Express account were for outings with Mr. Garson.

An attack on Mr. Siminvosky's credibility became the linchpin of his defense that Mr. Siminovsky had been "scripted" by the prosecution to create proof of payment for the advice in the Levi case.

The famous videotape of Mr. Siminovsky handing Mr. Garson a box of cigars was merely Mr. Siminovsky acting under the close eye of investigators to manufacture evidence to create an illusion of criminal activity, Mr. Washor argued in closings.

The other key videotape showing Mr. Siminovsky handing Mr. Garson an envelope with $1,000 did not relate to the bribery charge since Mr. Siminovsky had testified that it was a payment for Mr. Garson's referral of two cases.

The tape, however, was direct evidence that Mr. Garson had indeed accepted money for referring cases to Mr. Siminovsky. But Mr. Washor countered that the prosecution had failed to prove a key element of the five referral fee counts.

The prosecution had to prove that Mr. Garson had accepted the payment in disregard of his obligation as a judge not to use his office for gain, either his own or Mr. Siminovsky's.

Mr. Washor disputed the prosecution charge that he used his office for personal gain, arguing instead that those he had referred were already his personal friends.

Unlikable Image

In ways not directly relevant to evidence of criminality, the tapes created enormous problems for Mr. Garson because they showed him to be callous, unlikable and offensive.

One passage captured Mr. Garson disparaging his job as a judge. The jury heard him say "one of the greatest things about this job is that I don't know what the f*** I have tomorrow until I get here and I don't give a s*** either."

He was frequently heard bad-mouthing women, and, in one instance, after describing a woman lawyer as "very ugly," he broke into the song "Make an Ugly Woman Your Wife."

In another passage he was heard referring to an Orthodox Jewish man as a "yammy."

      Can't Fix This! Brooklyn Judge Garson Guilty of Bribes

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
April 20, 2007

A disgraced Brooklyn judge, who was caught on hidden cameras accepting boxes of cigars and expensive liquor during cozy meetings with a crooked lawyer, was convicted yesterday of fixing divorce cases.

Former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson did not react when the jury,
Gerald Garson                                            which deliberated for two days, found him guilty of receiving bribes and official misconduct. He was acquitted of four other lesser counts.

The ex-judge faces up to 15 years in prison at his sentencing in June.

During the four-week trial, prosecutors showed Brooklyn jurors excerpts of hundreds of hours of profanity-laced audio and videotapes of Garson, 75, accepting boxes of expensive cigars, top-shelf liquor and other gifts from his pal Paul Siminovsky from October 2002 to March 2003.

Siminovsky testified against Garson.

"We proved the court system is corrupt," said Frieda Hanimov, who in 2002 raised suspicions that Garson was accepting bribes to fix divorce cases. She had been told her husband, who was divorcing her, paid a bribe to win custody of their children.

"It's a big shame. It proves no citizen should trust anyone in the court system," she said.

Garson's conviction comes as the result of a wider investigation District Attorney Charles Hynes conducted into whether judgeships were being bought and sold.

The probe nabbed the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Clarence Norman, who was convicted three times, including once for forcing a judicial candidate to pay $10,000 to Norman's pals or lose his political machine's support.

Garson's attorney, Michael Washor, vowed to appeal. He called the videotapes a "Class-D" movie that created the "illusion of criminal conduct."

Former Judge Convicted of Bribery in Divorce Cases

Michael Brick
New York Times
April 19, 2007

'Pimps' Plagued Garson: Lawyer

By Patrick Gallahue
New York Post
April 18, 2007

April 18, 2007 -- Sleazy courthouse players were "pimping" Supreme Court Judge Gerald Garson behind his back, the disgraced jurist's attorney claimed yesterday in closing arguments at his corruption trial.

In a courtroom performance straight out of "My Cousin Vinny," Garson's bombastic lawyer, Michael Washor, put up no defense witnesses and instead launched into his closing - accusing the government's star witnesses, Paul Siminovsky and an associate, of exaggerating their claims of influence over the judge.

"They were selling him, they were pimping him without his knowledge," Washor said, drawing laughs from jurors.

He blasted the shocking surveillance tapes that showed Garson taking cash and cigars from Siminovsky - whom the lawyer called a "weasel" about a dozen times - as a "class-D movie . . . financed and staged" by prosecutors.

But prosecutor Michael Vecchione didn't bother sticking up for his star witness.

"Siminovsky is the corrupter, Siminovsky is the fixer, Siminovsky is a criminal," he said, adding: "Garson taught him very well."

Da Rips Garson on His 'Robbing Room'

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
April 18, 2007

Disgraced Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson turned his robing room into a "robbing room," fixing divorce cases for his favorite crooked lawyer, the prosecution declared yesterday.

In a summation that lasted more than two hours, Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney Michael Vecchione said the trial had exposed the judge, who is accused of taking bribes, as "corrupt, disgraceful and disgraced."

But in his wrapup, defense attorney Michael Washor branded lawyer-turned-prosecution-witness Paul Siminovsky a corrupt "weasel" who "pimped" the unwitting judge, creating an "illusion of criminal conduct."

Siminovsky's clients "bought the lie," Washor said, calling five months of video and audiotapes of Siminovsky giving Garson drinks, meals, cash and cigars a "class D movie."

Washor joked about the evidence, calling it "garbage" and claiming Garson, who has been suspended, accepted $1,000 cash from the lawyer in a taped sting because he thought it was a campaign contribution for his wife, Civil Court Judge Robin Garson.

"This man is on trial for being a corrupt judge," Vecchione said. "He turned his robing room into a robbing room and robbed litigants of their absolute right to a fair trial."

Vecchione charged that Garson repaid Siminovsky with lucrative appointments and by fixing divorce cases - citing instance after instance in which the judge coached the lawyer on how to win his case in front of him.

The case goes to the jury today.

How Dare You! She Cries, amid Garson's Bribe Trial

By Nancie L. Katz
Daily News Staff Writer
April 13, 2007

A Brooklyn woman burst into tears yesterday as she heard recordings of her divorce judge promising her former husband's lawyer she "won't get s---."

"It was painful. It hurt," Sigal Levi said after listening for the first time to secret profanity-laced tapes of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson deriding her as he coached his crooked lawyer pal, Paul Siminovsky, on how to win.

"He was talking about my children, my life," Levi said. "I came to him for help. What did he give me? He broke up my family, took away my two precious boys. How dare he treat me like that? I'm here to see justice!"

Levi's ex-husband, Abraham Levi, has admitted paying a $10,000 bribe to fix his divorce case.

Sigal Levi had expected to testify yesterday at Garson's bribery trial, but prosecutors did not call her. Then, in an explosive exchange, defense lawyer Michael Washor demanded she be thrown out of the courtroom because she might elicit "sympathy." The request was denied.

Sigal Levi's divorce lawyer, Michael Joseph, took the stand to say he never gave Garson and Siminovsky permission to discuss the case without him present.

The tapes caught Garson assuring Siminovsky he "was a winner either way." Sigal Levi sobbed, quietly wiping tears as she heard his words.

"I'm sorry the jury couldn't hear me. The jury should have had a face and a voice for a victim," said Sigal Levi, a mother of five whose two older sons were given to the father.

Prosecutors rested their case against Garson, who could face up to seven years behind bars if convicted of taking drinks, dinners, cash and cigars from Siminovsky in exchange for giving him lucrative appointments and fixing cases.

Sitting Duck

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
April 6, 2007

The lawyer for disgraced Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson ripped into the prosecution's star witness yesterday, calling him a spineless stoolie who sold out his mentor, his clients, his partner and even his family to keep himself out of jail.

Defense lawyer Michael Washor appeared ready to blow a gasket after the witness, crooked lawyer Paul Siminovsky, admitted he alone made the decision to wear a wire and cooperate with the DA.

"Didn't you discuss that with your wife?" Washor asked.

"No," said Siminovsky.

"Didn't you think you owed that to her before you became what is known as a rat?" Washor shot back.

Throughout five hours of cross-examination, Siminovsky never once took the bait, answering an increasingly hysterical Washor in a mildly bemused deadpan.

Siminovsky, who has been disbarred, calmly conceded he kept in the dark not only his own law partner, but the clients he was representing - in some cases handing over the matrimonial case files of those clients.

It's through Siminovsky's cooperation that prosecutors were able to catch the judge on tape accepting a box of cigars and $1,000 cash as thank-you's for case advice and client referrals. Both are ethical violations and receiving a reward for them is criminal.

Yesterday, Siminovsky said that until he was arrested, he never thought there was anything wrong with the scores of lunches, dinners and cocktails to which he treated the judge.

"I didn't think it was a bribe," he said. "It was business as usual. It's how you get ahead in the world."

"Did it help you being the pet of Gerald Garson?" asked Washor.

"Yes," Siminovsky conceded.

And when he allowed that he'd seen a therapist shortly after his arrest, Garson's lawyer was ready with his next witticism.

"So that you could learn to live with yourself?" he asked.

But in the end, it was Washor more than Siminovsky who lost his cool.

Seemingly at wit's end after Justice Jeffrey Berry sustained a series of objections to Washor's phrasing of a question, the lawyer turned to his client and his co-counsel to let off steam.

"What the f--- was wrong with that question?" he asked under his breath, but loudly enough to be clearly heard in the gallery. "What the f--- is wrong with this judge? This is cross-examination of a major witness!"

                 Wiretap Captures Garson's 'Fee' Speech

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
April 3, 2007

Disgraced former Brooklyn Judge Gerald Garson not only handed out improper legal advice to a shady divorce lawyer in his courtroom - he even told him how much to charge clients.

Recordings of wiretaps between Garson and lawyer Paul Siminovsky - which were played for a jury yesterday - reveal that the alleged dirty judge instructed his friend on everything from how to craft a closing memorandum in a divorce case to what to charge his client.

"We had a lot of testimony [on the case]," Garson is heard telling Siminovsky over lunch at the Brooklyn Marriott on March 4, 2003.

"You are really going to have to do a good memo. You better charge him [money for the summation]. You better tell him. He's in for, like, $7,500 or more."

The lawyer's closing memorandum was also the topic of conversation less than a week earlier, on Feb. 27, as the two men rode in Siminovsky's car to dine at Nino's on First Avenue in Manhattan.

"You better tell me what you want in the memo," Siminovsky says, again referring to the contentious divorce case, Levi v. Levi. "That's all I've got to tell you."

"Whatever you want," Garson is heard telling him. "Whatever evidence, ah, supports your position. You know, point it out, give me a little, a . . . "

Garson, 74, faces 31 years in prison on charges including receiving rewards for official misconduct and bribe-taking.

NY Lawyer Pursuing Toilet Question Asked to
"Tone It Down" at Ex-Judge's Bribery Trial

By Tom Perrotta
New York Law Journal
New York Lawyer
April 3, 2007

The attorney for Gerald P. Garson, the ex-Supreme Court judge on trial in Brooklyn for bribery, yesterday attacked the character of the prosecution's chief witness.

The witness, disbarred lawyer Paul Siminovsky, wore a wire for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and has testified to taking Mr. Garson out for dinners and drinks in exchange for advice on cases and court assignments.

On the first day of cross-examination yesterday, Mr. Garson's attorney, Michael S. Washor, tried to fluster Mr. Siminovsky and damage his reputation, mostly by recounting Mr. Siminovsky's disbarment and his undercover work for prosecutors.

"You lied to this man, your mentor?" Mr. Washor asked.

At one point he earned a mild admonition from Justice Jeffrey G. Berry. Mr. Washor was questioning Mr. Siminovsky about his plea to a misdemeanor; when he asked Mr. Siminovsky what date he had pleaded guilty, Mr. Siminovsky asked, "In court?"

"No, in the toilet," Mr. Washor replied.

Mr. Washor also could be heard speaking softly to his co-counsel, "Let me handle it. This [expletive], I'm going to get him."

After dismissing the jury, Justice Berry called Mr. Washor a "talented attorney" but asked him to "tone it down."

Mr. Washor apologized to the jury, but proceeded to ask Mr. Siminovsky if he knew the difference between a court and a toilet.

Mr. Siminovsky remained composed throughout.

Justice Berry dismissed the jury until Thursday for Passover.

'Nursing' a Grudge vs. Judge

By Janon Fisher
New York Post
April 1, 2007

A Brooklyn woman claims she was ordered to leave her baby at home and to pump her breast milk before coming to divorce court - or indicted Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson would give her infant to welfare services.

"You have to get rid of that baby immediately. If someone doesn't take her, I'm going to send her to the agency," Garson allegedly told Enbar Bloomer, 38, during her child custody case.

Bloomer protested, saying her 8-month-old baby girl was breastfeeding.

"He said, 'I don't care about your baby - you have to pump your milk,' " she alleged.

But the shocking outburst is not an isolated case, others claim.

The red-faced and ranting judge often berated women from Brooklyn's Jewish Orthodox community while he allegedly took bribes from their ex-husband's lawyers, others alleged.

"It's like a circus in his courtroom," claimed Frieda Hanimov, who wore a wire to help the Brooklyn DA bag the jurist. "He'd curse and use the f-word. How can someone like him be a judge?"

Garson, 74, is on trial for bribery.

Call Accused Judge Old Yeller

Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
March 30, 2007

A Brooklyn divorce judge accused of fixing cases for a lawyer in exchange for cash was caught on tape screaming at a woman who suspected her trial was fixed, prosecutors said yesterday.

Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson allegedly yelled at Sigal Levi's lawyer on Feb. 27, 2003, after she threatened to tell a journalist of his unfair rulings in her divorce case.

"You'd better tell your client right now that she'd better keep her mouth shut," Garson allegedly screamed. "And she better not threaten me! Now get out there and tell her right now!"

Crooked lawyer Paul Siminovsky, who represented Levi's husband, told a Brooklyn jury yesterday that Garson advised him on how to win the Levi case.

If convicted of taking bribes, Garson could face up to seven years behind bars.

A 'Powerful' Lesson from 'Bribe' Judge

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
March 29, 2007

He'll never quite join the ranks of Machiavelli, but disgraced Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson offered his own lessons on the use of power.

"I asked him how powerful he really was," Paul Siminovsky, Garson's one-time friend and now the star witness at his corruption trial, testified yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

"He said to me, 'It's not important to be powerful. It's important to be perceived as powerful.' And he was perceived as powerful," Siminovsky said.

It was over a 2002 lunch at Queen restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn, the pair's favorite dining spot, that Garson allegedly shared his thoughts.

And while Siminovsky was but the student at that time, he quickly became the master, using those skills to pump up his reputation. He said he used courtroom phones at his pleasure, conspicuously dined with Garson in public and, on one occasion, dazzled a potential client by interviewing him in the judge's robing room.

"People knew I was friendly with him and close to him," the former matrimonial lawyer testified. "It would intimidate opposing counsel. Whether I had an edge or didn't have an edge, they thought I did."

But the relationship also paid big dividends in other ways, Siminovsky testified, providing him with scores of client referrals and lucrative guardianship appointments, which he repaid with cash kickbacks or, in one case, a donation to the campaign fund of Garson's wife, then a Civil Court candidate.

And when the judge asked him to solicit more campaign donations for his wife, Siminovsky said he happily performed the favor.

"First he asked me just to raise money in general," Siminovsky said. "Then he asked me specifically to send envelopes where you send documents and literature to certain people, because he wasn't allowed to do it because he was a judge."

Judge Robin Garson, who has attended every day of her husband's trial, said judicial rules also prevented her from responding to the testimony.

Gerald Garson's lawyer, Michael Washor, said he was troubled by Siminovsky's ability to remember details, such as ordering matzo ball soup on March 4, 2003.

"He appears like he's been coached," Washor said. "Some of his testimony reached the degree of incredibility, but I'm sure he'll able to come up with an explanation." Asked whether it was unusual for him to ply the judge with expensive gifts, Siminovsky recounted how on one occasion he had re-gifted to Garson a bottle of pricey Johnnie Walker Blue scotch that a client had given him.

The judge was duly impressed, Siminovsky said.

But then on Thanksgiving 2002, he recalled giving Garson a bottle of wine and the judge groused, "This is s- - -, who drinks this?"

That drew laughs from members of the jury.

'Check Mated' Garson
Pal's Tale of Lunch Tabs

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
March 28, 2007

There's no such thing as a free lunch - unless your name is Gerald Garson.

In the first day of his testimony against the former judge, star witness Paul Siminovsky, a lawyer and erstwhile Garson buddy, recounted hundreds of lunches and happy hours the two shared - nearly always on Siminovsky's dime.

"The check came and the waiter put it in the middle
of  the table," Siminovsky told jurors of his and
Lawyer Paul Siminovsky               Garson's first lunch out together in 1999, at the Queen restaurant on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn. "And I said, 'Is it all right if I pick up the check?' and he said, 'I don't see why not.' "

Siminovsky took the stand against the 74-year-old former judge as part of a cooperation deal he made with the Brooklyn DA's Office - an agreement that also called for him to catch the judge on video accepting a box of cigars and $1,000 cash.

In return, prosecutors have promised Siminovsky a misdemeanor plea and a recommendation to the judge that he not serve jail time.

But the star witness didn't have enough time yesterday to get into any alleged crimes by the judge - except for the mooching, which increased throughout 2001 and 2002.

"If I was in his part in court that day, one of us would just say, 'Do you want to go to lunch?' " Siminovsky said.

Of those lunches at Queen or the Brooklyn Marriott, where the two often enjoyed cigars purchased at the bar, or dinners at Nino's on First Avenue in Manhattan, only a few exceptions stuck out from the Siminovsky-only payment plan.

On one occasion in 2002, the two men dined with the judge's law secretary at Queen, but the judge changed the game plan when he saw another matrimonial lawyer seated at the next table.

"When the check came, I went to pay it, and Judge Garson said it wouldn't look good," Siminovsky recalled.

Pressed to recall an instance in which the judge did pay the check, Siminovsky cited a late 2002 bar night during which the tab came to $5 or $6.

"And that's the one Garson picked up?" asked prosecutor Michael Vecchione.

"Yes"

Siminovsky also told jurors how, following his arrest on Feb. 25, 2003, he was taken to a room where a table full of detectives and assistant DA's awaited him.

"I turned around and I started to cry," he said.

But Siminovsky pulled himself together quickly, agreeing in less than an hour to cooperate, donning a wire, then heading right back out to lunch with the judge.

On Tuesday, jurors watched videos of Siminovsky give a $250 box of Romeo y Julieta Dominican cigars and $1,000 cash to the embattled jurist.

Garson's defense team has argued that most of the damning evidence in the case was manufactured by Siminovsky in a desperate effort to win his own freedom by delivering Garson's head.

Garson faces up to 31 years if convicted on charges of receiving a bribe and receiving rewards for official misconduct.

Garson Ate up Bribes, Pal Sez

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Post
March 28, 2007

Disgraced Brooklyn Judge Gerald Garson wasn't hungry for justice - he was just hungry, a crooked lawyer testified yesterday.

Paul Siminovsky told jurors that Garson milked him for free lunches, dinners and drinks for nearly two years while steering him clients and telling him how to win cases in his courtroom.

Siminovsky said he became "extremely comfortable" with the divorce judge from 2001 until Garson's arrest on bribery charges in March 2003.

"I committed criminal acts with Judge Garson," Siminovsky said, citing 10 improperly handled cases and pointing to the former jurist, who clasped his hands and fidgeted during the testimony.

The lawyer agreed to testify against his former mentor in exchange for receiving no jail time.

At least a dozen people have accused Garson of ruining their lives by unfairly ruling in divorce and custody cases after accepting bribes and favors.

Siminovsky said he always picked up meal checks, ranging from $50 to $70, and sometimes paid for Garson's law secretary. Siminovsky confessed he cried when he was arrested on Feb. 25, 2003, and was confronted with secret video and audio tapes of his tight relationship with the judge.

Disbarred NY Lawyer Turned
Warehouse Worker Testifies Against Ex-Judge

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
March 28, 2007

Ex-lawyer Paul Siminovsky, in his first day of testimony yesterday at the bribery trial of former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, told jurors he knew why he was being arrested as soon as he was hemmed in by three police SUVs on his way to work on Feb. 25, 2003.

A short while later, he said he "started to cry" after detectives led him into a room with about a half dozen prosecutors and investigators seated around a table and he asked to use the restroom to compose himself. When he returned, he told the jury, he agreed to cooperate and wear a body wire after being told he had been captured on audio- and videotapes committing crimes, including giving bribes.

Under a second cooperation agreement, negotiated 16 months later, he agreed to give up his law license.

Mr. Siminovsky was disbarred in early 2005 and has worked in an electronics warehouse in Elizabeth, N.J., for the past 18 months. He also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and the prosecution has said it will recommend he not be jailed when he is sentenced as long as his testifies truthfully.

Yesterday, Mr. Siminovsky described how a personal relationship developed and blossomed with Mr. Garson after the judge praised the lawyer in 1999 for the way he had handled a law guardianship Mr. Garson had assigned to him. The judge suggested the two go out to lunch, and Mr. Siminovsky said the judge had no objections when the lawyer offered to pick up the tab.

