FBI NABS '$500,000 GRAFT' ASSEMBLYMAN
By FREDERIC U. DICKER and BRENDAN SCOTT in Albany and JENNIFER FERMINO in New York
GOTCHA: Anthony Seminerio, at court yesterday, allegedly introduced an FBI undercover man to other elected officials.
September 11, 2008
In an unprecedented sting that brought an undercover FBI agent onto the state Capitol floor, a veteran Democratic assemblyman from Queens was busted yesterday for allegedly taking $500,000 in bribes, prosecutors announced.
Anthony Seminerio, 73, who has represented South Ozone Park since 1978 and often boasted he was "John Gotti's assemblyman," was charged with running a secret consulting firm through which he pocketed the cash in return for peddling influence in Albany.
"Mr. Seminerio crafted a plan to receive such payments in a fashion effectively shielding those payments from public scrutiny," said Mark Mershon of the FBI.
Seminerio, released on $500,000 bail, declined to comment as he walked out of Manhattan federal court. His wife, Catherine, told reporters, "Drop dead!" and stuck out her tongue.
Using a cooperating witness, phone taps and, eventually, an undercover agent, investigators were able to unravel how Seminerio hid the alleged scam while pressing Albany colleagues to help him aid constituents who had paid him cash.
None of the several state lawmakers who were approached by Seminerio and the undercover - including Assemblymen Robert Sweeney (R-Suffolk) and Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens) - are suspected of any wrongdoing.
"I don't, on a personal level, appreciate bring dragged into this," said Sweeney, who believes he is the "Assemblyman 4" referred to in court papers.
According to a criminal complaint, Seminerio established a firm called Marc Consultants in 2000. People who approached him to wield his influence in the Assembly were allegedly told to deposit checks into the company's account.
In one episode earlier this year, Seminerio allegedly pocketed $390,000 from a hospital in his district whose officials approached him for help securing extra funding during threatened budget cutbacks. In several taped phone conversations, Seminerio said he would "go rattle some cages," but only if the officials "find me a check."
"That kind of relationship you can't buy for a million dollars," he said in one recorded conversation.
In late 2007, the FBI had a cooperating witness introduce Seminerio to an undercover agent posing as a businessman trying to secure contracts with the state. Seminerio agreed to help him.
Over several months, the agent wrote $25,000 worth of checks to Marc Consultants in return for Seminerio's alleged promises of help.
Then, in a shocking twist, beginning in March, Seminerio allegedly arranged for the agent to come to Albany to meet several state senators and assemblymen to discuss his business proposals. On at least one occasion, Seminerio brought the agent into the Capitol building, through security and onto the floor of the Assembly, the feds said.
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sunday, February 6, 2000
HOW TO CLEAN UP CORRUPT COURT SYSTEM
New York Post, February 6, 2000
Section: News
By Jack Newfield
DEAR Inspector General Sherrill Spatz:
Congratulations on your appointment as judicial patronage investigator for the state's chief judge. Your former colleague in the Manhattan DA's office, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is sure you will do a great job.
Since I've been writing exposes on judicial patronage for 30 years, allow me to share my knowledge and suggest a few improvements to a system that is now more loophole than law.
The basic problem is that political organizations pick judges based on party loy-alty rather than merit. The same judges make lucrative appointments to the drones who picked them.
The courts are so politicized that almost nothing is decided purely on the merits. This deprives the public of protection and robs the judiciary of public trust.
Just look at the public record.
The law firm of Queens Democratic Party leader Tom Manton has received more than $400,000 in court patronage since 1997. One partner -- Frank Bolz -- heads the party's law committee. Another, Gerard Sweeney, is counsel to the public adminis-trator. A third, Mike Reich, is executive secretary of the Queens party organiza-tion. They should apply antitrust laws to Manton's Monopoly.
Ravi Batra is the law partner of Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman. Batra has gotten more than 125 court appointments since 1995, the year he became Norman's partner.
Perhaps the first thing you should do is take a good look at the activities of Steve Cohn, a judge's son who is a Democratic Party district leader and a judge-maker in Brooklyn. His influence may be legal, but it is also disturbing.
More than one lawyer has told me he felt it necessary to hire Cohn as "co-counsel" to have a chance at equal treatment for clients in civil cases in Brooklyn. One Manhattan lawyer told me he paid Cohn $17,000 in one case and $5,000 in another.
"I was losing both cases unfairly before I hired Cohn," he said. "As soon as I hired him, the judges began to decide motions in my favor."
The lawyer said Cohn did virtually no legal work -- he just showed up, nodded to the judge and chattered with his law secretary, whom he seemed to know very well.
This lawyer told me, "I'm ashamed of what I had to do ... But I have to do what I can to protect my clients."
Here are a few simple suggestions on how the system can be reformed to reduce fa-voritism, cronyism, nepotism and cynicism:
Create a list of lawyers based on merit -- lawyers with the qualifications to serve as honest receivers, guardians, referees and court evaluators.
Require judges to make all assignments from this list, at random, using a wheel -- the way jurors and lottery winners are picked.
Spitzer says the pool of qualified lawyers available for these jobs -- lawyers with no political affiliation -- is in the thousands citywide.
Prohibit all political insiders from getting on the approved list.
Ban all district leaders, all law partners of party leaders like Manton and Nor-man. This will knock out Batra, Reich, Bolz, Sweeney, et al.
Ban all politicians such as Sheldon Silver, Guy Velella and Tom Ognibene, who have gotten repeated appointments.
Also ban all children and wives of sitting judges. This would cover parasites like Lee Huttner, son of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Richard Huttner, and Thomas Garry, son of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice William Garry.
Propose sanctions with teeth for conflicts of interest by judges.
There was no reprimand or punishment for acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon when she gave a $350,000 receivership to Fritz Alexander in 1995.
The judge had been Alexander's campaign manager when he ran for a judgeship, and they had a romantic relationship in the past. But she saw no conflict in appointing him to one of the most profitable assignments of the last decade.
Solomon even refused to recuse herself after lawyers put her double conflict on the public record.