Over the years, Mr. Siminovsky testified, the two went out to lunch more frequently and expanded their socializing to drinks - sometimes as early as 3 p.m., after Mr. Garson had finished "his work day" - and dinners. Mr. Siminovsky said that almost invariably he picked up the check.

By the end of 2002, the lunches had become "constant," he added. Typical drink tabs, including cigars, at the Archive bar and restaurant in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn ranged from $50 to $70, Mr. Siminovsky said. Dinner bills at the Archive ranged from $40 to $50, but the pair also ran tabs in excess of $150 when dining at more upscale restaurants.

Mr. Siminovsky is expected to continue on the stand this morning.

Warned Ex-Judge Over Lawyer Pal, Aide Sez

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
March 27, 2007

The law secretary for disgraced former Judge Gerald Garson testified that his boss repeatedly shrugged off his warnings that a relationship with a divorce lawyer was becoming too cozy.

Lawrence Rothbart described to a Brooklyn jury yesterday how Paul Simonovsky would freely stride in and out of Garson's private robing room, use the phone in the judge's chamber without asking and even sit near the judge when other cases were being heard.

"Very often I would come in and Paul would be in my chair, right next to the judge's desk," Rothbart said.

Garson, a suspended Supreme Court justice, is charged with accepting thousands of dollars in meals, drinks, cigars and cash from Simonovsky in exchange for giving him lucrative guardianship assignments and fixing divorce cases.

Rothbart said he once questioned the judge about an expensive bottle of liquor and cigars found in his robing room that Garson conceded were gifts.

"Often I told the judge it was very improper," he said. "He was dismissive. He'd say, 'Don't worry about it.'"

Under questioning by defense attorney Michael Washor, Rothbart conceded he was jealous of Simonovsky's unfettered access.

"Both of them didn't pay any attention to you? You didn't like that?" asked Washor.

"Yes," Rothbart said.

Rothbart described Simonovsky as a friend, but admitted to Washor that he grew more uncomfortable as the relationship progressed between Simonovsky and Garson.

"Did it bother you that he sat in your chair? ... Right in your chair? Your friend would walk right by you, you didn't like that, did you?" Washor asked.

Garson 'Let Lawyer Run Loose'

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
March 27, 2007

The former law secretary for disgraced judge Gerald Garson told a Brooklyn jury yesterday that he advised his boss not to conduct improper off-the-record conversations with an attorney - only to be rebuffed.

Lawrence Rothbart testified that he was increasingly uneasy about the level of access the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, got.

"I told him I thought it was improper," said Rothbart, who emerged unscathed from the DA's bribery investigation into his ex-boss and is now a divorce lawyer. "It didn't look good. He said, 'Don't worry about it.' "

Siminovsky made himself at home in the judge's courtroom and robing room, Rothbart said.

"He would use the court phone without permission . . . He would come into the robing room more and more when he didn't have a case on."

One intrusion particularly bothered the law secretary.

"Very often I would come in and Paul was sitting in my chair," Rothbart said.

Judge 'Tape' Worm- Pal' Was Key: Cop

New York Post
March 22, 2007

The Brooklyn DA's investigation into disgraced former judge Gerald Garson was going nowhere until a shady lawyer buddy agreed to help get the goods on him, the lead detective on the case said yesterday.

On Tuesday, jurors watched videos of Garson accepting a box of cigars and $1,000 cash from the lawyer friend, Paul Siminovsky, exchanges orchestrated by the DA's Office with Siminovsky's cooperation shortly after his arrest on Feb. 25, 2003.

But during cross-examination yesterday, Detective George Terra, the chief investigator on the case, allowed that "flip ping" Siminovsky was the turning point in the probe.

"Isn't it true that up until Feb. 25, 2003, you did not have a scintilla of evidence that Jerry Garson asked for cigars?" asked Michael Washor.

"Correct," said Terra.

The exchange with the detective played directly into Washor's game plan of casting the video evidence as a trap set up by Siminovsky to save himself by delivering Garson.

"We're trying to show, and I think we have, that until these videotapes were created, they didn't have a scintilla of evidence," Washor told reporters.

Garson, 74, faces up to 31 years if convicted on charges of receiving a bribe and receiving rewards for official misconduct.

The probe began in October 2002 when a distraught Brooklyn mother complained to the DA's Office that she believed Garson, who was hearing her custody case, had been "bought."

Detectives never turned up evidence that Garson fixed any case, although on one video he is seen telling Siminovsky how to litigate and predicted how he'd rule.

The two most damning videos, the "cigar" tape and the "money" tape, were recorded after Siminovksy had flipped.

But Washor hammered away yesterday at the point that before Siminovsky signed on, there was no evidence that the judge was taking bribes.

"On any of the tapes that you have listened to, did you ever hear Jerry Garson ask for money?" Washor asked Terra.

"No," the detective replied.

Damning Tape Played at Judge Bribery Trial
Jury Hears Garson Taking 1g in Deal with Att'y

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
March 21, 2007

Chomping on nuts in his robing room with his favorite crooked lawyer, Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was caught on tape casually stuffing $1,000 from his pal into his pocket.

"I really appreciate it," Garson told the attorney, Paul Siminovsky, who turned state witness on Feb. 25, 2003, after being secretly taped for months in shady dealings.

Five surveillance tapes made from November 2002 to March, 10, 2003, were played for a Brooklyn jury yesterday at Garson's bribery trial.

The panel also saw the suspended divorce judge take a box of cigars from Siminovsky in a sting staged by prosecutors.

The tapes show the lawyer regularly visiting Garson in his robing room, where the judge dispensed profanity-laced private advice on how Siminovsky could win cases in his court.

Some of the most disturbing video caught Garson reassuring his pal how he would rule in his favor in a divorce case he was presiding over. Siminovsky was representing the husband, Avraham Levi, who later pleaded guilty to paying a middleman $10,000 to win custody of the couple's two older sons.

"I'll award him exclusive use of the house. She's f-----," Garson told Siminovsky midtrial on a Feb. 5, 2003, tape. "The big thing is your guy is gonna have a win. She's gonna get s---. Just calm down.

"You're in good shape ... You're a winner either way," he reassured Siminovsky. "And your schmuck doesn't deserve it."

The wife, Sigal Levi, is expected to testify against Garson.

Garson could face up to seven years behind bars if convicted of accepting cash, cigars, dinners and drinks from Siminovsky in exchange for awarding lucrative appointments and fixing cases. The lawyer got no jail time in exchange for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and cooperating with prosecutors.

Shock Vid of Bribery Judge: DA

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
March 20, 2007

Let's go to the videotape.

Brooklyn prosecutors opened their bribery case against disgraced former judge Gerald Garson yesterday, promising hours of wiretaps and surveillance videos of corrupt wheeling and dealing inside the judge's own chambers.

"What you'll see and what you'll hear that went on in that robing room will shock you," promised Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis, who delivered the opening statement.
Gerald Garson
Alexis gave jurors a brief preview of the robing-room videos, describing how crooked lawyer Paul Siminovsky is seen giving the judge a box of Romeo y Julieta cigars and $1,000 in cash.

The payment, one of six such backroom deals, was for advice Garson offered the lawyer about the ongoing divorce case of Avraham and Sigal Levy, prosecutors said. The outcome in that case, Alexis suggested, was as scripted as a Hollywood action blockbuster.

"They decided that Avraham Levy was going to win anyway," said Alexis. "Why was he going to win? Because Paul Siminovsky was his lawyer. Sigal Levy never had a shot."

Prosecutors first began looking into Garson in the fall of 2002, after Brooklyn mom Frieda Hanimov reported her fears that her ex-husband had bribed the judge, who was then hearing her custody case.

Yesterday, Garson's lawyer, Michael Washor, pointed out that investigators never turned up evidence that the judge was ever bought by a litigant.

Garson faces up to 31 years on charges of accepting a bribe and receiving rewards for official misconduct.

B'klyn Judge's Bribery Trial Kicks Off

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
March 20, 2007

The ex-wives club whose members say they were betrayed by a disgraced Brooklyn divorce judge finally got some revenge yesterday when he went on trial on charges that he took bribes to fix cases.

"I want the judge to sit in jail for every year that I don't see my sons," said Sigal Levi, who is expected to testify how suspended Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson gave her two eldest sons to her ex-husband, who later pleaded guilty to paying a $10,000 bribe to a middleman to get them.
Gerald Garson
"The judge should be ashamed and be punished," Levi said. "I will look him straight in the eye. He changed my life forever. People get divorced every day. I divorced my children unwillingly."

Like other alleged victims who may testify, Levi wasn't allowed in court as prosecutors opened their case against Garson.

Garson is charged with accepting thousands of dollars in meals, drinks, cigars and cash from lawyer Paul Simonovsky in exchange for giving him lucrative guardianship assignments and fixing divorce cases.

"The more drinks, the more food [Simonovsky provided], the more access he had to the judge," prosecutor Joseph Alexis told jurors yesterday. "He used that access to devastating effect."

Garson, who clasped his hands during the prosecutor's opening statement, has prostate cancer, but he looked tanned and trim in a dark suit.

Alexis described how divorcée Frieda Hanimov came to District Attorney Charles Hynes' office in late 2002, afraid Garson would take away her children in exchange for a bribe. Her story kicked off a seven-month probe, ending in Garson's March 2003 arrest, which sparked a wide-ranging judicial corruption investigation.

Six others also were charged in the scheme, and all but a clerk were found guilty or took deals and await sentencing.

Simonovsky made a deal to testify against Garson in exchange for no jail.

Defense attorney Michael Washor accused Hynes of "making a deal" with the lawyer "snake" to set up the judge.

"What did they find out from Simonovsky? That he never paid him a bribe, never had him fix a case! This case started with an absolute lie!" he said.

Outside court, about a dozen women, led by National Organization for Women state President Marcia Pappas, chanted and waved signs reading "Justice for Sale!"

"Every single day, mothers across the country are losing their children to corrupt judges and law guardians!" said Pappas.

'Bribe Judge' Trial Today

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
March 19, 2007

"The green makes him love you."

More than four years ago, a shady businessman uttered those words to Frieda Hanimov, confirming in her mind her fears that the Brooklyn judge hearing her divorce case had been bought.

So Hanimov, then pregnant with her fourth child, strapped a wire to her bulging belly and went undercover to help nail then-Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson in one of the borough's most infamous cases of alleged judicial misconduct.

Today, after years of delays and setbacks, jurors will finally begin to hear how the judge allegedly pocketed "the green" - more than $4,000 - as well as a box of high-end cigars in return for referrals, favors, advice and guardianship assignments for a shady lawyer, Paul Siminovsky.

Siminovsky is expected to be the key witness against Garson, guiding jurors through hours of tape, culled from 47 separate body-wire recordings.

Garson, now 74, faces up to 31 years in prison if convicted on the one count of bribe receiving, six counts of receiving a reward for official misconduct and several associated misdemeanors.

Ex-NY Judge's Bribery Trial to Start Today

Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
March 13, 2007

The bribery trial of former Justice Gerald P. Garson, whose efforts to extricate himself from his legal problems have cast a long shadow of scandal over the Brooklyn judiciary, is scheduled to get under way today with jury selection.

Four years ago yesterday, Mr. Garson, 74, first told investigators that Democratic nominations in Brooklyn were being bought and sold. He made the claim when investigators apprehended him on March 12, 2003, on bribery-related charges. In a bid for leniency, he offered to wear a wire to gather proof that candidates for judgeships were paying $50,000 or more for their nominations, according to some accounts.

For the last four years, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office has doggedly sought to establish corruption in the nomination of Brooklyn judges, developing four criminal cases, including the one against Mr. Garson, who left the bench at the end of 2004, and a number of leads that have not panned out.

But despite pressing criminal charges against four insiders, including former Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Clarence Norman and Mr. Garson's cousin, Michael J. Garson, who until the end of last year was also a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice, prosecutors have been unable to come up with proof of the central claim that Democratic nominations are for sale in Brooklyn, though some tantalizing lines of inquiry remain.

But during the same four years, an already strong case that Mr. Garson accepted thousands of dollars worth of drinks and meals from a lawyer who regularly appeared before him has grown stronger.

From the outset, the prosecution had damning videotapes secretly recorded in Mr. Garson's robing room, showing him accepting $1,000 in referral fees, a $250 box of Dominican cigars and dispensing ex parte advice, all in dealings with the lawyer whom the prosecution contends received more than two-thirds of the judge's law guardian appointments.

Prosecutors also won the cooperation of that lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, who will be a key witness in what is expected to be a month-long trial.

A Court of Appeals ruling in March 2006 restored six felony official misconduct counts that had been dismissed by the lower courts. Prior to the ruling, only one felony count, bribery in the third degree, had remained.

One clear benefit the ruling held for the prosecution is that there is no longer any doubt that the government's most explosive tape - the one showing Mr. Siminovsky handing Mr. Garson $1,000 - will be admissible. Mr. Siminovsky gave the $1,000 to Mr. Garson as a fee for having referred a case, and as such, it was not directly relevant to the single bribery count, but it had direct bearing on one of the restored counts.

In addition, the official misconduct counts have a less exacting standard for establishing a link between Mr. Garson's having accepted a payment and his dereliction of duty than the bribery count.

Defense Position

Mr. Garson's lawyer, Michael S. Washor, said Mr. Garson will be exonerated because the prosecution will not be able to prove "an open or tacit agreement" that Mr. Garson conferred benefits upon Mr. Siminovsky in exchange for drinks and dinners.

Mr. Washor also made it clear in an interview he would attack Mr. Siminovsky's credibility, calling him the prosecution's "lead snake." He said that when investigators first confronted Mr. Siminovsky, his immediate response was "what's in it for me?"

Mr. Siminovsky has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of giving unlawful gratuities and given up his license to practice law. Prosecutors have agreed to recommend that he not serve jail time as long as his testimony is consistent with what he has told them.

Mr. Washor also said he will be playing many of the prosecution's video and audiotapes, which will cast them in a different light.

Mr. Washor, who most recently defended former Brooklyn Bar President Edward S. Reich on bribery charges, will lead a team including Nicholas J. Pinto and Jeremy L. Gutman.

Until September, Mr. Garson had been represented by Ronald P. Fischetti, but Mr. Fischetti, citing "irreconcilable differences," bowed out after Mr. Garson refused to accept a plea deal that would have capped his prison time at 16 months, compared with the maximum of 31 years if he were convicted of all seven felonies and received consecutive sentences.

The deal also would have allowed Mr. Garson, who has been ill with bladder cancer, to be incarcerated in New York City, where he could have access to his doctors.

The prosecution team will be headed by Michael F. Vecchione, chief of the rackets division in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Mr. Vecchione, who led the prosecution of four criminal cases - three successfully - against Mr. Norman, will be joined by Assistant District Attorneys Brian Wallace, Joseph Alexis and Seth Lieberman.

Crucial Videotapes

The heart of the prosecution's case will be three videotapes that were shown in a prior case. That case resulted in the conviction of a court officer, but the acquittal of Mr. Garson's former courtroom clerk, on charges of steering cases to the former judge.

The tape that showed Mr. Siminovsky handing Mr. Garson $1,000 was leaked to Fox 5 News and aired in March 2004. It depicts Mr. Garson as having second thoughts about accepting the $1,000, and attempting to hand back the money to Mr. Simonovsky, who tells him to keep it. As an alternative to the cash payment, Mr. Garson suggested that Mr. Siminovsky write a check out to his wife's campaign committee, which was $25,000 in debt. Mr. Garson's wife, Robin S. Garson, was elected to the Civil Court in 2002.

Investigators collected 67 videotapes and 1,009 audiotapes during the investigation. A prosecution source said that additional videotapes will be put in evidence.

In addition to providing direct evidence of the crimes charged, the tapes show Mr. Garson in a highly unfavorable light. He is recorded making scatological remarks and demeaning both women and Jews.

Although Mr. Garson is not explicitly charged with accepting bribes to fix cases, two of the tapes reveal that the outcome of one of Mr. Siminovsky's cases was predetermined.

Mr. Garson and Mr. Siminovsky are shown discussing one of the lawyer's cases while they are alone in the judge's robing room. In one tape, Mr. Garson suggests language for a brief, and in the other he tells Mr. Siminovsky that his client will win even though he "doesn't deserve it."

The evidence relating to the drinks and meals will come from Mr. Siminovsky's testimony and recordings he made of conversations with Mr. Garson while wearing a recording device.

In the earlier case against Mr. Garson's two courtroom employees, Mr. Siminovsky proved to be a sturdy witness who weathered a harsh cross-examination without getting flustered.

Reasons for Delay

Much of the delay in bringing the case to trial resulted from the prosecution's appeal of the dismissal of six reward-of-official misconduct counts, all felonies carrying a potential maximum sentence of 1-1/3 to 4 years in prison. The sole remaining count of bribery in the third degree, which requires proof of a direct link between the judge's taking an action and his receipt of a benefit, is punishable by a maximum of 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison.

The crime of reward for official misconduct, in contrast, would encompass the acceptance of a benefit after the fact for having violated an official duty.

In March 2004, Justice Steven W. Fisher, then a trial judge, dismissed the six official-misconduct counts on the strength of a 1979 Court of Appeals precedent barring criminal prosecutions of judges based solely on violations of the state's Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (People v. La Carrubba, 46 NY2d 658).
Two full years later, the Court of Appeals' reversed Justice Fisher and the affirmance by the Appellate Division, Second Department, holding that La Carrubba did not bar a prosecution based on conduct code violations where there was a charge that the judge had accepted a monetary benefit in connection with a conduct code violation.

Justice Fisher was appointed to the Second Department in 2004, and Orange County Justice Jeffrey G. Berry has presided over the case since.

Further delay was due to Mr. Garson's second surgery for bladder cancer last August and subsequent chemotherapy .

Whistleblower Starts Probe

The eight-month investigation that led to Mr. Garson started when a divorce litigant, Frieda Hanimov, felt her case was rigged, and sought help from an Israeli businessman who claimed he could fix cases. Ms. Hanimov subsequently became a whistleblower and led the district attorney's office to Mr. Siminovsky.

Four sets of cases have emerged in the wake of Ms. Hanimov's disclosures: the case against Mr. Garson; the case against Mr. Garson's former court clerk and a court officer assigned to his courtroom; four cases against Mr. Norman; and the case against former Justice Michael Garson.

There has been no public indication that prosecutors have been able to leverage any of those cases to produce a source to advance their investigation of the purported sale of judicial nominations.

Mr. Garson, though he wore a wire for a month in an effort to gather evidence of the sale of judgeships, came up empty-handed.

The case against the courtroom clerk and court officer did not result in leads. The clerk, Paul Sarnell, was acquitted and the court officer, Louis Salerno, was convicted (NYLJ, Sept. 21, 2004).

Dominic Amoroso, who represented Mr. Sarnell, said the government had pressed Mr. Sarnell after he had been indicted to cooperate but he had no information to give concerning judicial nominations.

There was substantial public pressure on Mr. Norman to cooperate after he was twice convicted in 2005. Those convictions were for soliciting campaign contributions in excess of the legal limit and for stealing a $5,000 check made out to his campaign committee.

At the time of his sentencing, Mr. Vecchione complained to Justice Berry that Mr. Norman was withholding "pertinent information." But Mr. Norman's lawyer, Edward M. Rappaport, insisted that Mr. Norman had no information to give prosecutors.
In a third trial for double dipping on his expenses to Albany, Mr. Norman, who was a former Assemblyman, was acquitted but in the fourth trial he was again convicted.

It was in the fourth trial that prosecutors came closest to demonstrating corruption in the primary process, but not the selling of nominations.

Mr. Norman was convicted of pressuring two Civil Court candidates to use favored vendors. One vendor, William Boone, who was supposed to conduct an Election Day operation testified that, though he was given $9,000 by one candidates, he did not use the money to hire any election workers or print literature.

Former Justice Michael Garson, who is accused of looting funds from the two cousins' aunt, has not cooperated with the prosecution, according to his lawyer, Ronald P. Aiello. The New York Daily News, however, has reported that Mr. Garson did cooperate, and that he has a plea deal that allows him to avoid prison.

The Michael Garson case has been marked by two unusual factors. Six months elapsed between the time he was indicted and the indictment was unsealed at arraignment. Additionally, no trial date has been set, or a discovery schedule established, even though Mr. Garson's omnibus pretrial motion was decided more than one year ago. The case is next scheduled for a status conference on April 12.

To date, the prosecution has not come forward with any charges that would indicate that, if Michael Garson did cooperate, his efforts bore fruit.

There also have been recent reports about two new avenues of evidence that judges paid money to win their nominations. The sources of that new information, however, have serious credibility problems.

The Village Voice reported in January that Norman Chesler, a cousin of Brooklyn Justice Howard Ruditzky, has told prosecutors that he paid Mr. Norman at least $50,000 in cash and $6,000 in postage stamps to get Justice Ruditzky a Supreme Court nomination in 2001.

Mr. Chesler, however, has pleaded guilty to two indictments charging him with involvement in no-fault car insurance schemes and has not yet been sentenced.

According to the Voice, Mr. Chesler maintains he never told Justice Ruditzky about the payments.

The New York Times subsequently reported, though, that Justice Ruditzky, in immunized testimony before a grand jury, corroborated Mr. Chesler's account about the payoffs.

In addition, the Daily News reported that the ex-wife of former Justice Reynold Mason has charged that Mr. Mason gave $5,000 in cash to Carl Andrews, who later became a state senator, for no ostensible reason in connection with the judge's effort to win a Civil Court seat in 1994.
Mr. Mason, who was removed from the bench in 2003 for taking funds from a client escrow account, is locked in bitter litigation with his former wife over child support.

'Bribery' Judge's Lawyer Calls it Quits

By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post
November 17, 2006

The lawyer who battled on behalf of disgraced Brooklyn Judge Gerald Garson for more than three years - at one point scoring his client a sweet deal - bowed out yesterday, citing personal reasons.

"I have represented Mr. Garson for 31/2 years," Ronald Fischetti told Justice Jeffrey Berry. "He has been an excellent client."

But two sources familiar with the case said Fischetti was irked after Garson turned down a deal that the lawyer had struggled to squeeze out of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

The deal, KO'd by Garson in September, would have called for the former judge to serve just 16 months in a county jail.

Now, with no options left but trial, Garson faces 12 years if convicted on charges he accepted bribes to fix divorce cases.

"We're coming in to try the case, and that's what we're going to do," said new lawyer Michael Washor.

Garson, who has been undergoing chemotherapy following surgery for bladder cancer, looked haggard yesterday, his gray suit hanging on him.

He spoke briefly in court when Justice Berry inquired whether the switch was what he wanted.

The case is scheduled to go to trial March 12.

Ex-NY Judge Facing Corruption Charges
Refuses Plea Deal Limiting Jail Time

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
September 28, 2006

Former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, recuperating from a bladder cancer operation, yesterday spurned a plea offer that would have limited his jail time to 16 months.

NY Judge Charged With Taking Bribes
 Seeks Trial Delay Due to Cancer Surgery

By Tom Perrotta
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
August 15, 2006

Gerald P. Garson, the former Supreme Court justice facing bribery charges, has asked a state judge to postpone his September trial as he awaits surgery for bladder cancer.

The 74-year-old ex-judge had less serious surgery for the same condition in January, but doctors recently discovered several more tumors and said Mr. Garson must undergo major surgery to save his life, according to his attorney, Ronald P. Fischetti.

Mr. Fischetti informed Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey G. Berry, who is presiding over the case, about Mr. Garson's condition in a letter to the court last week.

"There's no way he can attend because he is going to have extensive surgery," Mr. Fischetti said in an interview yesterday. "It's life threatening."

Mr. Garson will need radiation therapy and chemotherapy after his Aug. 28 surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mr. Fischetti said.

The attorney requested a conference with the court and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to discuss the matter. He said no date had been set.

Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, said, "We have reviewed the medical evidence that came with the application for an adjournment and will not oppose it."

Mr. Garson faces seven felony counts and three misdemeanor counts for allegedly taking bribes — including referral fees, free meals and cigars — from Paul Siminovsky, a former divorce attorney. In exchange, Mr. Siminovsky allegedly received court assignments, access to the judge's chambers and robing room, and ex parte legal advice.

Mr. Garson was arrested three years ago, shortly after Mr. Siminovsky agreed to cooperate. The former attorney is supposed to be the prosecution's star witness at Mr. Garson's trial.

If convicted on any of the seven felony counts, Mr. Garson could receive a maximum sentence of 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison.

A source familiar with the case said Mr. Garson recently had been offered a plea deal with a 1-to-3-year sentence. While Mr. Fischetti and Mr. Schmetterer acknowledged that the parties had discussed a plea, they both said there was nothing specific on the table and declined further comment.

NY Judge's Bribery Trial Set,
But DA Won't Be There to Prosecute After All

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
June 9, 2006

A much anticipated battle of titans will not occur after all at the upcoming trial of former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson.

When Mr. Garson was arrested and indicted in 2003, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes publicly stated he would try the case himself. He has now decided to turn the case over to the chief of his rackets division, Michael Vecchione, because a time-consuming, hotly contested primary last year left Mr. Hynes unable "to prepare properly" for the trial, said his spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer.

Ronald Fischetti, a top defense lawyer who represented former Officer Charles Schwarz in the Abner Louima case, represents Mr. Garson.

At a court conference in Orange County on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey G. Berry set Sept. 6 for the start of jury selection.

Mr. Vecchione has been the lead prosecutor in three trials against former Brooklyn Democratic Party leader and Assemblyman Clarence Norman. He will also handle a fourth, which is scheduled to start in October.

NY Judge in Bribe Case Sees
Six Felony Counts Against Him Revived

By John Caher
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal

March 31, 2006

ALBANY — The Court of Appeals yesterday reinstated six felony counts against former Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson with a precedential ruling that judges can face criminal prosecution for acts that started with a violation of the Rules of Judicial Conduct.

Yesterday's 6-1 opinion means the former judge accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from a divorce lawyer is once again confronted with the full panoply of felony charges lodged against him following a sting operation initiated by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes' office.

Mr. Garson now faces trial on a total of seven felonies — one count of receiving a bribe and six of receiving reward for official misconduct. All of the charges stem from an illicit attorney-judge relationship involving Mr. Garson and attorney Paul Siminovsky.

Mr. Garson's attorney, Diarmuid White of Manhattan, had argued — successfully in the lower courts — that the Rules of Judicial Conduct could not be used to criminally prosecute a judge. The preamble to the rules makes plain that they are not designed or intended to support a criminal prosecution, and the Court of Appeals accepted that proposition in People v. La Carrubba, 46 NY2d 658 (1979). But yesterday the Court clarified La Carrubba, holding that while a violation of the rules alone cannot sustain a criminal prosecution, judges are not immune from indictment when an ethics violation escalates into criminality.

In the Garson case, the Court said, the judge not only violated the ethics code by partaking in ex parte communications and by improperly lending the prestige of his office, but went a step further and took payment for his misconduct. That step, six of the seven judges agreed, transported Mr. Garson's case from the sole jurisdiction of a disciplinary agency to the criminal purview of Mr. Hynes' office.

"Had the judge as a public servant violated ethical duties alone — without accepting a benefit for the violation — and had the action not otherwise been prohibited by the Penal Law, the public servant would be subject to discipline in a proceeding brought by the Commission on Judicial Conduct," Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote for the majority.

The key legal holding yesterday — that the prosecution may rely on the Rules of Judicial Conduct to establish an element of a crime — was punctuated by a finding that La Carrubba is not controlling in People v. Garson, 28.

The Garson case is rooted in a three-year relationship between a judge assigned to a matrimonial part in Brooklyn and a matrimonial lawyer.

The prosecution alleges that Mr. Siminovsky gave Judge Garson money and gifts in exchange for ex parte advice on pending cases, client referrals and favorable treatment. It also is alleged that the judge demanded a referral fee for his wife, now Civil Court Judge Robin Garson, who had apparently sent a client to Mr. Siminovsky. Mr. Siminovsky, according to proof before the grand jury, contributed to then-candidate Robin Garson's campaign, and also gave her husband $1,000.

Many of the charges stem from a divorce case involving Avraham Levi, who allegedly was steered to Judge Garson by Mr. Siminovsky. While the Levi case was pending before Judge Garson, the Brooklyn district attorney began a video and audio surveillance of the judge's robing room.

Judge Garson was heard telling Mr. Siminovsky that Mr. Levi would prevail, even though he did not deserve to, and instructing the lawyer on how to proceed.

Mr. Siminovsky was arrested shortly thereafter and agreed to assist the prosecution. The lawyer, wearing a recording device but unaware the video surveillance was continuing, brought Judge Garson a box of expensive cigars on March 4, 2003, and the two men further discussed the Levi case, according to court records.

On La Carrubba grounds, Justice Steven W. Fisher, now of the Appellate Division, Second Department, dismissed six felony counts of receiving reward for official conduct and two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct. That left only one felony of third-degree bribe receiving and misdemeanors of official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities. The Second Department affirmed, also on La Carrubba.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals, after Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye granted leave to the prosecution, reinstated the six felonies.

Perverse Result

At oral argument on Feb. 7, Brooklyn Assistant District Attorneys Leonard Joblove and Seth M. Lieberman stressed what they said was an illogical consequence that would result from an affirmance. They noted that, under Justice Fisher's decision and the Second Department opinion, a judge who takes a bribe while properly attending to his duties — for instance, while conducting a proper conference with all parties present — would face criminal sanctions. But a judge who took a bribe while violating the Rules of Judicial Conduct — for instance, while conducting an improper, ex parte conference — would be immune. That argument seemingly struck a chord with the Court.

"We see no justification for such a perverse result — not in the plain language of the statute, not in the legislative history, and not in our precedents," Judge Ciparick wrote. "Thus we conclude that the People may rely on the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct to prove the element of a judge's 'duty as a public servant' within the meaning" of the Penal Law.

Judge Ciparick said that since the rules are designed to ensure "the integrity of the judiciary and the resultant confidence and impartiality," then "any other construction runs afoul of these goals."
She continued, "To hold otherwise, as urged by the dissent, would lead to the incongruous result of insulating judges from criminal liability . . . because they have a formal body of rules governing their conduct while subjecting other public servants . . . to criminal liability for similar conduct."

Was Defendant on Notice?

In lone dissent, Judge George Bundy Smith argued that neither the state Constitution nor the Rules of Judicial Conduct nor the Penal Law "authorize a prosecutor to charge a judge with crimes by alleging violations of the Rules of Judicial Conduct." Judge Bundy Smith said he could find no cases and no statutes giving any authority to hold a judge criminally liable for failing to abide by the ethics rules.

"There is no question that the prosecutor has amassed a great deal of damning evidence against the defendant," he wrote. "However, what is at issue is whether or not Rules of Judicial Conduct can be used as a predicate for a criminal prosecution . . . There is not a single case that supports the majority's assertion that defendant was on notice that the Rules of Judicial Conduct would serve as the basis for a criminal prosecution."

Judge Bundy Smith suggested the majority decision raises more questions than it answers. For instance, he pondered whether a judge who advises a friend or relative to retain a particular lawyer or recommends a particular law school runs the risk of criminal sanction. But the majority said that fear is unfounded.

"We do not imply that a judge, acting in a purely private, unofficial capacity, may not refer a friend or acquaintance to a lawyer when the judge expects no benefit for doing so," Judge Ciparick wrote in response to the dissent. "But the grand jury could have concluded that that is not what happened here."

Credibility Still at Issue

District Attorney Hynes told a press conference yesterday that the ruling "makes it crystal clear that this kind of conduct is not going to be acceptable," according to his spokesman.

"The law binds everyone equally, the judges no less than those who are judged," Mr. Hynes said.

Mr. White, Mr. Garson's lawyer, said that while yesterday's decision adds a slew of felony charges for his client to defend, the factual assertions underlying those felonies would have been admissible anyway when the trial begins June 15.

"In the big picture, it doesn't change things much," Mr. White said. "The credibility of the witnesses will be the issue."

The defense attorney also questioned the wisdom of the Court's ruling and the impact it may have on judicial-prosecutorial relations, particularly in the smaller communities.

"Judges could feel under some pressure that they are being scrutinized by the district attorney, and I don't think that is a good idea," Mr. White said. "That is why I think an independent judicial commission should be the body investigating judges, not the district attorneys."

Mr. Siminovsky, who was disbarred, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of giving unlawful gratuities to a judge and awaits sentencing.

Charges vs. Garson Reinstated

By Alex Ginsberg and Marsha Kranes
New York Post
March 31, 2006

Six felony bribery charges tossed out last year against former Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Gerald Garson were reinstated yesterday by the state Court of Appeals.

In a 6-1 decision, the state's highest court overruled an Appellate Division finding that Garson could not be prosecuted for violating the Rules of Judicial Conduct because they are not part of state criminal law.

The appellate ruling had left only one bribery charge and two misdemeanor counts remaining in the grand-jury indictment against Garson.

Five of the restored counts accuse Garson of receiving rewards for official misconduct by taking cash referral fees from matrimonial lawyer Paul Siminovsky.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes hailed the ruling, saying, "What Garson is charged with goes to the very dignity of the judiciary."

Garson's lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, said the decision "changes nothing with regard to the innocence of Judge Garson. We intend to go to trial on June 15, and I believe he will be vindicated."

You Can't Let That
Stuff Get Out!'

How Judge Pleaded to Keep His Affair Secret

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
November 7, 2005

Justice Gerald Garson, who allegedly had steamy affair. Secretary who denies affair. Secret wiretaps on a Brooklyn divorce judge not only caught him in alleged bribery - but adultery, too, the Daily News has learned. After he was arrested in 2003, state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson wasn't just frantic about going to jail for allegedly fixing cases. He was deathly afraid that his wife, Civil Court Judge Robin Garson, would find out about his infidelity, sources said. Garson, 73, had been carrying on a steamy affair with an attractive secretary more than two decades his junior who worked at his former Brooklyn law firm, sources said. "He [Garson] kept saying, 'That other stuff, that's not relevant, that's not relevant. You can't let that stuff get out!'" a source quoted the judge telling Brooklyn prosecutors. Garson, who is awaiting trial in the bribery case, could not be reached for comment. Barry Kamins, Garson's lawyer when the judge was first questioned by prosecutors, said he "was not aware of any discussions of noncourt-related matters." Ronald Fischetti, Garson's current defense lawyer, did not return calls seeking comment. In a brief interview Friday, the 50-year-old secretary denied she and the judge were ever romantically involved. "There [was] no such thing. Oh, my God," said the married mother of two from Brooklyn, whose name is being withheld by The News. "I worked for his law office for years. I've never done any such thing." Sources said the secretary was questioned by prosecutors, but she denied talking to anyone from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' office. The DA's office declined to comment on the case. In November 2002, Hynes put Garson's robing room under video surveillance as part of an investigation into whether the judge was taking bribes to fix divorce cases. The hidden camera allegedly captured Garson taking $1,000 in cash from Paul Siminovsky, a crooked lawyer who was cooperating with Hynes' sting. Garson, who has been suspended from the bench without pay, has denied the bribery charge, noting the video shows him trying to return the money to Siminovsky. But in addition to that exchange, sources said the video also captured the judge's intimate telephone conversations with the secretary. Prosecutors subpoenaed both Garson's and the woman's cell phone records and later turned over that evidence to Fischetti, according to a May 2005 letter contained in court records. The phone records showed numerous calls between Garson and the woman, the sources said. The News has previously reported that after his arrest, Garson offered to wear a wire and go undercover for Hynes to help find out if judgeships were being sold by then-Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman. Sources said Garson donned the wire in an unsuccessful attempt to snare Norman's trusted confidant, lawyer Ravi Batra, and even the judge's longtime pal, former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, who was Norman's predecessor as Democratic county leader. Husband, father & suspect Age: 73   Married for more than two decades to Civil Court Judge Robin Garson, 52. Has adult children from a previous marriage.   Was a partner at the Court St. law firm Gerber & Garson, which specialized in legal services for the city's taxi and limousine industry.   Ran for Brooklyn Supreme Court in 1997, boosted by close friendship with then-Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden.   Arrested in 2003 and indicted for bribery. Currently suspended without pay.   His cousin Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson was ordered off the bench pending trial on charges of looting the assets of his elderly aunt.

Man Accused of Bribing Judge Loses Share of Marital Home

By Mark Fass
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
September 28, 2005

In the divorce proceedings involving one of the men accused of paying a bribe to influence Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson, a Brooklyn judge has held that public policy forbids the man, Avraham Levi, from retaining a share of his marital residence.

"It is beyond cavil that the plaintiff's conduct in these proceedings have exceeded all bounds usually tolerated by a decent society," Supreme Court Justice Michael A. Ambrosio wrote in Levi v. Levi, 43247-2001. "Plaintiff has asked this court to invoke its equitable powers to determine his share of the marital estate. However, plaintiff has not come to this court with clean hands to say the least."

Justice Ambrosio also denied Mr. Levi's motion for maintenance and ordered him to pay $75 a week in child support, along with arrears of $13,272.

Justice Garson, who has been indicted for bribery, has been suspended from the bench without pay. His trial is set for January.

Hynes Foe Snubbed Me: Undercover Ma

By Murray Weiss
New York Post
September 11, 2005

The brave mother who went undercover for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to expose judicial corruption charged that she first tried to report the wrongdoing to the office of a state official now vying for Hynes' job.

Frieda Hanimov said she phoned a general number for the Albany office of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in October 2002 after she learned Judge Gerald Garson was going to take her kids away in what turned out to be a fixed custody case.

She wanted her case investigated by the Public Integrity Unit, which at the time was run by Mark Peters, who is trying to unseat Hynes in the Democratic primary.

"I called the attorney general's office," Hanimov, 36, recalled. "They told me, 'OK, we will send you an application.' "

"But I needed action right away," she said, explaining how she then turned to Hynes.

Peters' campaign spokesman, Sara Forman, said the integrity unit was never informed of Hanimov's calls.

Hynes campaign manager Dennis Quirk said: "It is laughable that Peters, who could not respond to a woman talking about a bribe-taking judge, wants to be the district attorney."

NY Lawyer at Center of Bribery
Scandal Agrees to Never Practice Again

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
May 12, 2005

Paul Siminovsky, the prosecution's star witness against former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, has resigned from the bar.

In an order released yesterday, the Appellate Division, Second Department, accepted his resignation and directed that he be disbarred. Though the action prevents Mr. Siminovsky from seeking reinstatement to practice for seven years, he has agreed as a part of his cooperation agreement with prosecutors to never practice law again.

His resignation was based upon his having pleaded guilty to giving Mr. Garson unlawful gratuities, a misdemeanor, in exchange for court appointments, ex parte advice and favorable treatment.

Panel Upholds Dismissal of
 Charges Against Embattled NY Judge

By Tom Perrotta
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
April 28, 2005

Six felony counts against former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson were properly dismissed last year, an appeals court has ruled.

The Appellate Division, Second Department, held in People v. Garson, 2004-04230, that the indictment was insufficient because it alleged a crime for violating the Rules of Judicial Misconduct, which are not a part of criminal law.

Mr. Garson still faces one count of bribery, for which he could receive 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison.

Prosecutors allege he accepted bribes from attorney Paul Siminovsky in exchange for court appointments, ex parte advice and favorable treatment. Mr. Siminovsky has pleaded guilty to giving unlawful gratuities to the judge in the form of meals and drinks. He is cooperating with prosecutors.

Mr. Garson left the bench Jan. 1 because he had decided not to seek certification.

                          Felony Counts Against Judge

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
March 21, 2005

Questioning was sparse Friday during oral argument at the Appellate Division, Second Department, of the prosecution's appeal to restore six felony counts against former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson.

During the 45 minute argument, three of the four judges on the panel queried the two prosecutors, Brooklyn Assistant District Attorneys Leonard Joblove and Seth M. Lieberman, about regulatory language that Justice Steven W. Fisher had relied on in dismissing six counts of receiving rewards for misconduct against Mr. Garson.

Only one question —— a query that embraced the prosecution's key argument —— was posed to Mr. Garson's lawyer, Diarmuid White.

The questioning did not in any way telegraph the judges' views of the case.

The arguments centered on Justice Fisher's ruling last April dismissing the reward counts on the strength of a 1979 decision issued by the Court of Appeals finding that violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct could not serve as a basis for criminal prosecution that a judge had committed official misconduct.

Despite the dismissal, Mr. Garson still faces a bribery count and two other misdemeanors counts stemming from charges that he gave court appointments, ex parte legal advice and preferential treatment to a lawyer who gave him thousands of dollars worth of free drinks and meals, and in one instance a box of expensive cigars. The lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, is cooperating prosecutors.

Five of the six dismissed reward counts related to Mr. Siminovsky's payment of referral fees to Mr. Garson, an alleged violation of a judge's duty under the code —— now set forth in Rules of Judicial Conduct promulgated by the court system —— not to lend the prestige of the office to advance private interests. The sixth count accuses Mr. Garson of accepting a box of cigars for having given Mr. Siminovsky ex parte advice.

The dismissal of the six counts was a serious blow to prosecutors because it meant they could not present their most graphic evidence as direct proof of a crime. The prosecution has videotapes, recorded in Mr. Garson's robing room, of Mr. Siminovsky giving the judge the box of cigars and $1,000 for having referred clients to him.

The videotapes will almost certainly come into evidence because Justice Jeffrey G. Berry, who will preside over the trial, allowed them into evidence at a trial last year of two court workers accused of steering cases to Mr. Garson. But, without a reversal, the tapes will come in as background material and not direct evidence of a crime.