An appellate panel found nothing wrong with her conduct, a ruling skeptics might dispute as a whitewash. Just last week, Manhattan Surrogate Renee Roth was sharply rebuked by appellate judges for hiring her former assistant as a $300-an-hour refe-ree. This came after a Bar Association report had condemned Roth for giving 66 per-cent of her appointments to her campaign contributors.
Close the loophole on the amount lawyers can make from court patronage.
The rule is that a lawyer can get only one assignment of more than $5,000 during any 12-month period. Records show that lawyers like Batra, Bolz and Harvey Green-berg get a lot of assignments for $4,800 each.
They can pocket $70,000 a year while technically obeying the $5,000 limit. We need a strict annual limit.
Ms. Spatz, you have an opportunity to build trust in the courts.
Think of the patronage courtrooms in Brooklyn and Queens as rigged casinos in Las Vegas.
And keep the faces of the flesh-and-blood victims -- the widows, orphans, and hon-est unconnected lawyers -- fixed in your mind's eye.
Section: News
By Jack Newfield
DEAR Inspector General Sherrill Spatz:
Congratulations on your appointment as judicial patronage investigator for the state's chief judge. Your former colleague in the Manhattan DA's office, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is sure you will do a great job.
Since I've been writing exposes on judicial patronage for 30 years, allow me to share my knowledge and suggest a few improvements to a system that is now more loophole than law.
The basic problem is that political organizations pick judges based on party loy-alty rather than merit. The same judges make lucrative appointments to the drones who picked them.
The courts are so politicized that almost nothing is decided purely on the merits. This deprives the public of protection and robs the judiciary of public trust.
Just look at the public record.
The law firm of Queens Democratic Party leader Tom Manton has received more than $400,000 in court patronage since 1997. One partner -- Frank Bolz -- heads the party's law committee. Another, Gerard Sweeney, is counsel to the public adminis-trator. A third, Mike Reich, is executive secretary of the Queens party organiza-tion. They should apply antitrust laws to Manton's Monopoly.
Ravi Batra is the law partner of Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman. Batra has gotten more than 125 court appointments since 1995, the year he became Norman's partner.
Perhaps the first thing you should do is take a good look at the activities of Steve Cohn, a judge's son who is a Democratic Party district leader and a judge-maker in Brooklyn. His influence may be legal, but it is also disturbing.
More than one lawyer has told me he felt it necessary to hire Cohn as "co-counsel" to have a chance at equal treatment for clients in civil cases in Brooklyn. One Manhattan lawyer told me he paid Cohn $17,000 in one case and $5,000 in another.
"I was losing both cases unfairly before I hired Cohn," he said. "As soon as I hired him, the judges began to decide motions in my favor."
The lawyer said Cohn did virtually no legal work -- he just showed up, nodded to the judge and chattered with his law secretary, whom he seemed to know very well.
This lawyer told me, "I'm ashamed of what I had to do ... But I have to do what I can to protect my clients."
Here are a few simple suggestions on how the system can be reformed to reduce fa-voritism, cronyism, nepotism and cynicism:
Create a list of lawyers based on merit -- lawyers with the qualifications to serve as honest receivers, guardians, referees and court evaluators.
Require judges to make all assignments from this list, at random, using a wheel -- the way jurors and lottery winners are picked.
Spitzer says the pool of qualified lawyers available for these jobs -- lawyers with no political affiliation -- is in the thousands citywide.
Prohibit all political insiders from getting on the approved list.
Ban all district leaders, all law partners of party leaders like Manton and Nor-man. This will knock out Batra, Reich, Bolz, Sweeney, et al.
Ban all politicians such as Sheldon Silver, Guy Velella and Tom Ognibene, who have gotten repeated appointments.
Also ban all children and wives of sitting judges. This would cover parasites like Lee Huttner, son of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Richard Huttner, and Thomas Garry, son of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice William Garry.
Propose sanctions with teeth for conflicts of interest by judges.
There was no reprimand or punishment for acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon when she gave a $350,000 receivership to Fritz Alexander in 1995.
The judge had been Alexander's campaign manager when he ran for a judgeship, and they had a romantic relationship in the past. But she saw no conflict in appointing him to one of the most profitable assignments of the last decade.
Solomon even refused to recuse herself after lawyers put her double conflict on the public record.
An appellate panel found nothing wrong with her conduct, a ruling skeptics might dispute as a whitewash. Just last week, Manhattan Surrogate Renee Roth was sharply rebuked by appellate judges for hiring her former assistant as a $300-an-hour refe-ree. This came after a Bar Association report had condemned Roth for giving 66 per-cent of her appointments to her campaign contributors.
Close the loophole on the amount lawyers can make from court patronage.
The rule is that a lawyer can get only one assignment of more than $5,000 during any 12-month period. Records show that lawyers like Batra, Bolz and Harvey Green-berg get a lot of assignments for $4,800 each.
They can pocket $70,000 a year while technically obeying the $5,000 limit. We need a strict annual limit.
Ms. Spatz, you have an opportunity to build trust in the courts.
Think of the patronage courtrooms in Brooklyn and Queens as rigged casinos in Las Vegas.
And keep the faces of the flesh-and-blood victims -- the widows, orphans, and hon-est unconnected lawyers -- fixed in your mind's eye.
Wednesday, February 2, 2000
DIRTY DOZEN' GRAB PATRONAGE $$$ A PATRONAGE DIRTY DOZEN'
by Maggie Haberman, Jack Newfield, Allen Salkin and Erika Martinez
Patronage, favoritism and nepotism are still a way of life for New York's judiciary.
More than a century after Boss Tweed's corrupt political machine ground to a halt, some politically connected lawyers and ex-judges are monopolizing millions of dollars in patronage from judges who owe their robes to party bosses.
The head of the state court system has pledged to appoint an inspector general and a blue-ribbon commission by Feb. 10 to once and for all clean up this system of enriching the well-connected at the expense of widows, orphans and bankrupt businesses, A continuing Post investigation of courthouse patronage has uncovered a "Dirty Dozen" examples of this judicial insider trading over the past three years, with highlights including:
Fritz Alexander, former deputy mayor and Court of Appeals judge, received a $350,000 fee from one court appointment by a judge "he had been seeing" and who was his former campaign manager, according to court transcripts.