With the referral fee counts out of the case, the prosecution is left with gifts such as free meals and cigars at the core of its case.

Briber Admits Trial Fix

By Zach Haberman
New York Post
February 24, 2005

One of the central figures in the bribery case against a disgraced Brooklyn judge entered an 11th-hour guilty plea in which he admitted to trying to fix cases.

Nissim Elmann pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday to 13 counts, including seven felonies, of bribery, bribe receiving and conspiracy for taking thousands of dollars in order to get divorce and custody cases in front of Judge Gerald Garson — who was removed from the bench in 2003.
GERALD GARSON      
Present at bizman's plea.  The plea came just as jury selection was set to  begin in his trial, and was a surprise since his defense team had vowed to fight. He now faces up to seven years behind bars.

"He admitted to doing illegal things today because he did them," said Elmann's lawyer, Gerald McMahon, outside of court. "He tried to help people out. It was stupid. He' sorry for that and he's going to punished for that."

Elmann, an electronics salesman who offered DVD equipment to court personnel, admitted to taking over $20,000 in cash, then handing it over to a lawyer who would make sure a case went in front of Garson.

The lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, pleaded guilty last December to giving gratuities to the judge and could face up to a year in prison. McMahon is hoping Justice Jeffrey Berry will give a similar sentence to Elmann, 45.

"When you're certain the judge will be fair, there's no reason to prolong this agony," McMahon said about the father of three. Prosecutor Noel Downey said Elmann is "throwing himself on the mercy of the court," adding that his team was armed with 110 telephone calls and 28 body wires exposing Elmann.

"He's rolling the dice [by not going to trial] because the judge has a wide range of time he can give him," Downey said. He also said Elmann is "not cooperating with our office, nor are we asking for his cooperation."

The Brooklyn DA's office originally offered Elmann a sentence of 11/2 years in prison, but by pleading guilty, Elmann could garner a sentence of only probation. However, "Nissim should expect to spend some time in jail," said a source familiar with a case.

Elmann will not be sentenced until early next year, after Garson's trial.

The embattled judge made a brief appearance in the courtroom yesterday, but made no comments.

Bizman Pleads Guilty in Judge Bribe Scandal

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
February 23, 2005

Nissim Elmann A businessman accused of being the "centerpiece" of a courthouse corruption scheme pleaded guilty yesterday to paying bribes to get a Brooklyn judge to fix divorce and custody cases. Nissim Elmann admitted paying a lawyer and two court employees on behalf of six litigants vying for favorable treatment from state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson. Prosecutor Neal Downey said Elmann's plea supports Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes's contention that "a vast corruption scheme that was unleashed in the matrimonial courts of Brooklyn." "As a centerpiece of that scheme, Mr. Elmann has admitted he's guilty." Elmann, 44, pleaded guilty to seven felonies and six misdemeanors the same day his trial was to get underway in Brooklyn Supreme Court. He told state Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry that he took $24,000 from three divorce litigants and passed the money to lawyer Paul Siminovsky. Elmann said he believed Siminovsky was passing the cash to Garson "to get a favorable outcome in divorce and custody proceedings." Elmann also admitted bribing a court clerk and a court officer with electronic equipment and airline tickets in an attempt to get cases steered to the judge. Garson, Simonovsky and Elmann were among eight defendants indicted in the corruption case brought by Hynes in 2003. Elmann, who is not expected to testify against Garson, could get up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced after the judge's trial this year.   Brooklyn Corruption Figure Admits He Arranged Bribes By Michael Brick The New York Times February 24, 2005 A central figure in the wide-ranging investigation of judicial and political corruption in Brooklyn, a man accused of arranging bribes in divorce and child custody cases for people in the borough's Orthodox Jewish communities, pleaded guilty yesterday to 13 counts of bribery and conspiracy. The man, an electronics dealer named Nissim Elmann, admitted passing thousands of dollars to a lawyer to arrange preferential treatment in cases before a State Supreme Court justice, Gerald P. Garson. Justice Garson has been suspended from the bench and is awaiting trial on bribery charges. The investigation into dealings by Justice Garson, a former treasurer of the Brooklyn Democratic organization, has spilled over into a conspiracy inquiry involving the judicial nominating system and taking aim at, among others, the Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, State Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. Prosecutors portrayed Mr. Elmann as a fixer, a known figure in Orthodox communities who accepted cash through the window of his car or inside a warehouse and passed it to a former lawyer who had an advantage in Justice Garson's courtroom. The former lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of giving unlawful gratuities last year, after wearing a hidden microphone at the direction of the office of Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney. Jury selection had been scheduled to begin yesterday in the case against Mr. Elmann, and his guilty plea came as a surprise to prosecutors, who had requested electronic gear for the courtroom to play tapes of 110 telephone calls and dozens of other conversations. "He is not cooperating, nor have we asked him to cooperate with us," Assistant District Attorney Noel Downey said. "The D.A.'s office came to play ball, and he backed down." In State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday, Justice Jeffrey C. Berry read through the counts aloud in a meticulous monotone, noting the legal language and asking in plain terms if Mr. Elmann understood the charges. "You knew this conduct was illegal?" Justice Berry asked repeatedly, and repeatedly Mr. Elmann replied that he had. In all, Mr. Elmann agreed to guilty pleas to seven felonies and six misdemeanors. Justice Berry ordered a presentence investigation and indicated that the sentence would probably amount to between one and a half and seven years in prison. Mr. Downey, the Brooklyn prosecutor, described the guilty pleas as "a telling event, because it supports the massive investigation undertaken by District Attorney Hynes and the Rackets Division in uncovering the vast corruption scheme that was unleashed on the matrimonial courts of Brooklyn." Gerald J. McMahon, a lawyer for Mr. Elmann, said that his client chose to plead guilty in part to spare his family the stress of a trial (Mr. Elmann did not appear to have any family members in the courtroom) and in the hope that Justice Berry would hand out sentences "in a proportional way." His comment was a sidelong reference to the open cases against several other people, including Justice Garson. Justice Berry has set a status hearing for May 26 involving several of the defendants in the intertwined investigations. Mr. McMahon described Mr. Elmann as someone pressured by his community to gain access to the spoils of corruption. "He tried to help people, and he was pushed by people in his shul, especially David Cohen," Mr. McMahon said, referring to a rabbi in Midwood. "It was almost a religious obligation, and Mr. Elmann was a seriously religious person." Reached by telephone, Rabbi Cohen, who Mr. McMahon said had been on his witness list, declined to comment. In court, Mr. Elmann passed up an opportunity to blame his rabbi or his community. After he finished pleading to the charges, Justice Berry asked him, "Nobody threatened, forced or coerced you to do these acts?" "No," Mr. Elmann said.

Salesman on Trial in Judge Bribe Case

By Nancie L. Katz
Daily News Staff Writer
February 23, 2005

A salesman accused of taking bribes to get divorce cases into the Brooklyn courtroom of allegedly corrupt state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson is expected to go on trial today.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the conspiracy and bribe-receiving trial of Nissim Elmann, 42, who allegedly took money from members of his Orthodox community, boasting he had Garson "in his pocket."

Elmann has pleaded not guilty to crimes that could land him behind bars for as long as 27 years.

He is the last of five defendants, in addition to Garson, accused of taking part in a scheme to get divorce cases handled by corrupt lawyer Paul Siminovsky into Garson's courtroom, where the attorney had an advantage.

Siminovsky, a Court St. lawyer who wore a wire allowing prosecutors to record deals he made with Elmann and Garson, is expected to take the stand against him.

Elmann spoke out for the first time on a recent CBS "48 Hours" segment, repeating that he never met Garson or bribed him, and was only trying to help out his community by getting it Siminovsky.

Garson has been charged with bribery for allegedly accepting more than $10,000 in dinners, meals, drinks and cash from Siminovsky in exchange for awarding the lawyer lucrative law guardian appointments.

He told a CBS reporter he erred by being too "casual" with Siminovsky, saying that before he was arrested by detectives, he had planned to turn the lawyer in for insisting he take $1,000 as a referral fee.

                      Garson to Pin Blame on Attorney

Zach Haberman
New York Post
February 23, 2005

Embattled Brooklyn Judge Gerald Garson apparently will employ a "blame the lawyers" defense claiming he was too trusting of evil attorneys.

The judge told a TV interviewer that he was on his way to give up the lawyer who allegedly paid him off when he was "intercepted" by authorities.

"I regret very much not turning in Mr. [Paul] Siminovsky immediately," he told CBS News on Monday night.

He insisted that he tried to quickly return the $1,000 the lawyer had given him, but was "intercepted" as he was "on [his] way to turn him in."

Garson, facing bribery and official misconduct charges for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for assigning law guardianships for Siminovsky, wiped tears from his eyes as he admitted he was too nonchalant about his relations with attorneys.

One of the case's central figures, Nissin Elmann, who is accused of taking bribes in order to get cases heard in front Garson, will be in court today as jury selection begins in his trial.

                               Chamber Of Secrets

CBS News
48 Hours
February 18, 2005

Frieda Hanimov’sAmerican dream was once a big house in a swanky New York neighborhood. It's a world away from the poverty where she grew up.

Her parents fled Russia, emigrated to Israel, and at the age of 18, this young nurse made her way to America. Just a few weeks later, she met the man she would marry, Yury Hanimov, whose
Frieda Hanimov, a pregnant mother,        business was diamonds. They would have three
goes undercover to keep her children,      children, Yaniv, Sharon, and Natti.
and expose an allegedly corrupt            
Supreme Court justice.                             Life was good.  But after 13 years of marriage,
 (Photo: CBS/48 Hours)                    Yuri announced to his wife that his business was
failing. The dream house had to be sold, and they moved to a small apartment in Brooklyn.

Frieda says her husband told her they had to pretend to be divorced. She claims it was part of a scheme to hide their assets. "He gave me diamonds," she says. "He told me that it’’s worth over $6 million. He told me not to show it to anybody."

"They shine. They're gorgeous," adds Frieda, showing Correspondent Lesley Stahl the diamonds.

But one day, Yury didn’’t come home. Frieda says he just disappeared with his clothes, and was unreachable by phone. And the diamonds? "Zircon," says Frieda.

The diamonds were fake, but the separation papers Frieda signed were real. And she says she had unknowingly signed away her rights to any of her husband’’s assets.

"This is a crime. What he did to me was a crime," says Frieda, who hired a lawyer to try to stop the divorce.

She pinned her hopes on the wisdom of a New York State Supreme Court justice, Judge Gerald Garson. "He would see that this is a set-up," she says. "And you know, a woman married to her husband, a mother of three, will get her rights."

But when she walked into his court, her hopes were shattered. "The judge tells me that I better settle this case and I don’’t have any chances," says Frieda. "He told me if I'm not gonna settle, I'm gonna end up in jail.""

The judge chastised her for renting an apartment she co-owned with her husband, without his permission. Stunned by the judge's behavior, Frieda says she saw no choice but to agree to the divorce.

"I said, 'To hell with the money. I'm a nurse. I'll make it. As long as I have my kids, I'll just continue with my life. It's not the end,'" says Frieda.

Two years later, Frieda fell in love, got married and became pregnant.

Frieda says her ex-husband got jealous, and began trying to convince the children they would have a better life with him. Her 13-year-old son, Yaniv, liked the idea.

One night, when Frieda came home from work, her ex-husband called the police on her. "[They said,] 'Your son said that you hit him with a belt,'" recalls Frieda.

Yaniv was standing outside with his father, and told the police his mother had beaten him with a belt three days earlier. Frieda says her son had a fresh red mark on his face, one that looked like it was new: "My ex-husband pointed to my son and said, 'You see? You see the red line? This is mommy hit him with a belt.'"

She says she has no idea how the red mark got on her son's face: "I don't know. Kids play basketball, they jump. I don't know."

"I never hit my kids. Never ever. I'm against it," adds Frieda. "My kids are well dressed. Very clean. Honors in school. I'm proud to be their mother."

Frieda was arrested, and at that point, she says her son protested. "He said, 'No, no it was a misunderstanding.' Then he went to my ex-husband and started hitting him and saying, 'Daddy, you lied to me. You said they're not going to hurt Mommy,'" recalls Frieda.

"They put me in a cell with I will say 30-50 people. All knocked out. Me shaking. Pregnant," says Frieda. "Sitting and crying and I can’’t believe my son did this to me. It's for no reason. I never hit my son."

Then the news got even worse for Frieda. Her ex-husband filed for custody; he wanted all the children. And the man deciding the fate of her family was Judge Garson.

"When Judge Garson called me into his chamber room, he asked me who I wanted to live with, my mother or my father. So I told him my mother," says Sharon. "He told me that he's an adult and he decides, whether I like it or not. So what's the point of me talking to the judge if he didn't even want to hear what I wanted to say?"

"I told him my mom," says Natti. "And he said, 'You never know what's gonna happen. It's up to me.'"

Frieda says she wasn't going to sit and wait: "I'm not going to lose my kids." She heard about a man, Nissim Elmann, who could help, a businessman who was boasting around town that he could influence the judge.

"I said, 'Let me call him,'" says Frieda. "And he tells me that this judge is in his pocket."

Frieda says Elmann told her he could prove it by dialing the judge himself. She listened in to the conversation, and says she heard a man say that she was going to lose her children in 30 days. She then hung up the phone, terrified.

Frieda began calling every law enforcement agency she could think of, including the FBI. "I was very hysterical," she says.

She was directed to Bryan Wallace, Kings County assistant district attorney, who was the first investigator to take Frieda seriously. "There was a businessman named Nissim Elmann who claimed that he had influence in Judge Garson’’s part," says Wallace. "Of course, my antennas went up."

"We're not talking about a traffic ticket here or someone jumping a turnstile. We’’re talking about corruption in the court system. And the pawns that are being played with here are children," says prosecutor Noel Downey, who works with Wallace in the Rackets division.

"We explained to her that we needed to, in essence test her, to see if what she was telling us was the truth," says Michael Vecchione, Downey and Wallace's boss, who knew that proving corruption in the courts would be difficult.

"I told them, 'Put wires on me,'" says Frieda. "I'll prove you this judge is corrupted."

"We couldn't cover her inside the warehouse. It's a rather stark and daunting place. It's kind of brick and closed up and so once Frieda went in that location [she was on her own]," says Vecchione. "Her allegations were that a Supreme Court Judge had been bribed. She was about to lose children."

Frieda, three months pregnant, was on an undercover mission to expose corruption. She headed to a warehouse in downtown Brooklyn to meet with Elmann.

"We didn't really know what Nissim Elmann was about. We didn't know what he was capable of," says Vecchione, who assigned detectives Jeanette Spordone and George Terra to Frieda.

The detectives wired up Frieda. "She was a tiger. She was protecting her cubs," says Spordone. "It was ballsy of her to go in there. We pulled up and watched her go in. We really didn't know what was going on inside that warehouse."

Frieda found Elmann right in his office. Their conversation was mostly in Hebrew. Elmann tells Frieda that the judge is looking at papers submitted by her ex-husband. Frieda then pleads with Elmann, who shows her his cell phone, with Judge Garson's phone number on the screen.

Elmann, an electronics salesman, guarantees she'll win custody of her two younger children, but it will cost her.

Two weeks later, Frieda, wearing a wire again, visits Elmann to negotiate a price for her children. The price to keep custody of Sharon and Notti was $9,000.

Frieda says it worked. She says Judge Garson and Paul Siminovsky, a lawyer assigned by Garson to represent her children, soon began treating her differently. "I was seeing results," says Frieda. "In the beginning, I was so dangerous. Now, I'm a very good mother."

"She saw such a difference, how people treated her from top down," says Downey. "We noticed it as well."

Now, it was up to the district attorney to figure out how an electronics salesman from Brooklyn could possibly be influencing custody decisions. They put a tap on Elmann's phone.

On tape, Elmann assures Siminovsky that he’’s working to get him money from various divorce litigants. Simonovsky also brags about boozing it up with Judge Garson.

Detectives begin tailing Siminovsky, who is seen in a surveillance tape hugging Elmann. "Siminovsky and Elmann have a very tight relationship," says Downey. "Siminovsky has a very tight relationship with the judge."

Investigators believed they had figured out the food chain, literally. Vecchione showed 48 Hours the bar where "Siminovsky and the judge would meet for lunch, drinks and dinners."

"They were very well known at the Archives because they were there every afternoon," adds Spordone. "Very friendly. They were buddies."

"I’’m talking about an attorney who would bring the judge out to lunch, to drinks, to dinners," says Downey. "Not once, but we’’re talking several hundred times. Every time, Siminovsky paid."

"Paul Siminovsky would pick up the tab. It was a given," says Terra. "People know that this lawyer is before this judge on a case. It's wrong. It's inappropriate. It's unethical."

If this was what going on in public, authorities wanted to know what was happening behind closed doors. Were judicial decisions being bought?
On a cold December night, detectives from the district attorney’’s office made their way into Judge Garson’’s chambers. They placed a tiny camera in his ceiling.

"We had a microwave dish that would read signals going back to our office," says Vecchione. "We had people who were monitoring it, all day long and into the evening."

Just weeks after Frieda, terrified she was going to lose her children, started working undercover to try to prove whether Judge Garson was taking payoffs, the district attorney began surveillance of the judge and his meetings with Siminovsky.

"You have this attorney Siminovsky getting inappropriately cozy with a judge who's appearing before, that he has cases with," says Downey.

One of Siminovsky’’s clients was Sigal Levi's estranged husband, Avraham Levi. Detectives secretly listened in as Judge Garson told Siminovsky that his client would win the family home –– and that Levi would "walk away with nothing." At a later date, Garson instructs Siminovsky how to write a memo on the issue.

According to investigators, the judge and the lawyer said things about other women, too. "The way he spoke about women was really just beyond sexist," says Downey. "I think it borders on disturbing."

Investigators say they heard Siminovsky tell Elmann what Garson said about Frieda. "The judge was admiring her lips," says Vecchione.

But the worst thing that was going on in Garson's chambers, according to investigators, were the kickbacks –– in the form of lucrative work. "You see Siminovsky's assignment numbers almost triple," says Vecchione.

Investigators say all the wining and dining of the judge paid off for Siminovsky in a big way. If a child needed representation in a custody case, Garson would assign Siminovsky as the law guardian –– and the divorcing parents or the taxpayers would foot the bill, often tens of thousands of dollars.

Garson’’s behavior was especially appalling for Joe Hynes, the district attorney in charge. For him, the investigation was personal.

"I saw the way the courts treated my mother when she was being beaten up by my father. I have a very special interest in making damn sure that kinda stuff doesn’’t continue," says Hynes. "Frankly, I was shocked that it was going on at all. I thought that there had been significant changes in the way the courts acted towards women litigants and their kids."

The district attorney thought he had the goods on Siminovsky, but he wanted Judge Garson. He told his staff to offer Siminovsky a deal and get him to flip. They would recommend that Siminovsky serve no prison time.

It was an offer he couldn’’t refuse. Simonovsky took the deal; he would wear a wire and go see the judge.

The district attorney bought a $275 dollar box of cigars. "And one afternoon, after Siminovsky went to lunch with the judge, and after he paid for the lunch again, came back to the robbing room, gave him the box of cigars," says Vecchione. "And said, 'This is thanks for your help in the Levy case.'"

Next, Siminovsky brought $1,000 in cash as a thank you to Garson for referring a case to him in another court.

"You see him reach into his pocket and he takes out a thousand dollars, and he hands it over to the judge and the judge takes it and put it into his pants pocket," says Vecchione, describing what is happening on the tape. "Siminovsky leaves, and the judge takes it out of his pocket. Takes a couple of bills and puts it into another pocket and puts some in an envelope."

Judge Garson then calls Siminovsky back to his office. He tells Simonovsky that it's too much money and tries to give it back. But Siminovsky insists, and in the end, Garson keeps the money. "What we had all suspected he would do, he actually did," says Vecchione.

"Joe Hynes, the district attorney in this case, would like nothing better than to tag Jerry Garson with the fact that he accepted a bribe," says attorney Ronald Fischetti, who represents Judge Garson, and says the judge's behavior may look bad, but there's nothing illegal about any of it.

"He never fixed a case. He never accepted any money on any cases whatsoever. The $1,000 was a referral fee that Paul Siminovsky said, 'You referred me a case. I received a fee. And here’’s the $1,000 dollars.'"

Are judges supposed to take referral fees? "Absolutely not. And he tried to give it back three times," says Fishetti.

"But he didn't try to give it all back," says Stahl.

"He did. The whole $1000," says Fischetti. "You see him counting it out. Put it in an envelope, opened a drawer, gave it back to him. That's our position."

But Garson ended up taking it. "You've heard of the law of entrapment, I'm sure," says Fischetti, who adds that Garson showed Siminovsky no special treatment in exchange for all those meals.

"The only bribe he's accused of taking is lunch and dinner with Paul Siminovsky in order to have favorable treatment for Paul Siminovsky and give him law guardianships. Now I tell you, I mean, that it is so ridiculous on its face. A person like Jerry Garson, who's a Supreme Court judge, is not going to throw on his robes for a hamburger."

"But the judge is on tape telling and coaching Siminovsky on how to win the case in front of him," says Stahl. "He's giving him lessons. He's telling him how to write memos. That's on tape."

"I understand that. He had made a decision regarding the property in that case, and what he was doing is telling Paul Siminovsky, in his own words, that he had ruled his favor, and you're gonna win. And that's wrong," says Fischetti.

"He says, 'Your client's gonna win. But he doesn't deserve it,'" says Stahl. "It sounds as though he's saying, 'I shouldn't be doing this. But because of our relationship, I'm going to."

"That's not correct," says Fischetti.

But 48 hours after Judge Garson took that money, detectives picked him up and brought him to a place they call "the Gulag." The $1,000 was still in his pocket.

When Judge Garson saw what investigators had on tape, they say he offered to cut a deal. But in the end, it fell apart.

Nine months after Frieda went undercover, the authorities arrested Garson and charged him with receiving a bribe. Accepting all those free lunches could put the judge behind bars for up to seven years.

When investigators raided Elmann's warehouse, they found a treasure trove of documents. "When these drawers are opened, you feel like you're in a satellite file room for the matrimonial court," says Downey.

Investigators arrested Elmann, retired court clerk Paul Sarnell, and Judge Garson's court officer Louis Salerno. They were accused of taking bribes to steer cases to Garson's court.

A surveillance tape shows Salerno accepting a bribe, a bag full of electronics, right on the courthouse steps.

"It's a conspiracy, first and foremost," says Downey, who adds that the unraveling of it all started with Frieda.

But there were dozens of women who say that because of Judge Garson, they lost custody of their children.

Sigal Levi, the woman whose divorce Garson was discussing in the undercover tape, had always suspected corruption. In fact, she's the one whose tip to Frieda about Elmann started Frieda on her crusade.

Garson was arrested before he ruled on Levi's case, but her estranged husband pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe the judge. "He told me he went to the right people to take care of me," says Sigal Levi.

Her husband paid Elmann $10,000. Ironically, he says he's the victim, and that he only did it because Elmann threatened him and said he'd lose everything if he didn't pay up.

"I knew about Sigal's divorce probably before she did. I knew her name, what was going on," says Lisa Cohen, who knew because she and her husband were friendly with Elmann.

"I knew that he had the judge in his pocket. I knew that he was very friendly with the judge as well as he had a very intimate rapport with Paul Siminovsky. …… From the horse's mouth, he told me, 'Any favor you need, the judge is in my pocket.'"

So when Cohen and her husband went through their own divorce later that year, she says she was terrified: "I received the notice in the mail to appear in Supreme Court. And sure enough, Judge Garson’’s name was right there. Said that's it. I'm doomed. I'm fixed. And it's all over."

The district attorney has not charged Cohen’’s ex-husband with any wrongdoing, but she still believes her husband’’s friendship with Elmann hurt her. She feels Judge Garson shorted her on child support.

Garson has not been charged with fixing any decisions, but an administrative judge has been appointed to review his divorce and custody rulings.

Elmann, the man alleged to be the gatekeeper of Garson's corrupt court, sat down with 48 Hours for his first interview. He had his lawyer, Gerald McMann, by his side.

Did he ever bribe Judge Garson? "Absolutely not," says Elmann.

And Siminovsky? "I was not under the impression that I was bribing him," says Elmann.

In fact, Elmann has been charged with conspiracy to bribe practically everyone in Judge Garson's court, from employees Salerno and Sarnell, to Siminovsky, to Judge Garson himself.

But Elmann says he never really knew the judge, and that he was just trying to hook people up with a lawyer the judge seemed to favor: "I was really showing off that I'm a big shot, and that was my biggest mistake that I live was showing off."
"When you told Frieda that if she didn't pay, she was going to lose her kids in 30 days, what did you mean," asks Stahl.

"There's no question that his responses to her on many occasions, if they were true, would be criminal. But they weren't true," says McMann. "He was telling these people that 'I have the judge in my pocket. Oh, I just got off the telephone with Judge Garson. I just did this.' None of these things were true, not a single one."

Did Elmann mislead Frieda? "I might have done that," he says. "Just to calm her down."

Elmann now says he lied to Frieda when he told her that her ex-husband had already bribed the judge. And in fact, there is no evidence that her ex slipped anyone any money, and he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Still, Elmann convinced Frieda that her ex was up to no good, and took $9,000 from her. He says he gave it all to Siminovsky.

"Not even one cent [did I keep]," says Elmann. "Everything, I give it to, not even one cent."

"What did he do for anybody except his pocket. That's it. What did he do? He destroyed children’’s lives, and I don’’t have answers for my children. I just don’’t," says Cohen.

But Elmann and his attorney believe that if anyone's motives should be in question, it should be Frieda's.

"Frieda Hanimov is not a crusader, trying to clean up corruption in Brooklyn. Nor is Joe Hynes," says McMann. "Frieda is a useful tool so that Joe Hynes can get publicity for his case."

Is McMann suggesting that Frieda is not a very truthful person? "I'm not suggesting it," says McMann. "I'm stating it categorically. She's a liar."

McMann calls Frieda a child abuser who found a way to get the charges dropped. Did she hit her child? Vecchione says, "None of us believe she did. She felt that the husband had been manipulating her child, which is what happened."

But Frieda still has to convince the court that she’’s the better parent to raise her oldest son. And for two years after Judge Garson’’s arrest, she’’s still fighting for custody.

Finally, Yaniv, who still says his mother hit him, agrees to live with her because he wants to be near his school.

"I got my son back. It’’s like my heart is like jumping up and down. This is every mother’’s dream," says Frieda. "You know, to have kids back. I can’’t express that. This is a big win for me. A big win. I’’m so glad. We got it."

It seems that women all over the country have heard about what she's done.

"I'm just a mother, who fight the system and won," says Frieda, who's being compared to Erin Brockovich.

Every month, women gather at Frieda's house. And if Frieda hears what she thinks is evidence of corruption, she calls her new friends in law enforcement.

"If I can help those people," she says. "I was there once. If I can help those women, why not?"
In the wake of Judge Garson’’s arrest, court administrators have formed a new commission to reform New York’’s divorce court. On this day, Judith Sheindlein is speaking. Before she was TV’’s Judge Judy, she was a family court judge in New York for 25 years.

She says Judge Garson's case is a wakeup call for New York and the rest of the country. "I don't know all the facts. I only know what I read in the paper," says Sheindlein. "But certainly, here is a man who has brought the judiciary into disrepute because of at least his stupidity. At least his stupidity."

And she says she’’s met plenty of judges with bad judgment. "There's no question in my mind that decisions are made every day in cases, made because of cronyism," says Sheinlein.

Whether or not Judge Garson is found guilty, the district attorney credits Frieda with forcing the leadership of the court to re-examine how they pick judges, handle custody cases, and train law guardians.

"Has Frieda done that? You bet she did," says Hynes. "Were it not for Frieda, I doubt very much if anyone would have known about it."

Now, Hollywood has come calling. A screenwriter is following Frieda around.

The script line is simple: A Russian immigrant, for whom English is a third language, exposed a potential sewer of corruption in an American court.

Electronics salesman Nissim Elmann has pleaded not guilty and goes on trial next week.

Retired court clerk Paul Sarnell was found not guilty of all charges. Court officer Louis Salerno was convicted of receiving a bribe and is awaiting sentencing.

Judge Gerald Garson has pleaded not guilty and will be tried this fall.

How Little B'klyn Schlub Became a Courtroom Case 'Fixer'

                   Garson 'Briber' Tried to Be 'Big Shot'

Zach Haberman
New York Post
February 19, 2005

A central figure in the case against a Brooklyn judge accused of taking bribes said in his first interview that he got involved so he could be "a big shot."

In an interview with "48 Hours" airing tonight on CBS, electronics salesman Nissin Elmann  who allegedly acted as the gatekeeper for accused Judge Gerald Garson  said he never bribed the judge.

"I was really showing off that I'm a big shot, and that was my biggest mistake," Elmann said.

Jury selection for Elmann's bribery and conspiracy trial begins this week in Brooklyn.

Lawyer Cops to Garson Wine-dine

Denise Buffa
New York Post
December 17, 2004

A shady lawyer who helped bring down scandal Judge Gerald Garson pleaded guilty yesterday to charges he improperly lavished the fallen jurist with scores of free dinners and drinks.

Paul Siminovsky, 45, who faces a year in jail as part of a plea deal, allegedly took Garson to some 100 dinners in exchange for legal favors.

The busted barrister is expected to testify at Garson's upcoming bribery trial.

Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Brooklyn Judge Scandal

By Tom Perrotta
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
December 17, 2004

Attorney Paul Siminovsky yesterday pleaded guilty to giving unlawful gratuities to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson in the form of meals and drinks.

In exchange for his cooperation with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, prosecutors will recommend that Mr. Siminovsky receive probation for his role in the bribery scandal.

The attorney has agreed to resign from the bar and never seek reinstatement.

When asked if he knew he was committing a crime, Mr. Siminovsky told Justice Jeffrey G. Berry, "Initially I did not think so."

But, he said, as the gifts to Justice Garson became more regular he came to understand that he was breaking the law.

Mr. Siminovsky is said to have had more than 100 such meetings with Justice Garson and is expected to testify against him at the judge's bribery trial.

Nissim Ellman, a businessman also accused in the scandal, yesterday declined a plea offer. His trial is scheduled for February.

Former Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Brooklyn Judicial Scandal

By William Glaberson
The New York Times
December 17, 2004

A former lawyer who has been a central figure in a Brooklyn judicial scandal pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor yesterday, saying he had paid for drinks and dinner for a judge more than 100 times in exchange for lucrative appointments to guardianship cases.

The former lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, said he had entertained a State Supreme Court justice, Gerald P. Garson, over more than two years. He knew he was breaking the law "when it became a regular basis," he told a judge yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

Mr. Siminovsky's plea was expected because he has been cooperating with the prosecutors in the office of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, who last year charged Justice Garson with receiving bribes to influence his rulings in divorce and custody cases.

The judge hearing the case, Jeffrey Berry, said he was not obliged to follow the recommendation of prosecutors that Mr. Siminovsky serve no jail time. He set a sentencing date of Feb. 17.

Because Mr. Siminovsky pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, giving unlawful gratuities, the maximum jail sentence would be one year. He resigned from the bar because of the investigation and said yesterday that as part of the plea deal he had agreed never to apply for reinstatement.

Justice Garson was suspended from the bench without pay last year because of the charges and has said he is retiring. He is awaiting trial.

Mr. Siminovsky wore a hidden microphone for weeks in the spring of 2003 at the direction of the Brooklyn prosecutors. At a September trial of a court officer convicted of taking bribes to steer cases to Justice Garson, Mr. Siminovsky testified for the prosecution. He described giving the court officer $2,000 at a public restroom. Also at the trial in September, Mr. Siminovsky described interactions with the judge that were more extensive than those he acknowledged in his guilty plea yesterday. He said he had plied the judge with meals, cigars and cash in return for favorable treatment in cases.

Also yesterday, another man central to the case, Nissim Elmann, declined to accept a plea offer that would have required him to serve a prison term.

Prosecutors have described Mr. Elmann as a "fixer" who steered divorce cases to Justice Garson for favorable treatment.

Justice Berry set Feb. 23 for the trial.

Witness Still a Lawyer Despite Resigning in April

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
December 13, 2004

Paul Siminovsky, the prosecution's key witness against former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald P. Garson, is still in good standing with the bar, according to James E. Pelzer, the court clerk for the Appellate Division, Second Department.

When Mr. Siminovsky testified in September at a trial related to the bribery prosecution against Mr. Garson, the lawyer said he had resigned from the bar in April and pledged not to seek reinstatement.

Mr. Siminovsky's lawyer, Anthony M. Bramante, was ill Friday and could not be reached for comment.

With the public record unclear as to the status of Mr. Siminovsky's resignation, his courtroom pledge never to seek reinstatement takes on added importance. At a court appearance later this week, when Mr. Siminovsky is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, he is also expected to sign a revised cooperation agreement making his dramatic courtroom pledge binding, according to prosecutor Noel C. Downey.

Mr. Downey also said that Mr. Siminovsky had advised him that he had sent a letter of resignation to the Appellate Division, and completed a form that the court had sent him.

Experts said it could take a good deal of time for the Appellate Division to process a resignation.

Lawyer to Avoid Jail in Garson Bribe Case

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
December 9, 2004

A lawyer accused of bribing Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson will plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid jail time in exchange for testifying against the judge, authorities said yesterday.

Paul Siminovsky originally was charged with a felony for allegedly giving Garson drinks, meals and cash to get lucrative court appointments.

Instead, Siminovsky will be arraigned Monday on a count of giving "unlawful gratuities" to the now-suspended judge. Next Thursday, he is expected to plead guilty, prosecutor Neil Downey said yesterday.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has promised to seek probation for Siminovsky if the lawyer testifies against Garson at the judge's bribery trial next year.

The lawyer, who has also agreed not to seek readmission to the bar, will not be sentenced until after Garson's trial.

Siminovsky and six others were arrested in April 2003 in an alleged bribery scam to steer cases into Garson's courtroom.

But under a deal with prosecutors, Siminovsky wore a wire to record Garson and court personnel. He also was videotaped in a sting set up by prosecutors handing the judge $1,000 and a box of cigars.

Downey said that between January 2001 and March 2003, Siminovsky took Garson out more than 100 times to restaurants and bars, and got 24 court appointments in return.

Garson has pleaded not guilty to taking bribes from Siminovsky in exchange for fixing divorce cases.

 NY Lawyer, Key Witness Against Ex-Judge, Expected to Plead Guilty

New York Lawyer
December 9, 2004
By Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal

Paul Siminovsky, the key prosecution witness against former Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge next Thursday, according to Noel C. Downey, first deputy chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney's rackets bureau.

The misdemeanor plea, which means that Mr. Siminovsky's exposure to jail time is limited to a year, was contemplated as a part of his agreement to cooperate in the bribery prosecution of Mr. Garson, 72, who resigned effective Dec. 1.

Mr. Siminovsky will not be sentenced until all cases connected to the Garson investigation are concluded next year. Mr. Siminovsky's agreement also provides that the prosecution will recommend that he receive no jail time if he cooperates as promised.

Orange County Justice Jeffrey G. Berry, who was brought into Brooklyn to handle the case, however, has reportedly expressed doubts about a no-jail
sentence.

At a court appearance last month, Justice Berry also reportedly told Nissim Elmann, the Brooklyn businessman prosecutors say is at the center of the bribery ring, that the case against him is very strong.

Nonetheless, Mr. Elmann reportedly told prosecutors yesterday that he is going to trial and rejected a plea deal that would have limited his jail time to 2-1/3 to 7 years.

At the court appearance on Nov. 15, Justice Berry told Mr. Elmann that he could face a sentence as long as 9-1/3 to 28 years if he is convicted at trial.

                            Lawyer Ordered to Testify
                    About Ex Parte Meeting With Judge

By Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
New York Lawyer
November 12, 2004

Paul Siminovsky, the former lawyer who has admitted bribing Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson, was ordered yesterday to testify in a custody hearing on Jan. 14.

Acting Justice Michael A. Ambrosio, who took over all of Justice Garson's cases after he was arrested, ordered Mr. Siminovsky to testify about claims that he had an ex parte meeting with Justice Garson in an earlier phase of a divorce case now before Justice Ambrosio.

Robert D. Arenstein, the lawyer for the party claiming to have been excluded from the meeting, said he is seeking to expose two irregularities through Mr. Siminovsky's testimony: that his client, Inbar Madar, was excluded from the meeting though she was in court without counsel at the time, and that Mr. Siminovsky attended the meeting even though he was not representing Ms. Madar's husband, Nathan Blumes, in the divorce case. Mr. Arenstein also said that a witness had testified in the custody hearing last week that Mr. Blumes had told him that he bribed Justice Garson.

Mr. Arenstein said that Justice Ambrosio had referred the charge to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and that the witness, Shneor Zalman Goodman, a distant relative of Ms. Madar's, had since been interviewed by an investigator.

Mr. Blumes' lawyer, Mark M. Holtzer of Snitow Kanfer Holtzer & Millus, called Ms. Madar's charge of an ex parte meeting "a figment of her imagination." As for the bribery charge, Mr. Holtzer said that after the claimed ex parte meeting in December 2000, Justice Garson gave Ms. Madar temporary custody of the couple's two children.

"If there had been a bribe," he asked, "why would Justice Garson have given her kids back to her that day?"

Garson Divorcee Gets Custody

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
October 21, 2004

A Brooklyn mother of four, who wore a wire to catch a judge she suspected of cutting a deal with her ex-husband to take her eldest son away, was all smiles yesterday when she regained custody of the boy.

     Embattled NY Judge Will Not Seek to Stay on the Bench

By Daniel Wise
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
October 18, 2004

Indicted Justice Gerald Garson, 72, will not be a judge when the bribery case against him goes to trial next fall. He will leave the Brooklyn bench Jan. 1 because he has decided not to seek certification to another two-year term.

Justice Garson was suspended without pay in May 2003 soon after he was charged with accepting thousands of dollars in free meals and drinks from a lawyer practicing before him. The charges were upgraded last summer to include a bribery count.

Supreme Court judges must retire at age 70 unless they are certificated for an additional two-year term. Justices are eligible to be certificated for up to three two-year terms, allowing them to serve until the end of the year in which they turn 76.

Justice Garson's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said it would have been "fruitless" for the judge, who is suspended and under indictment, to seek certification for another two years.

                          Garson on Way Out as Judge

Aggrieved Parties in Divorce Court Get No Relief in Scandal

By Leslie Eaton
New York Times
October 12, 2004

It was news that confirmed every sneaking suspicion, every paranoid fantasy of anyone who had ever felt wronged in a divorce court.

A judge, arrested on charges that he took bribes. A lawyer, confessing that he wined the judge and dined him and plied him with cigars and cash in return for favorable treatment. A court officer, convicted of taking money and electronic equipment in return for steering cases to the judge.
Justice Gerald P. Garson is 
facing bribery charges                   All this has occurred over the past year and a half in
Brooklyn, where Justice Gerald P. Garson, formerly of the matrimonial part of State Supreme Court, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. In his roughly five years on the bench, he granted more than 1,100 divorces, according to court officials.

But if the Garson scandal confirmed some litigants' worst fears about the court system, it also raised the hopes of many of those who had appeared before him, hopes that that somehow, whatever went wrong in their cases would be fixed. That they would get a fresh start, a do-over, a new trial.

Not so.

There has been no wholesale re-examination of Justice Garson's cases. Of the 100 or so people who complained to court officials after the news broke, so far only three have had their cases reopened by Jacqueline W. Silbermann, the administrative judge for matrimonial matters statewide.

Even in cases that involved both Justice Garson and Paul Siminovsky, the lawyer who has testified that he paid off the justice, rulings have not necessarily been scrutinized or overturned.

Litigants had to show some likelihood that they had not received a fair trial in order to get a hearing, Justice Silbermann said, adding, "We couldn't, just because we disagreed with the results, set them aside."

Some of the other unhappy parties, whose cases had not been concluded, have a new Brooklyn judge, Michael A. Ambrosio, an acting Supreme Court justice with decades of experience in Family Court.

But a number of litigants complain that he has left standing many of the decisions made by Justice Garson, and continues to rely on the same lawyers and experts that Justice Garson appointed.

"I feel he's sympathetic, but he doesn't do anything," said Sigal Levi, whose ex-husband pleaded guilty to a charge involving his attempt to bribe Justice Garson in their divorce case. Since Justice Garson was arrested in April 2003, she complained, Justice Ambrosio had not made any decisions that substantially changed the status of the case.

Justice Ambrosio cannot comment on pending cases, said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the court system.

It is a truism among those who deal professionally with divorce courts that litigants are seldom satisfied with the outcome of their cases. The Garson scandal has only inflamed those feelings, as has the legal system's response.

"My victims are not happy," said Frieda Hanimov, who wore a wire to collect evidence about a scheme to bribe Justice Garson when he was hearing her case and then founded a lobbying and support group that today has about 35 members.

They feel, she explained, that "when you have a corrupt judge, everything is supposed to start from the beginning."

That may have intuitive appeal, but it is not the way the law necessarily works, legal experts said.

"You've got to do more than just complain that the judge was corrupt in another matter," said Locke Bowman, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Chicago Law School. "More has to be shown, a connection between improprieties and a particular case."

The question came up in Illinois in the 1990's, after Judge Thomas J. Maloney was convicted of taking bribes to fix murder cases. A handful of those he convicted got their sentences reconsidered (one case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court), but most did not.