Former Mayor Ed Koch received a $25,000 appointment and failed Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro got one worth $23,000 from Manhattan Surrogate's Court Judge Renee Roth after both endorsed Roth in a hard-fought 1996 primary.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and his two lawyer sons pulled in $95,450 in court patronage from Queens judges.
Three scandal-tarnished ex-judges who took in nearly $250,000 in court appointments include a judge who was removed for lying to the FBI, another who was censured by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and a third who was once named one of New York's worst judges by New York magazine.
Here are some of the city's top patronage profiteers.
A lion's share of Queens patronage goes to one politically-wired law firm -- Sweeney, Reich, Gallo -- whose partners include Thomas Manton, Democratic county leader; Gerard Sweeney, counsel to the public administrator; Michael Reich, executive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party; and David Gallo, Housing Court Advisory Council appointee.
Altogether, this one law firm, which did not return calls for this story, has taken in at least $400,000 in patronage since 1996, records show.
Many of the appointments came from Queens Surrogate's Court Judge Robert Nahman, who got his job through Manton's maneuvering.
Lawyer Ravi Batra has gotten more than $175,000 worth of judicial appointments since 1995, the year he became law partner with Kings County Democratic leader and state Assemblyman Clarence Norman.
Last year, Batra hosted a dinner for 150 judges at the Harmony Club on the Upper East Side at which he gave awards to two judges who had given him numerous receiverships -- Richard Huttner of Brooklyn and Stephen Crane of Manhattan.
None of the judges had to pay for their dinners.
Election lawyer Lawrence Mandelker, who played major roles in the campaigns of Mayors Giuliani and Koch, received $47,500 through two appointments from Judge Crane.
Mandelker has also collected a $25,000 retainer from the City University to defend its elimination of remedial classes.
Longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party player Arnold Ludwig reaped $71,750 through 35 judicial appointments -- but because of a legal loophole, it is difficult to know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars more in patronage he may be receiving.
Batra told The Post he paid Ludwig's firm "a lot of money" to perform legal work on Batra's court-appointed receiverships.
The Office of Court Administration, in a loophole that makes it nearly impossible for court-watchers to completely track the flow of money, does not require any central disclosure of fees paid to lawyers who work for receivers.
Ludwig, who had no comment for this story, helped spark several investigations into courthouse patronage by co-writing, with his partner Thomas Garry, a potentially self-destructive letter complaining that Batra had fired them as lawyers in a Cypress Hills Cemetery case even though they had long been loyal to the party organization.
Former Queens Surrogate Louis Laurino and his son, Louis Jr., racked up $176,652, much of it directly from a judge who had good reason to owe them a favor.
The senior Laurino conveniently resigned just after the filing deadline for candidates in the 1991 primary election, allowing the Queens Democratic party to install Nahman as his successor without the voters having a say.
The Laurinos received $117,900 of their appointments from one judge -- Surrogate Nahman. Laurino Sr. was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for conflicts of interest while surrogate.
William Driscoll, party-boss Manton's former chief of staff, who now works as a campaign consultant, reaped $125,322 from 53 judicial appointments.
Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the son of a judge, and his two sons, Peter Jr. and Paul, together received almost $100,000 in legal appointments, all from Queens judges. Speaker Vallone is raising funds for a 2001 mayoral bid.
Arlene Stringer-Cuevas, mother of a state assemblyman and wife of the New York County clerk, enjoyed $16,110 in patronage through nine appointments in Manhattan and The Bronx.
John Monteleone, named one of New York's 10 worst judges by New York magazine in 1972 for leniency toward two Mafia defendants, made $44,000 through 13 appointments by Brooklyn judges.
In the 1980s he led the campaign for higher salaries for judges.
Monteleone said he was given the appointments because he is a malpractice expert.
inMichael Capanegro, a former boyfriend of singer Connie Francis who was convicted in 1977 of embezzling funds from the Communications Workers union during a strike, received $14,000 in ap-pointments from Queens Supreme Court Judge Edwin Kassoff.
Explaining that he received the appointments because of his legal expertise, Capanegro said, "In my area, I'm very well qualified."
Irving "Red" Levine, a former Brooklyn judge who was removed from the bench for case-rigging and lying to the FBI, has received $35,000 worth of court assignments since 1996. Thirteen of the 16 appointments were from Brooklyn Surrogate's Judge Michael Feinberg, for whom Levine raised money and provided advice during a bitter 1996 primary. In Feinberg's latest financial disclosure forms, the address of his campaign headquarters is the same as Levine's home address. Reached at his Florida vacation home, Levine had no comment on his lucrative appointments.
Harvey Greenberg, former executive assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, pocketed a tidy $119,201 -- much of it from appointments made by Feinberg, whose election campaign he helped run.
LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2000
Patronage, favoritism and nepotism are still a way of life for New York's judiciary.
More than a century after Boss Tweed's corrupt political machine ground to a halt, some politically connected lawyers and ex-judges are monopolizing millions of dollars in patronage from judges who owe their robes to party bosses.
The head of the state court system has pledged to appoint an inspector general and a blue-ribbon commission by Feb. 10 to once and for all clean up this system of enriching the well-connected at the expense of widows, orphans and bankrupt businesses, A continuing Post investigation of courthouse patronage has uncovered a "Dirty Dozen" examples of this judicial insider trading over the past three years, with highlights including:
Fritz Alexander, former deputy mayor and Court of Appeals judge, received a $350,000 fee from one court appointment by a judge "he had been seeing" and who was his former campaign manager, according to court transcripts.
Former Mayor Ed Koch received a $25,000 appointment and failed Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro got one worth $23,000 from Manhattan Surrogate's Court Judge Renee Roth after both endorsed Roth in a hard-fought 1996 primary.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and his two lawyer sons pulled in $95,450 in court patronage from Queens judges.
Three scandal-tarnished ex-judges who took in nearly $250,000 in court appointments include a judge who was removed for lying to the FBI, another who was censured by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and a third who was once named one of New York's worst judges by New York magazine.
Here are some of the city's top patronage profiteers.
A lion's share of Queens patronage goes to one politically-wired law firm -- Sweeney, Reich, Gallo -- whose partners include Thomas Manton, Democratic county leader; Gerard Sweeney, counsel to the public administrator; Michael Reich, executive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party; and David Gallo, Housing Court Advisory Council appointee.
Altogether, this one law firm, which did not return calls for this story, has taken in at least $400,000 in patronage since 1996, records show.
Many of the appointments came from Queens Surrogate's Court Judge Robert Nahman, who got his job through Manton's maneuvering.
Lawyer Ravi Batra has gotten more than $175,000 worth of judicial appointments since 1995, the year he became law partner with Kings County Democratic leader and state Assemblyman Clarence Norman.
Last year, Batra hosted a dinner for 150 judges at the Harmony Club on the Upper East Side at which he gave awards to two judges who had given him numerous receiverships -- Richard Huttner of Brooklyn and Stephen Crane of Manhattan.
None of the judges had to pay for their dinners.
Election lawyer Lawrence Mandelker, who played major roles in the campaigns of Mayors Giuliani and Koch, received $47,500 through two appointments from Judge Crane.
Mandelker has also collected a $25,000 retainer from the City University to defend its elimination of remedial classes.
Longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party player Arnold Ludwig reaped $71,750 through 35 judicial appointments -- but because of a legal loophole, it is difficult to know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars more in patronage he may be receiving.
Batra told The Post he paid Ludwig's firm "a lot of money" to perform legal work on Batra's court-appointed receiverships.
The Office of Court Administration, in a loophole that makes it nearly impossible for court-watchers to completely track the flow of money, does not require any central disclosure of fees paid to lawyers who work for receivers.
Ludwig, who had no comment for this story, helped spark several investigations into courthouse patronage by co-writing, with his partner Thomas Garry, a potentially self-destructive letter complaining that Batra had fired them as lawyers in a Cypress Hills Cemetery case even though they had long been loyal to the party organization.
Former Queens Surrogate Louis Laurino and his son, Louis Jr., racked up $176,652, much of it directly from a judge who had good reason to owe them a favor.
The senior Laurino conveniently resigned just after the filing deadline for candidates in the 1991 primary election, allowing the Queens Democratic party to install Nahman as his successor without the voters having a say.
The Laurinos received $117,900 of their appointments from one judge -- Surrogate Nahman. Laurino Sr. was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for conflicts of interest while surrogate.
William Driscoll, party-boss Manton's former chief of staff, who now works as a campaign consultant, reaped $125,322 from 53 judicial appointments.
Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the son of a judge, and his two sons, Peter Jr. and Paul, together received almost $100,000 in legal appointments, all from Queens judges. Speaker Vallone is raising funds for a 2001 mayoral bid.
Arlene Stringer-Cuevas, mother of a state assemblyman and wife of the New York County clerk, enjoyed $16,110 in patronage through nine appointments in Manhattan and The Bronx.
John Monteleone, named one of New York's 10 worst judges by New York magazine in 1972 for leniency toward two Mafia defendants, made $44,000 through 13 appointments by Brooklyn judges.
In the 1980s he led the campaign for higher salaries for judges.
Monteleone said he was given the appointments because he is a malpractice expert.
inMichael Capanegro, a former boyfriend of singer Connie Francis who was convicted in 1977 of embezzling funds from the Communications Workers union during a strike, received $14,000 in ap-pointments from Queens Supreme Court Judge Edwin Kassoff.
Explaining that he received the appointments because of his legal expertise, Capanegro said, "In my area, I'm very well qualified."
Irving "Red" Levine, a former Brooklyn judge who was removed from the bench for case-rigging and lying to the FBI, has received $35,000 worth of court assignments since 1996. Thirteen of the 16 appointments were from Brooklyn Surrogate's Judge Michael Feinberg, for whom Levine raised money and provided advice during a bitter 1996 primary. In Feinberg's latest financial disclosure forms, the address of his campaign headquarters is the same as Levine's home address. Reached at his Florida vacation home, Levine had no comment on his lucrative appointments.
Harvey Greenberg, former executive assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, pocketed a tidy $119,201 -- much of it from appointments made by Feinberg, whose election campaign he helped run.
LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2000
Sunday, January 30, 2000
DIRTY DOZEN' GRAB PATRONAGE $$$ A PATRONAGE DIRTY DOZEN'
New York Post, January 30, 2000
By Maggie Haberman, Jack Newfield, Allen Salkin and Erika Martinez and
Patronage, favoritism and nepotism are still a way of life for New York's judici-ary.
More than a century after Boss Tweed's corrupt political machine ground to a halt, some politically connected lawyers and ex-judges are monopolizing millions of dol-lars in patronage from judges who owe their robes to party bosses.
The head of the state court system has pledged to appoint an inspector general and a blue-ribbon commission by Feb. 10 to once and for all clean up this system of en-riching the well-connected at the expense of widows, orphans and bankrupt busi-nesses,
A continuing Post investigation of courthouse patronage has uncovered a "Dirty Dozen" examples of this judicial insider trading over the past three years, with highlights including:
Fritz Alexander, former deputy mayor and Court of Appeals judge, received a $350,000 fee from one court appointment by a judge "he had been seeing" and who was his former campaign manager, according to court transcripts.
Former Mayor Ed Koch received a $25,000 appointment and failed Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro got one worth $23,000 from Manhattan Surrogate's Court Judge Renee Roth after both endorsed Roth in a hard-fought 1996 primary.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and his two lawyer sons pulled in $95,450 in court patronage from Queens judges.
Three scandal-tarnished ex-judges who took in nearly $250,000 in court appoint-ments include a judge who was removed for lying to the FBI, another who was cen-sured by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and a third who was once named one of New York's worst judges by New York magazine.
Here are some of the city's top patronage profiteers.
A lion's share of Queens patronage goes to one politically-wired law firm -- Sweeney, Reich, Gallo -- whose partners include Thomas Manton, Democratic county leader; Gerard Sweeney, counsel to the public administrator; Michael Reich, execu-tive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party; and David Gallo, Housing Court Advi-sory Council appointee.
Altogether, this one law firm, which did not return calls for this story, has taken in at least $400,000 in patronage since 1996, records show.
Many of the appointments came from Queens Surrogate's Court Judge Robert Nahman, who got his job through Manton's maneuvering.