"They say the law has a fear of too much justice," Mr. Bowman said. "Hundreds, maybe thousands, of cases would have had to be started over from scratch."

But critics say that requiring litigants to prove corruption in each of their cases is too steep a bar for everyday people who do not have subpoena powers or wiretaps.

"The burden of proof is going to fall on them to show the case is corrupted, and how are they going to do that?" asked Kathryn Lake Mazierski, president of the New York State chapter of the National Organization for Women, which is pushing for a broad overhaul of the court system.

Even reviewing court records would probably not help, she said, because so much in divorce and custody cases seems to go on in a judge's chambers, rather than in open court.

Another problem is that many cases are settled before trial, and therefore are almost impossible to revisit, said Monica Getz, founder of the National Coalition for Family Justice, an advocacy and support group. The courts tend to view these settlements as voluntary, she said, but often "it's coercion, nothing but coercion." Even so, Ms. Getz praised Justice Silbermann, the administrative judge, for organizing a review of some cases, even though few were reopened. "She made an effort," Ms. Getz said.

The process, which was complicated by the fact that Justice Garson is legally presumed to be innocent, was similar to the one Justice Silbermann used in the mid-1990's, when she assigned another judge to vet the cases handled by a Housing Court judge, Arthur R. Scott Jr., who later pleaded guilty to taking bribes.

This time, Justice Silbermann agreed to hear the cases herself. And she got lawyers to volunteer their time to look over about 30 closed cases in which one of the litigants had complained.

The volunteer lawyers filed motions asking the court to reopen 20 or so of those cases; Justice Silbermann agreed to hold hearings in three of them.

Only one of those cases, which is scheduled for a hearing this month, involved Mr. Siminovsky, the lawyer who has testified that he got favorable treatment from Justice Garson in return for thousands of dollars worth of meals, cigars and cash.

According to Justice Silbermann's March decision reopening that case, Noto v. Noto, the husband contended that Mr. Siminovsky was able to get the case heard in Brooklyn even though neither party lived there, and improperly pressured him into a settlement.

Another case was settled last week, said Dylan S. Mitchell, the lawyer who volunteered his time; the terms are confidential.

The third case seems to be in limbo, said Robert Z. Dobrish, the lawyer who volunteered to handle the motion to reopen. His client would have to hire a lawyer for the hearing, Mr. Dobrish said, and may have been daunted by the cost.

The process left many litigants dissatisfied. Susan L. Bender, one of the volunteer lawyers, described a case she tried to get reopened on the grounds that the woman did not truly understand the settlement she agreed to. But Judge Silbermann did not grant the motion to reopen the case, noting that both sides were represented by lawyers and that Justice Garson had followed the rules in approving the settlement.

"Justice Silbermann was right as a matter of law," Ms. Bender said. "But the emotional component - my client was never able to get over it." The woman, who lost custody of her child, "was blaming it on the system, on Judge Garson, on Paul Siminovsky, on everybody," Ms. Bender added. "It's a hard pill to swallow."

Matrimonial judges each handle hundreds of cases a year, and Justice Garson had many before him in various stages of resolution when he was arrested in April 2003. But getting Judge Ambrosio to revisit issues that were decided by Justice Garson - child custody, say, or division of property - has proven mostly fruitless, some litigants say.

That is certainly the opinion of Gennady Gorelik, a former Wall Street executive who has been engaged in a long-running custody dispute over his two sons, which was before Justice Garson.

In testimony and court filings, Mr. Gorelik has said that after his wife hired Mr. Siminovsky, everything in the case started to go against him. He was particularly suspicious that Mr. Siminovsky had somehow interfered in the report by a court-appointed psychologist, Marie P. Weinstein.

Before Mr. Siminovsky came on board, Dr. Weinstein told the court she was almost finished with her evaluation and, Mr. Gorelik said, told him he would get custody of the boys. Instead, she restarted the evaluation, which eventually cost the parents about $30,000, and recommended that his ex-wife retain custody. In the meantime, Justice Garson was arrested, but Justice Ambrosio relied on Dr. Weinstein's report.

Only after Mr. Gorelik's former wife asked him to pay her legal fees and submitted Mr. Siminovsky's bills did he find evidence of phone calls that bolstered his suspicions, said Patricia A. Grant, his lawyer. She wants to subpoena Mr. Siminovsky, she said, but Judge Ambrosio has been "extremely hostile to our appropriate requests."

Dr. Weinstein said she could not comment on the claims, saying that her involvement in the case "is a matter of court-protected confidentiality."

But Jay R. Butterman, who represents Mr. Gorelik's ex-wife, said that two previous evaluations had reached the same conclusions as Dr. Weinstein did. He described Mr. Gorelik as a "serial litigant" who had seized on the scandal in a last-ditch effort to win the long-running case, which he said is causing financial hardship for his client.

One unfortunate effect of the Garson scandal, Mr. Butterman added, is that "it allows disgruntled litigants to have another shot at the apple."

Sigal Levi has more than suspicions that something went wrong with her case. She even has more than the guilty plea that her ex-husband, Avraham, entered in June to a felony conspiracy charge after he admitted giving $10,000 to a businessman who promised to use it to bribe Justice Garson. (He is awaiting sentencing in that case, as well as for his conviction for violating an order of protection by threatening his wife.)

There is more. In surveillance tapes introduced as evidence in a Garson-related criminal trial in August, the judge and Mr. Siminovsky are seen and heard discussing the Levi case.

Using coarse language, the judge says he will give the husband the exclusive use of the couple's Brooklyn house, even though he doesn't deserve it, and employs an expletive to describe Ms. Levi's legal position.

He assures Mr. Siminovsky that his client is sure to win the case, and tells him to ask Mr. Levi for more money.

Given all this, Ms. Levi is angry and frustrated that so little has changed in her life. Though Justice Ambrosio ordered that she should have visits with her two oldest sons (Justice Garson gave her ex-husband custody of them), that order has not been enforced and she has not seen them, she said.

She is still not receiving child support for the three children who live with her, she said, and her ex-husband has still not had to prove that he is disabled and without financial resources, as he contends, she continued. And she worries that she may indeed lose the house, as Judge Garson threatened; not only is it her home, but she has run a day care business there while studying nursing.

She has a custody hearing later this month, she said, adding, "Let's see what kind of rights I will have. I'm very skeptical."

Meanwhile, Justice Silbermann said she is still open to hearing motions from people who want their cases re-examined, and hopes that effort will make a dent in the negative view some litigants now have of the legal system.

"Their feelings about the court," she said, "have been shattered."

Court Officer Convicted in Brooklyn Bribery Case

By Andy Newman
The New York Times
September 21, 2004

In the first trials in the corruption scandal surrounding a Brooklyn matrimonial judge, a veteran court officer was convicted yesterday of taking bribes to steer divorce cases to the judge. The judge's longtime clerk, however, was acquitted of similar charges.

The court officer, Louis Salerno, who had worked in the State Supreme Courts for 24 years, was found guilty of two felonies, bribe-receiving and receiving a reward for official misconduct, and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Salerno accepted $2,000 in a courthouse men's room last year from a lawyer-turned-informer who was helping build a case against Justice Gerald P. Garson, and that he also accepted a DVD player and a VCR from the lawyer in front of the courthouse.

The clerk, Paul Sarnell, was acquitted yesterday of charges that he steered cases to the judge in return for plane tickets and electronic equipment.

Justice Garson, whose case will not go to trial until next year at the earliest, is also charged with receiving bribes from the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky. The allegations against Justice Garson prompted the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into possible judicial corruption that has resulted, among other things, in the indictment of the chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr..

Mr. Salerno, 51, and Mr. Sarnell, 56, were both accused of taking part in a complex scheme that prosecutors said tipped the scales of justice against many women who appeared before the judge in divorce and custody cases.

"It's all about greed," Mr. Hynes said yesterday. "The fact that the subject matter of the greed was mothers and children makes it worse."

According to prosecutors, a salesman named Nissim Elmann boasted in the Orthodox Jewish community in central Brooklyn that for a price, he could help litigants in divorce cases make sure they got a sympathetic judge.

Mr. Elmann, prosecutors said, would refer the litigants - always men - to Mr. Siminovsky, who testified at the trial that for years he plied Justice Garson with thousands of dollars in meals, cigars and cash in return for favorable treatment. Prosecutors charged that Mr. Elmann and Mr. Siminovsky would then bribe court employees, including Mr. Salerno and Mr. Sarnell, to override the system that is supposed to ensure that cases get assigned to judges randomly and arrange to have them assigned to Justice Garson.

Mr. Elmann is scheduled to be tried later this year.

Surveillance videotapes made in Justice Garson's chambers and played for the jury seem to show the judge coaching the lawyer on how to argue cases before him. But prosecutors did not say during this trial that there were any specific cases where Justice Garson ruled unfairly in favor of Mr. Siminovsky's clients. Rather, they said this case was about the fundamental right of litigants to have their cases assigned randomly to a judge.

Mr. Siminovsky testified that in early 2003, Mr. Salerno, who had not been a target in the investigation up to that point, approached him in an elevator and told him that for "two large" - $2,000 - he could make sure a case went to Justice Garson.

Days later, Mr. Siminovsky said, he slipped $2,000 into Mr. Salerno's pocket as they stood at adjacent urinals in a seventh-floor bathroom in a government building on Joralemon Street.

Mr. Salerno's lawyer, Oliver Storch, offered a simple defense: that the money, which was never recovered, had never been paid to Mr. Salerno. As for the electronic equipment that Mr. Salerno accepted in front of the courthouse, Mr. Storch said that the prosecution had not proved that it was a bribe.

Mr. Sarnell's lawyer, Domenic Amorosa, argued that anything improper Mr. Sarnell might have done was done on Justice Garson's orders.

Apparently, one law enforcement official said, "the jury bought into the argument that Sarnell acted on Garson's instruction, that Garson was really the manipulator. Salerno was the guy who put his own neck in the noose."

Mr. Salerno's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 16.

                         Split Verdicts in Garson Case

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
September 21, 2004

Two men on trial in a bribery scandal that involves a Brooklyn divorce judge heard different results from the same jury yesterday.

Judge Soundly Slaps '60 Minutes'

By Nancie L. Katz and Leo Standora
New York Daily News
September 16, 2004

A Brooklyn judge blasted a CBS news team yesterday for defying his ban on sound recordings at a corruption trial and seized six tapes secretly made Monday.

Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Berry gave a "48 Hours" crew permission to video the closing arguments in the case against a former clerk and a court officer for disgraced divorce judge Gerald Garson.

But CBS also set up mikes on the sly at the defendants' tables, on the jury box and near the judge.

"That was not air, not proper," a furious Berry told CBS attorney Alia Smith.

"For the life of me, I don't understand why mikes were on the tables of the defendants. To do that and not even ask permission . . . [defied] common sense."

Smith told Berry the network "did not intend to violate your order" and offered to delete any private conversations that may have been picked up by the mikes.

Berry and the lawyers will review the tapes and decide what CBS can use. A decision likely won't be made until next week.

Jury Mulls Garson Pals' Fate

Tix for Ex-clerk Not Bribe, Wife Sez

Graft Furnished Lawyer Lifestyle

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
September 9, 2004

A turncoat attorney gave a laundry list of graft he says he accepted from a Brooklyn businessman who referred clients to him in hopes of getting cases before a matrimonial judge who was later busted in a divorce-fixing probe.

Attorney Paul Siminovsky, the state's key witness in the scandal that rocked the Brooklyn courts, testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court that he took everything from a DVD player to living-room furniture from businessman Nissim Elmann, who is charged with conspiracy in the scam.

"[Elmann] gave you a DVD player?" asked Paul Sarnell's lawyer, Dominic Amorosa.

"Yes," Siminovsky said at the trial of embattled Sarnell, Judge Gerald Garson's retired court clerk, and court officer Louis Salerno, who have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and bribe-receiving.

"He gave you a living-room set?" Amorosa asked.

"Yes," Siminovsky said.

"He gave you VCRs?" Amorosa said.

Yes," Siminovsky said.

"He gave you Sprint phones?" Amorosa asked.

"Yes," Siminovsky responded.

The lawyer-turned-witness also admitted that Elmann had given him much more: a laptop computer, which his daughter still has, a computer game for his son, a TV and a portable DVD player.

But he seemed unhappy with the living-room set. He acknowledged that Elmann's records —— seized by investigators who raided his electronics warehouse —— show the living-room set cost $1,500.

"Considering I threw it out because it was broke," Siminovsky said, "it wasn't worth much."

Elmann and the judge have yet to be tried on bribe-receiving charges. They, too, maintain their innocence.

Toilet Tape Flushes out B'klyn Court Clerk's 'Bribe'

By Kati Cornell Smith
New York Post
September 8, 2004

An embattled court clerk may have had his hopes of beating a bribe rap sent down the drain yesterday as prosecutors played a tape of him allegedly taking $2,000 in cash during a bathroom break with a dirty lawyer.

Disgraced attorney Paul Siminovsky, a star witness for the government, told a Brooklyn jury he secretly recorded the tape of Louis Salerno — complete with potty humor — in a seventh-floor bathroom at a courthouse on Joralemon Street on March 27, 2003.

Two thousand dollars," said Siminovsky, who claims he slipped a wad of cash into the crooked clerk's pants pocket while the two stood side-by-side at a pair of urinals.

"I don't know nothing," Salerno said, laughing.

"You're not going to count it?" Siminovsky asked.

"No. Oh, s - - - ," the clerk replied.

A few seconds later, a toilet flushes.

Accounting for the muffled sound quality, Siminovsky, 45, told Assistant DA Noel Downey, "I said it very low because you usually don't shout that you're bribing someone out loud."

Siminovsky claims he paid off Salerno for his help getting certain matrimonial cases assigned to an allegedly crooked judge the lawyer had befriended, former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson.

                        Att'y: Garson Payoff Not Bribe

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
September 8, 2004

A crooked lawyer who admitted bribing a judge to fix his cases said yesterday that he did not think he was committing any crimes.

Garson Stoolie: 'I'm Going to Jail'

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
September 3, 2004

September 3, 2004 -- A lawyer who wore a wire to cooperate with prosecutors in a divorce-fixing probe — and a court officer unwittingly recorded in the sting — spoke about going to jail for steering cases to an allegedly crooked judge in hopes of getting favorable treatment for clients.

"I'm going to jail," lawyer Paul Siminovsky said on the tape played in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday.

"I know," Officer Louis Salerno answered. "We're going to jail."

Actually, Siminovsky's cooperation is expected to spare him jail time.

However, Judge Gerald Garson and those who worked in his courtroom, Salerno and court clerk Paul Sarnell, face prison time if convicted at trial.

The recordings emerged as Siminovsky, the state's key witness, testified against Salerno and Sarnell, who are on trial. Both are charged with bribe-receiving and conspiracy, but have pleaded not guilty.

Garson, who has also pleaded not guilty to bribe-receiving, awaits trial.

Although he didn't catch it on tape, Siminovsky testified that Salerno told him "he could get any case before Judge Garson" for "two large" — or $2,000 — something the court officer's lawyer adamantly denied yesterday.

"I was trying to get away from him because, at this point, I wasn't wired. I happen to like Lou. I didn't want him to get involved in this. He wasn't a target of the investigation," Siminovsky said.

Siminovsky added that Salerno also wanted electronic equipment from Brooklyn businessman Nissim Elmann, who allegedly referred cases to Siminovsky — a favorite of Garson's. Elmann allegedly had hopes of getting them before Garson with the help of Sarnell and Salerno.

On one tape, Salerno — who maintained Elmann had showered Sarnell with gifts in exchange for help before the court clerk retired — gives Siminovsky a wish list.

"DVD, VCR, I know definitely," Salerno says with a laugh. "What'd you tell [Elmann]? I'm trying to shake him down?"

Also on the recordings yesterday, Siminovsky and Salerno express alarm about Elmann — also charged in the scam but maintaining his innocence — and divorce litigant Avraham Levi, who has pleaded guilty to giving $10,000 to Elmann to fix his case. The two shoot their mouths off at the courthouse about alleged connections to the judge.

Ultimately, it was Elmann's claims that he had the judge in his pocket that prompted a Brooklyn mother to go to authorities for help in her child-custody battle — cracking the conspiracy case wide open.

Bribe Suspect's 2g Boast

                      Lawyer Details Court 'Crimes'

By Anthony M. Destefano
Newsday
September 2, 2004

A disgraced lawyer caught in Brooklyn's court scandal testified yesterday that he committed crimes with Judge Gerald Garson, as well as two court officials who worked in his courtroom.

The ex-attorney, Paul Siminovksy of Whitestone, also said he paid thousands of dollars in "referral fees" to Garson and spent $10,000 in drinks, lunches and dinners over the years to curry favor with the jurist.

"I was the young attorney on the rise and I was taking care of the judge," Siminovsky told jurors in the trial of retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno.

Sarnell and Salerno are on trial in Brooklyn State Supreme Court charged with bribe receiving and conspiracy in an alleged scheme to steer matrimonial cases into Garson's courtroom. A key actor in the suspected conspiracy, prosecutors maintain, was Brooklyn electronics merchant Nissim Elmann.

A dour, portly man with curly gray hair, Siminovsky, 45, was once a respected matrimonial lawyer in Downtown Brooklyn. He has since resigned from the bar.

Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Noel Downey, Siminovsky said Garson took a liking to him because the jurist had little experience in matrimonial court and was impressed with the lawyer's acumen and initiative.

"He liked me," Siminovksy explained. "We were very friendly in the courtroom."

Garson began referring legal clients to him, Siminovsky testified, and in return he starting paying the judge referral fees that sometimes went to the judicial election campaign of Garson's wife, Robin.

"I could do the right thing," Garson once said, rubbing his two fingers together to indicate money, the lawyer said.

Garson was suspended in 2003 after he was arrested in the scandal. The original charges of official misconduct involving a referral fee given to Garson by Siminovsky were dismissed after the court ruled that it was a judicial ethical violation that could not be prosecuted under the state penal law. Garson is to be tried next year on charges of bribe receiving.

Siminovsky did not elaborate yesterday about the crimes he allegedly committed with Garson. Such wrongdoing is also not to be used against the defendants on trial. But he was apparently referring to the prosecution theory that the dinners and drinks were bribes for Garson giving the attorney guardianships and extra courtesy.

"I assume what he is going to say he committed as crimes with Garson is that Garson was a judge with whom he bought lunches and Garson gave him law guardians in return," said Garson's attorney, Ron Fischetti. "We deny that. ... There is no connection between between the two."
Still, to Siminovsky, the meals and drinks solidified his ties to Garson.

"I was getting law guardian assignments. ... I also had his ear if I needed [court] adjournments," Siminovsky testified.

Siminovsky said Elmann paid him $1,500 received from Frieda Hanimov, a Brooklyn woman who was working with investigators. Hanimov paid the money to Elmann, who also faces criminal charges, after he indicated he had Garson in his "pocket."

Elmann, Siminovsky said, convinced him to take the money even though he was the law guardian for one of Hanimov's children. "One of my first major mistakes," Siminovsky said ruefully about the payoff.                                

                                       Courting Trouble

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
September 1, 2004

A turncoat lawyer testified yesterday that a judge — whom he allegedly wined and dined in exchange for favorable treatment — took him under his wing, referred clients to him, and then told him to "do the right thing" by paying him.

"Did you commit any crimes with a judge sitting in Brooklyn?" Assistant District Attorney Noel Downey asked attorney Paul Siminovsky.

"Yes, I did," the lawyer said.

Siminovsky — who cooperated with prosecutors by wearing a hidden recording device in exchange for leniency in his own case — then identified the judge as Gerald Garson, who has been charged with bribe-taking as the result of a divorce-fixing probe.

The lawyer took the stand at Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday as the key witness in the bribe-taking trial of Garson's former court clerk and court officer, who allegedly steered cases to Garson in exchange for graft. It is the first trial to be held in connection with the well-publicized probe by the Brooklyn DA's office.

Garson, who has pleaded not guilty, has yet to be tried.

Siminovsky, 45, said Garson took a liking to him shortly after the jurist took the bench in 1998. He said the judge started assigning him as law guardian for kids caught in the middle of their parents' divorces — and ultimately asked him to lunch.

"I thought he was taking me under his wing, so to speak," Siminovsky said.

He said he was permitted to pay for that meal, with Garson saying, "Why not?" And that marked the beginning of what was to become a very cozy relationship in which Siminovsky estimates he spent more than $10,000 on lunches and after-work drinks for Garson, with whom he was going out three to four times a week by the time the case was cracked last year.

"As far as he was concerned, that's the way it was. I was the young attorney on the rise and I was taking care of the judge," Siminovsky said.

In exchange, Siminovsky said Garson was accessible to him, granting him court-appearance postponements and advising him not only on his style in court but his approach to cases pending before the judge.

The lawyer — who has resigned from the New York state bar — added that his lucrative law guardianship appointments "doubled" over five years.