Lawyer Ravi Batra has gotten more than $175,000 worth of judicial appointments since 1995, the year he became law partner with Kings County Democratic leader and state Assemblyman Clarence Norman.
Last year, Batra hosted a dinner for 150 judges at the Harmony Club on the Upper East Side at which he gave awards to two judges who had given him numerous receiv-erships -- Richard Huttner of Brooklyn and Stephen Crane of Manhattan.
None of the judges had to pay for their dinners.
Election lawyer Lawrence Mandelker, who played major roles in the campaigns of Mayors Giuliani and Koch, received $47,500 through two appointments from Judge Crane.
Mandelker has also collected a $25,000 retainer from the City University to defend its elimination of remedial classes.
Longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party player Arnold Ludwig reaped $71,750 through 35 judicial appointments -- but because of a legal loophole, it is difficult to know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars more in patronage he may be receiving.
Batra told The Post he paid Ludwig's firm "a lot of money" to perform legal work on Batra's court-appointed receiverships.
The Office of Court Administration, in a loophole that makes it nearly impossible for court-watchers to completely track the flow of money, does not require any cen-tral disclosure of fees paid to lawyers who work for receivers.
Ludwig, who had no comment for this story, helped spark several investigations into courthouse patronage by co-writing, with his partner Thomas Garry, a poten-tially self-destructive letter
complaining that Batra had fired them as lawyers in a Cypress Hills Cemetery case even though they had long been loyal to the party organization.
Former Queens Surrogate Louis Laurino and his son, Louis Jr., racked up $176,652, much of it directly from a judge who had good reason to owe them a favor.
The senior Laurino conveniently resigned just after the filing deadline for candi-dates in the 1991 primary election, allowing the Queens Democratic party to install Nahman as his successor without the voters having a say.
The Laurinos received $117,900 of their appointments from one judge -- Surrogate Nahman.
Laurino Sr. was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for conflicts of interest while surrogate.
William Driscoll, party-boss Manton's former chief of staff, who now works as a campaign consultant, reaped $125,322 from 53 judicial appointments.
Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the son of a judge, and his two sons, Peter Jr. and Paul, together received almost $100,000 in legal appointments, all from Queens judges.
Speaker Vallone is raising funds for a 2001 mayoral bid.
Arlene Stringer-Cuevas, mother of a state assemblyman and wife of the New York County clerk, enjoyed $16,110 in patronage through nine appointments in Manhattan and The Bronx.
John Monteleone, named one of New York's 10 worst judges by New York magazine in 1972 for leniency toward two Mafia defendants, made $44,000 through 13 appointments by Brooklyn judges.
In the 1980s he led the campaign for higher salaries for judges.
Monteleone said he was given the appointments because he is a malpractice expert.
Michael Capanegro, a former boyfriend of singer Connie Francis who was convicted in 1977 of embezzling funds from the Communications Workers union during a strike, received $14,000 in ap-
pointments from Queens Supreme Court Judge Edwin Kassoff.
Explaining that he received the appointments because of his legal expertise, Ca-panegro said, "In my area, I'm very well qualified."
Irving "Red" Levine, a former Brooklyn judge who was removed from the bench for case-rigging and lying to the FBI, has received $35,000 worth of court assignments since 1996.
Thirteen of the 16 appointments were from Brooklyn Surrogate's Judge Michael Feinberg, for whom Levine raised money and provided advice during a bitter 1996 primary.
In Feinberg's latest financial disclosure forms, the address of his campaign head-quarters is the same as Levine's home address.
Reached at his Florida vacation home, Levine had no comment on his lucrative ap-pointments.
Harvey Greenberg, former executive assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, pocketed a tidy $119,201 -- much of it from appointments made by Feinberg, whose election campaign he helped run.
By Maggie Haberman, Jack Newfield, Allen Salkin and Erika Martinez and
Patronage, favoritism and nepotism are still a way of life for New York's judici-ary.
More than a century after Boss Tweed's corrupt political machine ground to a halt, some politically connected lawyers and ex-judges are monopolizing millions of dol-lars in patronage from judges who owe their robes to party bosses.
The head of the state court system has pledged to appoint an inspector general and a blue-ribbon commission by Feb. 10 to once and for all clean up this system of en-riching the well-connected at the expense of widows, orphans and bankrupt busi-nesses,
A continuing Post investigation of courthouse patronage has uncovered a "Dirty Dozen" examples of this judicial insider trading over the past three years, with highlights including:
Fritz Alexander, former deputy mayor and Court of Appeals judge, received a $350,000 fee from one court appointment by a judge "he had been seeing" and who was his former campaign manager, according to court transcripts.
Former Mayor Ed Koch received a $25,000 appointment and failed Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro got one worth $23,000 from Manhattan Surrogate's Court Judge Renee Roth after both endorsed Roth in a hard-fought 1996 primary.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and his two lawyer sons pulled in $95,450 in court patronage from Queens judges.
Three scandal-tarnished ex-judges who took in nearly $250,000 in court appoint-ments include a judge who was removed for lying to the FBI, another who was cen-sured by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and a third who was once named one of New York's worst judges by New York magazine.
Here are some of the city's top patronage profiteers.
A lion's share of Queens patronage goes to one politically-wired law firm -- Sweeney, Reich, Gallo -- whose partners include Thomas Manton, Democratic county leader; Gerard Sweeney, counsel to the public administrator; Michael Reich, execu-tive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party; and David Gallo, Housing Court Advi-sory Council appointee.
Altogether, this one law firm, which did not return calls for this story, has taken in at least $400,000 in patronage since 1996, records show.
Many of the appointments came from Queens Surrogate's Court Judge Robert Nahman, who got his job through Manton's maneuvering.
Lawyer Ravi Batra has gotten more than $175,000 worth of judicial appointments since 1995, the year he became law partner with Kings County Democratic leader and state Assemblyman Clarence Norman.
Last year, Batra hosted a dinner for 150 judges at the Harmony Club on the Upper East Side at which he gave awards to two judges who had given him numerous receiv-erships -- Richard Huttner of Brooklyn and Stephen Crane of Manhattan.
None of the judges had to pay for their dinners.
Election lawyer Lawrence Mandelker, who played major roles in the campaigns of Mayors Giuliani and Koch, received $47,500 through two appointments from Judge Crane.
Mandelker has also collected a $25,000 retainer from the City University to defend its elimination of remedial classes.
Longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party player Arnold Ludwig reaped $71,750 through 35 judicial appointments -- but because of a legal loophole, it is difficult to know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars more in patronage he may be receiving.
Batra told The Post he paid Ludwig's firm "a lot of money" to perform legal work on Batra's court-appointed receiverships.
The Office of Court Administration, in a loophole that makes it nearly impossible for court-watchers to completely track the flow of money, does not require any cen-tral disclosure of fees paid to lawyers who work for receivers.
Ludwig, who had no comment for this story, helped spark several investigations into courthouse patronage by co-writing, with his partner Thomas Garry, a poten-tially self-destructive letter
complaining that Batra had fired them as lawyers in a Cypress Hills Cemetery case even though they had long been loyal to the party organization.
Former Queens Surrogate Louis Laurino and his son, Louis Jr., racked up $176,652, much of it directly from a judge who had good reason to owe them a favor.
The senior Laurino conveniently resigned just after the filing deadline for candi-dates in the 1991 primary election, allowing the Queens Democratic party to install Nahman as his successor without the voters having a say.
The Laurinos received $117,900 of their appointments from one judge -- Surrogate Nahman.
Laurino Sr. was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for conflicts of interest while surrogate.
William Driscoll, party-boss Manton's former chief of staff, who now works as a campaign consultant, reaped $125,322 from 53 judicial appointments.
Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the son of a judge, and his two sons, Peter Jr. and Paul, together received almost $100,000 in legal appointments, all from Queens judges.
Speaker Vallone is raising funds for a 2001 mayoral bid.
Arlene Stringer-Cuevas, mother of a state assemblyman and wife of the New York County clerk, enjoyed $16,110 in patronage through nine appointments in Manhattan and The Bronx.
John Monteleone, named one of New York's 10 worst judges by New York magazine in 1972 for leniency toward two Mafia defendants, made $44,000 through 13 appointments by Brooklyn judges.
In the 1980s he led the campaign for higher salaries for judges.
Monteleone said he was given the appointments because he is a malpractice expert.
Michael Capanegro, a former boyfriend of singer Connie Francis who was convicted in 1977 of embezzling funds from the Communications Workers union during a strike, received $14,000 in ap-
pointments from Queens Supreme Court Judge Edwin Kassoff.
Explaining that he received the appointments because of his legal expertise, Ca-panegro said, "In my area, I'm very well qualified."
Irving "Red" Levine, a former Brooklyn judge who was removed from the bench for case-rigging and lying to the FBI, has received $35,000 worth of court assignments since 1996.
Thirteen of the 16 appointments were from Brooklyn Surrogate's Judge Michael Feinberg, for whom Levine raised money and provided advice during a bitter 1996 primary.
In Feinberg's latest financial disclosure forms, the address of his campaign head-quarters is the same as Levine's home address.
Reached at his Florida vacation home, Levine had no comment on his lucrative ap-pointments.
Harvey Greenberg, former executive assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, pocketed a tidy $119,201 -- much of it from appointments made by Feinberg, whose election campaign he helped run.
Wednesday, February 18, 1998
ABOLISH THIS PATRONAGE-PLAGUED SYSTEM
New York Post, February 18, 1998
By JACK NEWFIELD
IT'S been only two days since The Post published an expose on the Queens Surro-gate's Court, but we already have received 25 phone calls describing other horror stories from citizens who had their estates fleeced by political lawyers in the fashion of Jonathan Weinstein.
Courthouse patronage is not a victimless crime.
Its purpose is to impose party control through discretionary favors.
A young district leader like James Wrynn would not be getting $26,000 in Surro-gate's Court assignments if he stopped doing what he was told.
The underlying theme of our stories was the mentality of the clubhouse pols in Queens - the provincialism of their cynicism.
The purest expression of this mentality came just before the stories were finished. A Queens Democratic official, who knew he would be mentioned unfavorably, called me to make sure his reference had not been cut.
"I don't want the party to think I was a source for you," he explained. "If I'm criticized, too, they'll assume I wasn't cooperating with you."
This poor fellow would rather be thought of as a leech than a rat to maintain his status on Queens Boulevard.
This is the code that inspires the two people who administer the system of judicial favor-trading in Queens - Surrogate Robert Nahman and Public Administrator Mindy Trepel.
Nahman even got his job in a trade of favors.
The previous surrogate, Louis Laurino, timed his resignation in August 1991 so that it came a week after the deadline for filing primary petitions. This allowed Democ-ratic county leader Tom Manton to pick a surrogate without an election.
Nahman was a perfect fit. Every job he had ever had came through the Democratic Party clubhouse: assistant district attorney, law secretary to three different judges, Civil Court judge, Supreme Court judge.
In an interview, Nahman acknowledged working in the political campaigns of the can-didates supported by the Queens Democrats - while he was a law secretary.
In Queens, the courthouse and the clubhouse are indistinguishable. The majority De-mocrats, the minority Republicans and the Bar Association are one party.
When I told Nahman - an unusually sweet and insecure man - that most of his repeat assignments had gone to party hacks, he just said it was "a coincidence."
It was like telling Rick in "Casablanca" that "there is gambling going on in the casino."
No one had to tell Nahman to give his assignments to district leaders, the chairman of the party's law committee, Surrogate Laurino's former law secretary, his own former law secretary, Tom Manton's former chief-of-staff, the former counsel to the public administrator and 16 former judges.
This favoritism is a way of life, part of the clubhouse culture.
Of course, the 1,600 capable estate lawyers on the Queens eligibility list did not get a single appointment - they're not active in the campaigns to elect slugs who will eventually become judges.
Trepel, the public administrator, was handpicked by Nahman without benefit of a search committee or screening panel.
Her credential was that she worked for Laurino, who quit at such a convenient time so Nahman could get the job without giving the voters a say.
Trepel also inadvertently voiced the credo of the courthouse-clubhouse complex in an interview with Post reporter Maggie Haberman.