Garson's lawyer, Ron Fischetti, conceded yesterday that as Garson mentored the lawyer, Siminovsky treated the jurist to food and drink. "But," he said, "[Garson] never gave him law guardianships in return for a hamburger at lunch."

Siminovsky also said the judge referred four ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^or five clients to him. "He said . . . I should do the right thing, and he was like this," Siminovsky said, rubbing the tips of his fingers together.

Greased Garson, Lawyer Tells Court

Mom Felt Pressured to Bribe Court 'Mafia'

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
September 1, 2004

A Brooklyn mom whose daring undercover work exposed an alleged bribery scam in the borough's divorce court said yesterday that paying off the "court system Mafia" was the only way she could regain custody of her children.

Frieda Hanimov, 35, a mother of four, told a Brooklyn jury that putting cash in the hands of court fixer Nissim Elmann was the trick to getting Justice Gerald Garson to grant her custody of her two youngest children.

Hanimov was testifying against Garson's retired clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno, charged with taking bribes to steer cases into Garson's courtroom.

Garson pleaded not guilty to fixing cases in exchange for gifts from lawyer Paul Siminovsky, who is cooperating with prosecutors. The crooked attorney is expected to take the stand today.

Hanimov said she called Elmann on Oct. 16, 2002, desperate because Garson was about to take away her children. She knew Garson had granted Elmann custody of his children, and wanted his advice, she said.

She was shocked when he told her he had Garson and Siminovsky and the clerks "in his pocket," she said. She said after that she never doubted the smooth-talking electronics salesman, who still faces charges with bribery and conspiracy in the alleged scam.

Desperate, she called the Brooklyn district attorney's office and began wearing secret recording devices on Oct. 18 with Elmann and in court.

"Maybe he was lying, but I believed every word he was saying," she said. "I saw results. ... [The judge] stopped yelling at me. He stopped calling me a criminal. Thanks to Nissim Elmann, I got my kids back."

                                       I Stung Judge

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
August 31, 2004

FRIEDA HANIMOV "Shocked" by shakedown.

A blond bombshell whose amateur sleuthing helped crack a corruption case against the judge handling the custody of her kids, told jurors yesterday how a businessman's boasts of having the jurist in his pocket prompted her to call authorities.

"He said, 'This guy is in my pocket,' and I was like . . . I was in shock," Frieda Hanimov, a mother of four, testified yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Hanimov is the state's key witness in the case against Judge Gerald Garson, who has yet to be tried as a result of the divorce-fixing probe. He maintains his innocence.

Yesterday, Hanimov, dressed in a black suit and off-white blouse, testified against two others busted with the judge, retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno, both of whom worked in Garson's matrimonial courtroom.

They are charged with steering cases to the judge's courtroom in exchange for graft, including plane tickets to Florida and electronic equipment. They have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and receiving bribes.

Hanimov said her first husband had accused her of beating their eldest son in the face with a belt — an accusation she tearfully denied and was cleared of — and she feared she would lose all three children to him.

That's when she called Nissim Elmann, who had won his custody case before Garson.

"[Elmann] told me that my ex-husband paid a lot of money to the judge, and he didn't think that he could help me," she said.

She said he had her listen in as he spoke to two men, whom he identified as attorney Paul Siminovsky, who was tight with Garson, and Garson himself. After they hung up, she said, "I was going nuts."

So, she reached out to several law-enforcement authorities. And two days later, Hanimov — very pregnant with a fourth child, by her second husband — was wearing a body wire when she met Elmann at his Brooklyn electronic-goods warehouse.

The two spoke in Hebrew, but an English transcript of their meeting, as recorded by Hanimov, shows that Elmann — who has yet to be tried in the case — warned her that "[Garson will] destroy you . . . That's business." But he reassured her "it's possible" to turn the case in her favor.

When she questions whether Elmann has any influence over Garson, the businessman reassures her, "He will do everything for me. The problem is here, how much you can sacrifice." Then they discuss a price. He shows her files of others he's helped — and suggests there are many palms to be greased at the Brooklyn courthouse — but not always with cash.

"It may be that it's not in the form of money. It may be that it's in the form of a trip, it may be a computer, it may be a house," Elmann says. "It can be in many ways. I am not required to bring money."

In the end they agree on $5,000 to $10,000, the transcripts show.

Mom: Bizman Said Judge Was in his 'Pocket' By Nancie L. Katz New York Daily News August 31, 2004

Frieda Hanimov A mother who wore a wire to expose bribery in a Brooklyn court turned to authorities when a middleman told her the judge was "in his pocket," she testified yesterday. Frieda Hanimov, 35, said she called Nissim Elmann on Oct. 16, 2002, fearful that Judge Gerald Garson would give custody of her three children to her ex-husband. She did not say how she knew Elmann, a Brooklyn businessman who authorities say worked with Garson and others in the alleged case-fixing ring. "The judge is in my pocket," she quoted him as saying after she told him Garson was the judge. "I was in shock," she added. Hanimov took the stand against Garson's retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno. The duo is on trial for allegedly taking bribes to steer cases into the judge's court, where authorities say rulings were for sale. Garson has pleaded not guilty to taking bribes for fixing cases for attorney Paul Siminovsky. Elmann has yet to stand trial on bribery and conspiracy charges. Hanimov testified yesterday that she began calling anyone she knew after her ex-husband sought custody of her three children in July 2002 and Siminovsky, the law guardian, told the judge her kids were afraid of her. She called Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and began wearing a wire on Oct. 18, 2002, to find out if Elmann was right. In wired conversations read in court, Elmann told Hanimov her ex-husband had paid to get favorable rulings and said cash, "a trip ... a computer ... a house" could help her out. "And Garson doesn't mind helping me?" Hanimov asked later in the tape. "It's not him exactly. ... It is not one person. ... It's all of us together," Elmann responded, saying she has to pay some down payment so "they will start to work."

Court Told It's a Bribe By Nancie L. Katz New York Daily News August 26, 2004

Court officer Louis Salerno gets bag of electronic gear from lawyer Paul Siminovsky in tape prosecutors say catches the two in a bribe linked to suspended Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson. A Brooklyn court officer jovially accepted electronic equipment as bribes in exchange for steering a case to a disgraced judge's courtroom, according to videotape that prosecutors played yesterday. The officer, Louis Salerno, is seen on the tape taking two black plastic bags containing a video recorder and a DVD player from the trunk of a car driven by lawyer Paul Siminovsky. Salerno laughingly chats with Siminovsky, a key prosecution witness, for a few minutes on a busy downtown Brooklyn street on March 27, 2003, and then strolls back into the divorce court at 210 Joralemon St. Salerno and retired court clerk Paul Sarnell are on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court for allegedly taking bribes and conspiring to steer cases to Justice Gerald Garson, who is now suspended. Salerno is accused of accepting $2,000 and the electronic equipment from Siminovsky for putting a case in front of the judge. Siminovsky was wearing a wire during the transactions. Prosecutor Noel Downey has pledged to play a secret audiotape that captures Salerno complaining to Siminovsky that a video camera he also ordered wasn't among the goods. Siminovsky, who got a plea deal that promises him no jail time and a chance to keep his law license, told prosecutors he plied Garson with drinks, dinners, cash and cigars to get him to fix his cases for his clients. Garson has pleaded not guilty to bribe-receiving charges. "It's not a bribe!" Salerno's attorney, Oliver Storch, said after the Salerno footage was shown to jurors. "All they have is a video of Mr. Salerno accepting video equipment, but that does not prove any of the crimes he is charged with." But Downey said that when Siminovsky takes the stand the lawyer will say Salerno approached him and offered to circumvent the random judge selection process in exchange for cash. The videotape was played just before defense attorneys began their cross-examination of Brooklyn district attorney's investigator George Terra, who recorded the tapes. Sarnell's attorney, Dominic Amorosa, charged that Terra tried to "ensnare" his client. Amorosa also sought to discredit Siminovsky by playing a tape of the lawyer using a racial slur. In a phone conversation with a colleague about a custody dispute, Siminovsky says " ...My client doesn't want the kid to be a n-----. ... She wants her to grow up straight." Sarnell is charged with getting free airline tickets from a litigant whose case he got into Garson's courtroom.

N-word Furor at Trial

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
August 26, 2004

The defense for two court workers accused of steering cases to an allegedly crooked Brooklyn judge in exchange for bribes came out swinging yesterday —— trying to expose a turncoat lawyer as a racist.

Defense lawyer Dominic Amorosa, representing retired court clerk Paul Sarnell, played a tape in which the state's star witness, lawyer Paul Siminovsky, uses the n-word.

On the tape, Siminovsky is talking to another lawyer about a client: a woman with a 13-year-old daughter who wants to live with her father. He says the mother is opposed to the move.

"You know why? Because my client doesn't want the kid to be a n----r," Siminovsky says on the tape played for the jurors.

"You know, she wants her to grow up straight. She wants her to go to school. She doesn't want her to get pregnant. She doesn't want her to hang out with bad kids."

Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno have pleaded not guilty to bribe-receiving and conspiracy in the case. Their trial is the first in the wide-ranging divorce-fixing probe that ended with many arrests.

Garson has pleaded not guilty to bribe-receiving and is awaiting trial.

Fix Is in & Jury Gets to Hear it

Nancie L. Katz
New York Post
August 25, 2004

A crooked lawyer was heard illicitly steering a case to a disgraced Brooklyn judge on a tape played in court yesterday.

"It worked. I wanted to thank you," lawyer Paul Siminovsky gushed in a recorded phone call to middleman Nissim Elmann, who allegedly pushed a retired court clerk to circumvent the random judicial selection process at Brooklyn Supreme Court and steer a divorce case to Justice Gerald Garson in March 2003.

"Who can get you to Garson if not me?" Elmann crowed in response, chuckling.

"You're the best!" Siminovsky replied.

The conversation was part of an all-day marathon of secret audio tapes played to a jury in the trial of the retired clerk, Paul Sarnell, and court officer Louis Salerno. Both are charged with conspiracy and bribe-receiving for allegedly steering cases to Garson's courtroom for Siminovsky in 2002 and 2003.

Siminovsky, who is cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for no jail time and a chance to keep his law license, has said he got Garson to fix cases by plying him with dinners, drinks, cash and cigars.

Garson has pleaded not guilty to taking bribes.

'Hauls' of Justice

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
August 25, 2004

When investigators floated a fake divorce case by the men they believed could steer it to Judge Gerald Garson in exchange for graft, the case ended up right before him.

Prosecutors showed the chain of events yesterday at the bribe-receiving and conspiracy trial of retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno in Brooklyn Supreme Court by playing numerous, sometimes colorful conversations between several suspects in the divorce-fixing probe.

The tapes were made early last year, after attorney Paul Siminovsky agreed to cooperate with authorities in hopes of leniency for allegedly plying Garson with drinks and dinners for favorable rulings.

Garson has pleaded not guilty to bribe-receiving.

In one conversation, Siminovsky reaches out to Israeli businessman Nissim Elmann, and tells him he needs the bogus case, Monroe vs. Monroe, to be heard by Garson. And Elmann reaches out to retired court clerk Paul Sarnell, the tapes show.

At first, Sarnell — who maintains his innocence — suggests to Elmann that Siminovsky simply ask the judge or his law secretary to take the case, but to keep it quiet.

When Elmann suggests the direct route to Siminovsky, the turncoat lawyer says, "There's no way in hell I can go up to the judge directly."

But Sarnell, laughing, reassures Elmann, "Other people did it . . . Paul didn't realize that . . . Tell him to have b- - - s."

Eventually, Sarnell and Siminovsky talk directly.

"You said other people have done it?" the turncoat lawyer asks.

Yes," Sarnell says, laughing, but won't name names.

Elmann ultimately convinces Sarnell to reach out to others for help. Sarnell calls a clerk at home, and she refuses to help him without the judge's permission, according to the tapes.

That's when Sarnell reaches out to the judge's law secretary, who — overwhelmed with cases, according to prosecutors — OK'd the move without expecting or getting anything in return. He has not been charged in the case.

With the Monroe case assigned to Garson, Sarnell tells Siminovsky, "If you were a woman, you'd owe me a b- - - job."

And the lawyer, knowing he's being recorded, says, "OK, so I owe you a b- - - job. I've done it to other people." He adds, "God bless, I owe you big time."

"Oh, no big deal," Sarnell says, but adds, "We'll work it out."

Then Siminovsky calls Elmann, and says, "It worked. I wanted to thank you."

And Elmann laughs and says, "Who can get you Garson, if not me?"

'I Got Judge Drunk'

By Denise Buffa
New York Post
August 23, 2004

A Brooklyn lawyer was so confident of his control over a judge, he actually boasted once that, after plying the jurist with drinks, the lawyer's wish was Gerald Garson's command.

"I was getting Garson drunk for two hours. He'll do what I want," attorney Paul Siminovsky boasted to shady Israeli businessman Nissim Elmann in November 2002.

The comment was tape-recorded as part of many FRIEDA HANIMOV              wiretaps a chief judge authorized after a Brooklyn
Complaint sparked probe.     wife and mother, Frieda Hanimov, complained
                                          Elmann claimed to have undue influence over Garson.

In the end, Garson, Siminovsky, Elmann and others were arrested as a result of the divorce-fixing probe.

Also busted were retired court clerk, Paul Sarnell, and a court officer, Louis Salerno, who once worked in Garson's courtroom.

They are now on trial for allegedly steering cases to the judge in exchange for graft, including electronic equipment from Elmann's Brooklyn warehouse. They maintain their innocence.

In one tape-recorded conversation played for jurors yesterday, Sarnell sounds as if he can pull strings in Garson's courtroom —— although the tape was made two months after he retired.

When Elmann tells Sarnell in the November 2002 wiretapped conversation that he has a matter pending before Garson, Sarnell responds as if he is the sitting judge.

"Before me?" Sarnell asks.

"In Garson," Elmann says.

"OK, I'll call somebody," Sarnell says.

But Elmann says: ". . . I'd rather use my favor for something important."

On a later date, Elmann makes it sound as if he's running Garson's courtroom. He reassures divorce litigant Avraham Levi that he'll quash an order of protection the husband's wife has gotten against him.

"I and Garson are voiding for you the order of protection. Don't worry," Elmann tells Levi in January 2003.

Levi has since pleaded guilty to giving the businessman $10,000 in an attempt to influence Garson.

It is unclear whether the money ever reached the judge, who has pleaded not guilty to receiving bribes in the form of drinks and dinners from Siminovsky.

Tapes Tell of Court Scheming

By Nancie L. Katz
New York Daily News
August 23, 2004

Secret audiotapes unveiled yesterday shed light on the wheeling and dealing among courthouse players to manipulate a disgraced judge accused of fixing cases in exchange for drinks, dinners, cash and cigars.

"I was getting [Judge Gerald] Garson drunk for two hours. He'll do what I want," lawyer Paul Siminovsky says about a case brought to him by middleman Nissim Elmann in a tape played at Brooklyn Supreme Court.

"I'm getting from him [the client] five grand extra for you," Elmann reassures Siminovsky in the Nov. 18, 2002, tape.

Siminovsky is the prosecution's star witness in its bribery case against Garson. The tapes were played yesterday in the Brooklyn Supreme Court trial of retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno. They are accused of taking bribes to get cases into Garson's courtroom, where Siminovsky could prevail.

Soon after the tapes were made, Siminovsky agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for no jail time and the chance to keep his law license.

In a series of conversations taped by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' chief investigator, George Terra, Elmann and Siminovsky discussed money the lawyer was to get from various clients whose cases ended up in Garson's courtroom.

Siminovsky is repeatedly heard on a cell phone while he's allegedly having drinks with "our friend" Garson at the Brooklyn Marriott's Archives restaurant.

In another recording, featuring Sarnell and Elmann, the court clerk offers "to call somebody" for Elmann.

"I don't want to use my favor for somebody like that," Elmann responds.

Garson, who has been charged with bribe receiving, is not set to go to trial until next year. He has pleaded not guilty. Sarnell and Salerno have also entered not-guilty pleas.