"I want to make sure," Trepel said, "that you're aware that I've been responsible about returning your phone calls. Maybe in your article you could write something nice about me."
One hand washes the other. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Don't decide anything just on the merits.
Nahman applied this philosophy to name Gerard Sweeney to be Trepel's counsel. Sweeney is Manton's former law partner and campaign treasurer - the insider's in-sider.
Sweeney's job traditionally grossed $1 million in annual fees. But nobody knows how much Sweeney has made from estates the last six years.
His compensation is not disclosed by Trepel, Nahman, the Office of Court Admini-stration or any city or state agency.
That's why it is the most prized patronage plum in Queens. It is shielded from ac-countability and disclosure. It's virtually a license to fleece.
The surrogate system can't be reformed. It has to be abolished.
The civil-service lawyers in the Corporation Counsel's Office should be handling these estates, based on genuine expertise in estates law.
What attorney Jonathan Weinstein did to the estate of Marie Gaudier should be a crime - the lawyer making four times as much money as the legal heirs.
The offices of surrogate and public administrator have no rationale to justify their existence.
They are ATMs for the favor bank owned by politicians.
By JACK NEWFIELD
IT'S been only two days since The Post published an expose on the Queens Surro-gate's Court, but we already have received 25 phone calls describing other horror stories from citizens who had their estates fleeced by political lawyers in the fashion of Jonathan Weinstein.
Courthouse patronage is not a victimless crime.
Its purpose is to impose party control through discretionary favors.
A young district leader like James Wrynn would not be getting $26,000 in Surro-gate's Court assignments if he stopped doing what he was told.
The underlying theme of our stories was the mentality of the clubhouse pols in Queens - the provincialism of their cynicism.
The purest expression of this mentality came just before the stories were finished. A Queens Democratic official, who knew he would be mentioned unfavorably, called me to make sure his reference had not been cut.
"I don't want the party to think I was a source for you," he explained. "If I'm criticized, too, they'll assume I wasn't cooperating with you."
This poor fellow would rather be thought of as a leech than a rat to maintain his status on Queens Boulevard.
This is the code that inspires the two people who administer the system of judicial favor-trading in Queens - Surrogate Robert Nahman and Public Administrator Mindy Trepel.
Nahman even got his job in a trade of favors.
The previous surrogate, Louis Laurino, timed his resignation in August 1991 so that it came a week after the deadline for filing primary petitions. This allowed Democ-ratic county leader Tom Manton to pick a surrogate without an election.
Nahman was a perfect fit. Every job he had ever had came through the Democratic Party clubhouse: assistant district attorney, law secretary to three different judges, Civil Court judge, Supreme Court judge.
In an interview, Nahman acknowledged working in the political campaigns of the can-didates supported by the Queens Democrats - while he was a law secretary.
In Queens, the courthouse and the clubhouse are indistinguishable. The majority De-mocrats, the minority Republicans and the Bar Association are one party.
When I told Nahman - an unusually sweet and insecure man - that most of his repeat assignments had gone to party hacks, he just said it was "a coincidence."
It was like telling Rick in "Casablanca" that "there is gambling going on in the casino."
No one had to tell Nahman to give his assignments to district leaders, the chairman of the party's law committee, Surrogate Laurino's former law secretary, his own former law secretary, Tom Manton's former chief-of-staff, the former counsel to the public administrator and 16 former judges.
This favoritism is a way of life, part of the clubhouse culture.
Of course, the 1,600 capable estate lawyers on the Queens eligibility list did not get a single appointment - they're not active in the campaigns to elect slugs who will eventually become judges.
Trepel, the public administrator, was handpicked by Nahman without benefit of a search committee or screening panel.
Her credential was that she worked for Laurino, who quit at such a convenient time so Nahman could get the job without giving the voters a say.
Trepel also inadvertently voiced the credo of the courthouse-clubhouse complex in an interview with Post reporter Maggie Haberman.
"I want to make sure," Trepel said, "that you're aware that I've been responsible about returning your phone calls. Maybe in your article you could write something nice about me."
One hand washes the other. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Don't decide anything just on the merits.
Nahman applied this philosophy to name Gerard Sweeney to be Trepel's counsel. Sweeney is Manton's former law partner and campaign treasurer - the insider's in-sider.
Sweeney's job traditionally grossed $1 million in annual fees. But nobody knows how much Sweeney has made from estates the last six years.
His compensation is not disclosed by Trepel, Nahman, the Office of Court Admini-stration or any city or state agency.
That's why it is the most prized patronage plum in Queens. It is shielded from ac-countability and disclosure. It's virtually a license to fleece.
The surrogate system can't be reformed. It has to be abolished.
The civil-service lawyers in the Corporation Counsel's Office should be handling these estates, based on genuine expertise in estates law.
What attorney Jonathan Weinstein did to the estate of Marie Gaudier should be a crime - the lawyer making four times as much money as the legal heirs.
The offices of surrogate and public administrator have no rationale to justify their existence.
They are ATMs for the favor bank owned by politicians.
Monday, February 16, 1998
QUEENS COURT DOLES LEGAL BUSINESS TO DEM INSIDERS
New York Post, February 16, 1998
By JACK NEWFIELD MAGGIE HABERMAN ALLEN SALKIN
The majority of lawyers appointed by Queens Surrogate's Court as guardians for widows, orphans and the disabled owe their plum jobs to party ties, cronyism and nepotism, a Post investigation has found.
Queens Surrogate Judge Robert Nahman has a court-certified list of 1,800 lawyers to choose from in appointing guardians for estates, infants and missing heirs.
But in his six years in office, he's given paid appointments to only 180 of them.
A two-month Post investigation found that the vast majority of lawyers receiving repeat Queens Surrogate's Court assignments have direct ties to the Queens Democ-ratic Party and its county leader, Rep. Thomas Manton.
Most are lawyers with interconnections and layers of past associations that amount to the political equivalent of incest.
Among them are officers of the Queens Democratic Party, district leaders, the sons and spouses of politicians, and retired judges.
"It's just a coincidence," Nahman insisted when asked about the pattern of patron-age found in his court.
Not so, said a well-known veteran Queens Boulevard lawyer, who spoke for many when he told The Post: "Queens Surrogate's Court patronage is a tight, closed club. Merit is irrelevant to these people."