Garson's 'Circus'
  Judge & Hubbies' Lawyers Laughed it Up, 2 Women Testify

By John Marzulli
New York Daily News
August 20, 2004

Paul Sarnell Two women who were divorced before an allegedly crooked judge testified yesterday that the court was more like a clubhouse - for the judge and their husbands' lawyer. "They were laughing so loud and talking about lunches and horse races," Sigal Levi said in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where a clerk and a court officer for Judge Gerald Garson are on trial for taking bribes from a crooked lawyer to steer cases to Garson. "Everyone heard it. It's like buddies, that's what it was." Levi and another witness, Lisa Cohen, said they were shocked by the lack of decorum in Garson's courtroom, where their husbands' lawyer, Paul Siminovsky, walked in and out of the judge's chambers without even knocking on the door. Garson's clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno are on trial for allegedly helping the judge fix cases for clients of Siminovsky. "The courtroom was exactly like a circus," Cohen told prosecutor Noel Downey. "It was chaos. Paul Siminovsky was exceptionally friendly to the court clerk [Sarnell] and the court officer [Salerno]." Cohen, 39, said she was bothered by the courtroom scene, but didn't smell a rat until a year and a half later, when she read in a newspaper that Garson and Sarnell were being accused of corruption. She said she then remembered a strange $560 charge on her husband's Discover Card just two months before he filed for divorce. It was for two airline tickets to Florida, in the names of Paul Sarnell and son Joshua Sarnell, she testified. "I was in shock," Cohen said of putting the names together long after the divorce was final. "That's when I made the connection." Garson awarded custody of Levi's two sons to her ex-husband, Avraham, who pleaded guilty in June to paying a middleman $10,000 to bribe the judge. Eli Cohen has not been charged. In conversations secretly taped by authorities, the potty-mouth Garson tells Simonovsky how he is going to resolve the Levi divorce in Avraham's favor. "I'll award him exclusive use on it [the couple's house]," Garson told Simonovsky. "She's f-----. You're in good shape either way. And your schmuck doesn't deserve it." Sarnell's lawyer refused to explain why a divorce litigant would buy airline tickets for the judge's clerk, but on cross-examination he suggested there was a $560 credit on a later Discovery card statement. Siminovsky cooperated with authorities and faces no charges. Garson is set to go on trial for bribery next year.   The ex Factor By Patrick Gallahue New York Post August 20, 2004 -- Accused of taking bribes. It was the "Ex-Wives Club" yesterday at the trial of two Brooklyn court employees accused of taking bribes to steer divorce cases to disgraced Judge Gerald Garson. The two women testified yesterday that the defendants — retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court Officer Louis Salerno — were in cahoots with Garson to fix cases for their husbands' lawyer, Paul Siminovsky. "Paul Siminovsky had free run of the courtroom," said Lisa Cohen, 39. "He was exceptionally friendly with the court clerk and the court officer." Sarnell was indicted in the case after investigators discovered that Cohen's husband, Elisha, had bought him airline tickets to Fort Lauderdale as a bribe. Copies of those tickets later turned up in the possession of noted Brooklyn "fixer" Nissim Elmann, who is also charged with bribery and bribe-taking. Cohen also testified that she heard Elmann tell a client: "I can take care of your divorce. I have a judge in my pocket, Judge Garson." Another divorcée, Sigal Levi, testified that she had heard Elmann make a similar claim about having Garson in his pocket. Levi's husband, Avraham, pleaded guilty earlier this year to paying $10,000 to Elmann to help fix the divorce case. Levi also testified that Garson's courtroom was a nest of corruption. "Siminovsky was constantly in and out of Garson's chambers," she said. "They were talking loud about lunches and horse races. Everyone could hear them." She added that Garson's law secretary, Larry Rothbart, once threatened her to settle the case. "He said, 'You have to settle because if not, you might lose your license as a teacher and you might get in trouble with the IRS and you might rot in jail.' " The trial of Sarnell and Salerno was rocked by bombshell evidence Wednesday, when secret videotapes made by the Brooklyn district attorney's office showed Garson accepting cash from Siminovsky to help a client in a divorce case. "I'll award him exclusive use on [the house]," Garson is heard telling the lawyer on tape. "She's f- - -ed." The trial is considered a preview of the evidence that prosecutors say they have on Garson, who is charged with taking bribes from lawyers. He is expected to be tried next year. Sarnell's attorney, Dominic Amorosa, suggested Elmann was lying about his pull with Garson, Sarnell and Salerno. While cross-examining Shaun Winter, a detective with the Brooklyn DA's office, Amorosa asked, "So you accept that Mr. Elmann is quite a liar?" Winter replied only, "Embellisher."       Women Tell Court Judge Favored Their Husbands' Lawyer By Andy Newman New York Times August 20, 2004 Two women whose divorce cases were heard by a Brooklyn judge now facing bribery charges testified yesterday that the judge, Gerald P. Garson, ran his courtroom like a circus or a boys' club and that the lawyer both their estranged husbands used, Paul Siminovsky, had free access to the judge's chambers, while their lawyers did not. "Paul Siminovsky used to not even knock on the door, just walk in and out of his chambers," one of the women, Sigal Levi, testified. "The door was closed, but they were laughing so loud, talking about lunches and horse races, that everybody heard." Justice Garson is accused of favoring Mr. Siminovsky's side in divorce and custody cases in return for cash and gifts from Mr. Siminovsky. The women were testifying in the trial of Justice Garson's clerk, Paul Sarnell, and court officer, Louis Salerno, who are charged with taking bribes to steer Mr. Siminovsky's cases to Justice Garson. On Wednesday, prosecutors played surveillance videotapes of Justice Garson coaching Mr. Siminovsky on what to say before him and assuring him that he would award use of the Levis' house to his client, Ms. Levi's estranged husband, Avraham Levi. It is generally improper for a judge to meet with one side's lawyer in a proceeding without the other side's lawyer present. Ms. Levi testified yesterday in Supreme Court in Brooklyn that Justice Garson's law secretary, Lawrence Rothbart, also tried to bully her into accepting the settlement the judge wanted. "Larry Rothbart told me, 'You have to settle this case. If you don't you might lose your license as a teacher, and you might get in trouble with the I.R.S. and go to jail,' '' she said. Mr. Rothbart has not been charged in the investigation into judicial corruption. He did not answer messages left on his home and work answering machines yesterday. The other woman who testified, Lisa Cohen, said that Justice Garson himself relayed a similar threat through her lawyer. "His threat was, 'Tell your client that if she doesn't take the settlement I'll have to go to the I.R.S., and she'll have to go to jail,' " Ms. Cohen said. Ms. Cohen testified that in January 2002, a $560 charge appeared on her estranged husband's credit card for plane tickets to Florida for Mr. Sarnell and a relative of his. She said she was puzzled by the bill until she read more than a year later that Mr. Sarnell was charged with taking part in a scheme to steer Mr. Siminovsky's cases to Justice Garson. Judge Tape: Tawdry Tale By Jose Martinez New York Daily News August 19, 2004   Encounters between lawyer Paul Siminovsky (above l.) and Judge Gerald Garson that were secretly taped last year — and viewed in court yesterday — appear to show the jurist accepting bribes. Secretly recorded videotapes made inside indicted Brooklyn Judge Gerald Garson's robing room revealed a chamber of horrors where bribes were tossed around as easily as barbs against women and Jews. The tapes, made last year with a hidden camera and aired in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, provided a peek at profanity-laced conversations between Garson and the divorce lawyer who was allegedly trying to buy him off. "One of the greatest things about this job is that I don't know what the f--- I have tomorrow, until I get here," Garson says at one point. "I don't give a s---, either, you know." Garson is set to go on trial for bribery next year and could face up to seven years in prison. But the tapes were introduced by prosecutors in their case against his former court clerk and a court officer. Retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno are accused of taking bribes to steer lawyer Paul Siminovsky's cases before Garson for favorable rulings. The images caught on camera are not kind to Garson, casting him as a potty-mouthed jurist who makes crass cracks in between accepting cash and cigars from Siminovsky. "He's gotta bring in the broads," Garson mumbles at one point. On the same tape, Garson breaks into song after declaring that ugly women "stay around longer." "If you really want to be happy for the rest of your life, better get an ugly girl to be your wife," he sings. He also apparently refers to Jews as "yarmulkes" and "yammys" shortly before sticking his hand in a candy jar and announcing, "I wanna make pee-pee and poo-pie and pee-pee." But Garson's lawyer said the unsavory images will not sink his client's bid to remain a free man. "These tapes, they can play them over and over again," said defense lawyer Ronald Fischetti. "But they're not charges in our case." Fischetti said the tapes capture possible ethical violations, but no criminal acts - adding that Garson tried to return what appears to be a cash-stuffed envelope. On one of the tapes, Siminovsky, who was cooperating with prosecutors, hands Garson something that the judge stuffs into the left pocket of his pants. "Make sure it doesn't fall out of your pocket," Siminovsky orders, pointing to the judge's pants. "Yeah, it's not going to fall out for an hour or two," Garson replies. "Then it's gone." Another tape shows Siminovsky sliding a box of hand-rolled Romeo y Julieta cigars into a drawer in Garson's desk. "Here, look," Siminovsky says. "A client gave them to me." The two men go on about several topics before Garson gets around to discussing the cigars again. "Warning: Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes," he says. "They are not a safe alternative to sex, neither, but what are we going to do about it?"   Played in Court, Tapes Show Judge Coaching Lawyer and Taking Cash By Andy Newman The New York Times August 19, 2004 Surveillance tapes made last year in a Brooklyn matrimonial judge's office and played publicly by prosecutors for the first time yesterday show the judge, Gerald P. Garson, offering a lawyer detailed instructions on how to argue a case before him. He also assures the lawyer that if he follows them, "The worst possible scenario is a win." Paul Siminovsky, left, a lawyer         In the tapes, Justice Garson tells the lawyer, Paul aided the investigation of Justice      Siminovsky, that he will award his client in a Gerald P. Garson, a Brooklyn judge.  divorce case the rights to a house and uses an expletive to describe how the decision would affect the client's estranged wife.      Justice Garson also dictates to Mr. Siminovsky the exact language he should use in a memo to the judge and urges him to charge his client extra for the memo. The tapes were played yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in the criminal trial of Justice Garson's former clerk and a court officer, who are charged with taking bribes to steer Mr. Siminovsky's cases to Justice Garson. Justice Garson himself has been charged with accepting cash, cigars and dozens of meals from Mr. Siminovsky in return for giving him the edge in divorce cases and for referring clients to him. His case will not come to trial until next year at the earliest, as prosecutors are appealing the dismissal of some of the charges against him. Prosecutors say they played the tapes yesterday in the case against the clerk, Paul Sarnell, and the officer, Louis Salerno, to show the jury how closely Mr. Garson and Mr. Siminovsky were working. The tapes, peppered with profanity and ethnic slurs and including several other court employees, depict a courthouse culture that appears at best indifferent to conflicts of interest if not outright collusion. Justice Garson's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said yesterday that the tape segments and the transcripts of them released by the prosecutors had been unfairly excerpted from hundreds of hours of tape made in Justice Garson's robing room. "There are many other tapes surrounding this tape," Mr. Fischetti said. "During the trial, you will see many other tapes that we are going to put into evidence that will put an entirely different slant on things." The Brooklyn district attorney's office has described the tapes as the centerpiece of its case against Justice Garson largely because they show him accepting $1,000 cash and a $250 box of cigars in his office from Mr. Siminovsky, who by then was cooperating with prosecutors and who now faces no charges. While those tapes were also shown yesterday, it was a tape made on Feb. 5, 2003, before Mr. Siminovsky was recruited, that shows what appears to be blatant case-rigging. The tape shows the two men discussing a case in which Mr. Siminovsky represented a man named Avraham Levi, who was suing his wife for divorce. The judge says of the house the couple lived in, "I'll award him exclusive use on it." Justice Garson later adds: "You're in good shape. You're a winner either way.'' He adds that the client does not deserve the favorable ruling. In a tape made a month later, after Mr. Siminovsky began cooperating with investigators, Justice Garson feeds him language to use in the memo in the case. "The only evidence in this case is the deed,'' Justice Garson dictates. The judge interrupts himself, then continues: "The house has been evaluated at --'' "Six-fifty," Mr. Siminovsky fills in. "Whatever the hell it is," the judge says, continuing: "During the course of the marriage the parties have --'' "Incurred these debts,'' Mr. Siminovsky says. Justice Garson corrects him: "Did certain improvements to the property." Justice Garson tells Mr. Siminovsky to be sure to bill Mr. Levi for writing the memo. "I'm telling you to charge for it," the judge says:" 'The judge made me do it If you don't like it, then I can't really put too much effort into your memo.' '' Justice Garson granted Mr. Levi's divorce in January 2003 but did not get a chance to rule on the house because he was arrested on corruption charges. Mr. Levi's ex-wife and the mother of his five children, Sigal Levi, said yesterday by phone that she had the feeling during the case that it had been fixed. But she said she had not known how closely the judge was working with her husband's lawyer. "Is he a judge?'' Ms. Levi said. "What is he? How is he deciding the fates of people and families, ruining houses and families and children? They should put him in Alcatraz. And when he dies, vultures should eat his body." In June, Mr. Levi pleaded guilty to giving a middleman $10,000 to obtain favorable treatment from Justice Garson. In the final tape shown yesterday, made March 10, 2003, Justice Garson shares with Mr. Siminovsky some of his judicial philosophy. When Mr. Siminovsky asks, "Do you got any trials this week?" Justice Garson replies: "Let me tell you something about this job. One of the greatest things about this job is I don't know what the [expletive] I have tomorrow until I get here. I don't give a [expletive] either, you know." Mr. Siminovsky replies, "Can't argue with that." A few minutes later on the tape, Mr. Siminovsky hands the judge something that prosecutors say is a short stack of ten marked $100 bills. The judge pockets it without comment. Ten minutes later, Justice Garson, alone in his office, pulls what appears to be the money out of his pocket and counts it. After an interlude in which he is interviewed in his office by a high school student, Justice Garson, having apparently summoned Mr. Siminovsky back to his office, gives him back the money and asks him to write a check to his wife's judicial campaign instead. Mr. Siminovsky urges the judge to take the money and offers to write a check, too. Justice Garson seems to agree and puts the money in his drawer. A few minutes later, Mr. Siminovsky leaves the office. "Keep the faith," he tells the judge. Judge Looty By Denise Buffa New York Post August 19, 2004 An embattled Brooklyn judge was caught on tape accepting cash and cigars from a lawyer — and assuring him that his client was guaranteed to win a bitter divorce and custody battle. "She's f- - -ed," state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson says on videotapes made public yesterday during the trial of retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno, who are accused of steering cases to Garson in exchange for cash, cameras and other graft. "The bottom line is . . . she'll walk away with nothing . . . He walks away . . . owning the house," Garson says on a transcript of the Feb. 5, 2003, tape provided by prosecutors. "I'll award him exclusive use on it. She's f- - -ed," Garson says in the transcript, telling the lawyer, "You win." The surveillance tape was among those made last year by investigators with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office who had hidden a camera in the ceiling of Garson's robing room. In one of three explosive tapes shown to jurors yesterday, Garson reassures attorney Paul Siminovsky that he will win the divorce and custody battle for his client, who investigators have identified as Avraham Levi, a Brooklyn father of five. The wife, whose divorce and custody case are still pending before another judge, was "furious" yesterday upon learning what was on the tape. "He's not supposed to be a judge. He should stay in jail, rotting," said Sigal Levi, who is expected to testify today as one of several victims of the scandal. Her husband has pleaded guilty, admitting he paid $10,000 to a businessman in hopes of getting Garson to rule in his favor. But prosecutors have no evidence that the money ever reached the judge. The ongoing trial is providing a preview of the evidence that prosecutors say they have against Garson, who remains charged with bribe-receiving for allegedly accepting dinners and drinks from a lawyer. Garson's lawyer, Ron Fischetti, said the tape is just a snippet of nine months of recordings and was taken out of context. "We look forward to a trial," he said. Two other tapes were shown in court yesterday. They were taken after Siminovsky turned state's evidence in exchange for no jail time. The lawyer gives the judge cigars and cash. Chomping on a stogie that Siminovsky gave him, Garson declares on a March 4, 2003, video never before seen publicly, "I feel like Groucho." The judge gets cold feet after accepting $1,000 from Siminovsky on March 10, 2003, asking him to take it back — but then keeping it. At one point on the tapes, Garson tells the lawyer, "One of the greatest things about this job is I don't know what the f- - - I have tomorrow until I get here. "I, I don't give a s- - - either, you know," he says. Elsewhere on the tapes, Garson calls a Jewish judge who has made "a very bad decision" a "yamacka [sic] . . . a yammy . . . supposed to be a very bright guy," according to a transcript. In another instance, he asks what the middle initial "C" stands for in a female Italian-American attorney's name, and Siminovsky says, "I don't want to say what comes to mind." Garson laughs, and ultimately comes up with his own answer. "Cuchita banana," he sings. Tapes Show NY Judge Taking Cash, Saying "I Don't Give a Shit" About His Job By Daniel Wise New York Law Journal August 19, 2004 Three videotapes played in open court yesterday showed Brooklyn Justice Gerald P. Garson accepting a box of cigars and $1,000 from a lawyer who had a case before him. The tapes also painted an ugly picture of the way Justice Garson handled himself in his chambers. One of the tapes showed the judge telling attorney Paul Siminovsky, "You win," as the pair discussed how the lawyer should handle the case. Justice Garson has been charged with bribery, and the lawyer in the tapes is a witness against him. The tapes were shown in the trial of two other men, however. They illustrate the "atmosphere" in which the men -- retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno -- on trial for steering cases to Justice Garson operated, lead prosecutor Noel Downey said. The pair are accused of accepting cash, video equipment and airline tickets for circumventing the system of randomly assigning lawsuits to get cases before Justice Garson. Justice Jeffrey A. Berry, who is presiding over the trial, cautioned the jurors not to be influenced by racial, ethnic, sexual and profane remarks on the tapes. In a March 4 tape, Justice Garson referred to a Civil Court judge whose ruling in a case he found "absolutely insane" as "a yarmulke [unintelligible], a yammy . . . supposed to be a very bright guy." "You know how fast that is going to be reversed," he continued, again referring to the judge as "a yammy" and saying, "They don't go to bars. They have arranged marriages. They don't have girlfriends that cheat on them (laughing) . . . only they cheat on their girlfriends . . . " Justice Garson also made it plain that he felt he had a pretty cushy job. "Let me tell you something about this job," he said to Mr. Siminovsky. "One of the greatest things about this job is I don't know what the fuck I have tomorrow, until I get here. I, I don't give a shit either, you know (laughing)." Secret Garson Tapes - Videos Reveal Lewd Details By Anthony M. Destefano New York, Newsday August 19, 2004 So, what weighty matters do State Supreme Court justices ruminate about with friends in their robing rooms? The latest sagacious rulings from the Appellate Division, maybe? The ingenuity of lawsuits brought by some imaginative, pesky attorneys, perhaps? Well, yes. But there also can be juvenile potty talk, coarse remarks about observant Jews and stuff that would make a legal ethics professor - well - blanche. Such was revealed yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn when prosecutors introduced into evidence videotapes made secretly in the offices of Justice Gerald Garson in early 2003. The tapes are being used in the prosecution of two of Garson's former court officials who are accused of bribe receiving. Garson's trial for bribery is some months in the future. Meanwhile, retired court clerk Paul Sarnell and court officer Louis Salerno are on trial before Justice Jeffrey Berry on charges they took airline tickets, electronic goods and cash in exchange for violating the court random-assignment system to place certain matrimonial cases before Garson. Though neither Sarnell nor Salerno show up on the videotapes, prosecutors have introduced them to show Garson's cozy relationship with attorney Paul Siminovsky. It was Siminovsky, prosecutors contend, who corrupted Garson with dinners and drinks to get favorable treatment. One video of Garson accepting a referral fee from Siminovsky was aired earlier this year on Fox-5 News and depicted in Newsday. That tape and two others were played in court and gave jurors - and court veterans - an eye-opening behind-the-scenes view that would make even fans of the reality show "Growing Up Gotti" squirm. "All right, lemme go take a pee," Garson said to Siminovsky, according to a transcript, "lemme make peepee ... I wanna make peepee and poopie and peepee." Just before Garson took care of his bodily functions, he was overheard referring to an observant Jew as a "yammy," which is apparently a reference to yarmulke. "They don't go to bars, they have arranged marriages, they don't have girlfriends that cheat on them ... only they cheat on their girlfriends," Garson said to Siminovsky, according to the transcript released by the Brooklyn district attorney's office. Also on the tape, Siminovsky waves a box of Romeo y Julieta cigars at Garson and is seen placing it in the judge's desk. Garson later sings a little ditty about the cigars. Prosecutors earlier contended that Garson's acceptance of the cigars was official misconduct, but that charge was later dismissed. Garson is also shown reluctantly taking a $1,000 referral fee from Siminovsky. Garson was taped apparently coaching Siminovsky about how to argue the merits of a case and suggesting that the opposing side, the wife, would not prevail on certain real property issues. "She's --," Garson said. Garson's defense attorney Ron Fischetti told Newsday the cigars will be dealt with at Garson's trial and it was crazy to think the judge would sell his office for a hamburger. In Brooklyn, Bribe Trial Opens Against Court Aides By Andy Newman New York Times August 18, 2004 Lawyer and a salesman hugging goodbye outside a brick warehouse on a dark street in East Flatbush. Three human figures silhouetted against the blinds in an office above a Blimpie restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn. A judge and a lawyer getting up from their table at a bar across the street from a Brooklyn courthouse. In grainy videotapes and photographs, prosecutors took jurors yesterday on a virtual tour through what they call the landscape of judicial corruption in Brooklyn, as they began laying out evidence in the first case to come to trial in the scandal that erupted last year around Justice Gerald P. Garson of State Supreme Court. The men on trial - Paul Sarnell, a clerk for Justice Garson; and Louis Salerno, a court officer - did not appear in any of the images the jurors saw yesterday. But prosecutors said that to understand the defendants' roles, the jury needed to meet the players in the complex network through which, the prosecution contends, justice was bought, rigged and scripted in Justice Garson's courtroom in the matrimonial section of Supreme Court. "Right now you see a picture being painted of relationships between parties," the Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney, Noel C. Downey, said. "It branches out. It's not just A and B getting together and committing crimes." The investigation of Justice Garson turned up allegations that Democratic nominations for judgeships were for sale in Brooklyn. It led to a sprawling inquiry by the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, that has also resulted in the indictment of the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Assemblyman Clarence Norman, on charges of misusing campaign funds. According to the scheme laid out by prosecutors, the salesman in the video, Nissim Elmann, would send potential divorce clients to the lawyer, Paul Siminovsky. Mr. Siminovsky would enlist Mr. Salerno or Mr. Sarnell to steer his clients' cases, which were supposed to be assigned randomly, to Justice Garson, whom Mr. Siminovsky had spent years cultivating with expensive meals, drinks and cigars. Justice Garson, prosecutors say, fed Mr. Siminovsky arguments to use in court that he would rule favorably on. Mr. Salerno and Mr. Sarnell, prosecutors said, received thousands of dollars in cash, plane tickets and plastic bags of electronic equipment from Mr. Elmann's warehouse for their efforts. "The steering of cases to Judge Garson's part isn't because of the view from the seventh floor," Mr. Downey said. "It's because of the inappropriate relationship between the judge and a lawyer." Prosecutors said that when Mr. Siminovsky needed a case to come before Justice Garson, it was Mr. Sarnell who would go to an administrative clerk and tell her that Justice Garson wanted the case reassigned to him. After Mr. Sarnell retired in 2002, prosecutors said, Mr. Salerno took over his role in the scheme. Both men are charged with receiving bribes and face up to seven years in prison if convicted. Justice Garson also faces bribery charges; his case will not go to trial until next year at the earliest. Mr. Salerno's lawyer, Oliver S. Storch, told the jury in his opening argument that although Mr. Salerno accepted gifts, "So what?" He said that there was no quid pro quo - that Mr. Salerno did not accept anything of value to steer a case. "Anything he may have accepted was completely innocuous," he said. Prosecutors said Mr. Salerno, a 24-year veteran court officer who has been placed on modified duty, took $2,000 from Mr. Siminovsky in the men's room of the courthouse. They also plan to show a videotape of Mr. Salerno receiving two garbage bags of electronic equipment that came from Mr. Elmann's warehouse. Mr. Sarnell's lawyer, Dominic Amorosa, said that there were sometimes legitimate reasons for a case to be assigned to a particular judge, and that when Mr. Sarnell relayed orders to assign a case to Justice Garson, he was always doing so at Justice Garson's direction, "and Sarnell's not in any position to second-guess Garson." He also said that Mr. Sarnell received nothing of value from any of the people prosecutors say took part in the conspiracy. Prosecutors say Mr. Sarnell flew to Florida on plane tickets bought by a person whose case was illegally steered to Justice Garson. The procedures for assigning cases to judges have been tightened since the problems came to light last year, state court officials say. Mr. Siminovsky, described by law enforcement officials as the central figure in the scheme, began cooperating with prosecutors during their investigation and faces no charges. Prosecutors say he will testify next week and walk the jury through some of the tangled relationships depicted on the 60 audiotapes and videotapes they plan to play for the jurors. Three people have already pleaded guilty in the case. Mr. Elmann's trial is to begin later this year. Perp's Hug Shot By Denise Buffa New York Post August 18, 2004 A lawyer and a shady Israeli businessman suspected of swaying a Brooklyn judge to give favorable rulings to the lawyer's clients were so close, they hugged when they bade goodbye one night, video surveillance shows. </