He added: "They are my friends and they give me referrals, so don't use my name."
Surrogate Nahman was maneuvered into his powerful position by Manton without a pri-mary in 1991. His predecessor, Louis Laurino, resigned just after the deadline for filing primary petitions, paving the way for the Democratic Party to unanimously nominate Nahman.
Among the key findings of a Post probe were:
Frank Bolz III, chairman of the Queens Democratic Party's law committee, is the single biggest recipient of assignments from Nahman - collecting $178,050 for 47 paid guardianship appointments since 1992.
Bolz is the law partner of Queens Assemblyman Joseph Crowley's father and brother.
Lois Rosenblatt, a solo practitioner from Far Rockaway, is another front-runner in fees, receiving $127,832 for 60 paid appointments.
Rosenblatt, a member of the law committee, has a reputation as a tenacious elec-tions lawyer.
Nahman said she has "expertise" in trusts and estates. In a telephone interview, Rosenblatt acknowledged she has never published a single article on trusts or es-tate law.
Several other close Manton associates also have received large numbers of Queens Surrogate's appointments.
William Driscoll, Manton's former chief-of-staff, has collected $34,850 in fees.
Steven Denkberg, whom Manton put in a part-time patronage job at the Board of Elec-tions, has received $13,356.
Blaise Parascandola, a close Manton crony since the 1970s, has received $23,400 - plus another $4,600 from Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg.
Several of the top recipients have a number of other guardianship appointments for which they haven't been paid yet.
Mindy Trepel, former law secretary to Laurino, was named to the $75,000-a-year pub-lic administrator's post by Nahman as soon as he took over as surrogate - without benefit of a screening panel or interviews with other candidates.
"I felt she was the best qualified," Nahman said.
Trepel has used $700,000 of estate money to hire seven employees, even though it's against the regulations for Surrogate's Court, according to city audits.
The husband-and-wife team of Madaleine Egelfeld and Michael Feigenbaum has pulled in almost $190,000 in fees - with $170,000 going to Egelfeld.
Egelfield was Nahman's law secretary when he was a Civil Court judge from 1982 to 1987.
Feigenbaum, who only recently married Egelfeld, was counsel to the Queens public administrator from 1989 to 1986. He was ousted from the post after he was accused of paying kickbacks from estate fees to politically influential people.
A federal investigation into the charges was later dropped.
Nahman said he was unaware of the scandal, which was prominently reported in 1986.
"I never paid much attention to Surrogate's Court at that time," Nahman said. He added, "Mike Feigenbaum is absolutely well qualified."
Neither Egelfeld nor Feigenbaum responded to phone calls requesting interviews.
Gerard Sweeney, Manton's former law partner and campaign treasurer, is the current counsel to the public administrator - appointed by Nahman.
Sweeney's law partner, Michael Reich, is executive secretary of the Queens Democ-ratic organization and has received 27 real-estate receiverships from nine differ-ent Queens judges.
Reich is also frequently appointed the auctioneer of property by Queens Supreme Court judges.
Sweeney has said he shares a cut of his court earnings with his law partners.
Ten years ago, Manton, in a published interview, said he had forbidden Reich and Sweeney from taking government jobs because he didn't "think it looks good."
Nahman has given guardianships to four Queens Democratic district leaders: John Seminero, John Umland, Augustus Agate and James Wrynn.
He's also doled out assignments to Queens state Democratic committee members Cath-erine Glover and Dennis Cappello.
Other politicians on the receiving end from Nahman include Staten Island Democratic Party Leader Robert Gigante, $18,350; Republican State Sen. Michael Balboni of Nas-sau County, $17,700; and City Council Minority Leader Tom Ognibene of Queens, $1,750.
Adam Falk, counsel to Queens Councilman Walter McCaffrey, has been paid $11,400 in fees while presumably working full-time for the city at $42,500 per year.
Louis Laurino and his son, Louis M. Laurino, partners in a Mineola law firm, to-gether have received $117,115 in guardianships from Nahman.
Louis Laurino was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for con-flicts of interest when he was Queens surrogate.
His son was once an associate in Sweeney and Reich's law firm.
The sons of other prominent politicians also have profited from Nahman appoint-ments.
Two sons of Queens-based City Council Speaker Peter Vallone have received multiple appointments, with one, Paul A. Vallone, collecting $17,750 in fees, and the other, Peter F. Vallone Jr., collecting $18,400.
Barry Goldstein, the son of former Queens Assemblyman Ralph Goldstein, has had 21 appointments worth $16,150.
Lee Mayersohn, a city tax commissioner and the son of Queens Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn, has received $4,250.
The wives of sitting judges and politicians also have been handed prime cuts of pa-tronage.
Bonnie Cohen Gallet, wife of former Bankruptcy Judge Jeffry Gallet, received $12,052 in fees before becoming law secretary to a Queens Supreme Court judge.
Catherine Glover received $9,800. Her husband, William, is counsel to Queens County Clerk Gloria D'Amico.
Lorraine Coyle, wife of Oliver Koppell, currently a candidate for state attorney general, has collected $7,200 in fees.
Nahman has also bestowed guardianships on 16 former judges, with ex-Bronx Supreme Court Justice Jack Turret collecting $55,350, and ex-Appellate Court Judge Joseph Kunzeman, a Republican, $73,850.
Other former jurists with Nahman appointments include Milton Mollen, Ann Dufficy, John Monteleone, Stanley Harwood, Ralph Sherman and Robert Groh.
Arthur Terranova, full-time executive director of the Queens Bar Association, has garnered $23,750 in surrogates fees.
Nahman, in justifying the appointments, said Terranova is active in a law firm. But when reached by The Post, Terranova acknowledged, "I don't have a law office. I don't have any law clients. I work full-time for the bar association."
Asked to explain his Surrogate's Court guardianships, Terranova said, "It's part of a tradition. Every former director of the Queens Bar Association has gotten assign-ments like me. It's a traditional salary supplement."
By JACK NEWFIELD MAGGIE HABERMAN ALLEN SALKIN
The majority of lawyers appointed by Queens Surrogate's Court as guardians for widows, orphans and the disabled owe their plum jobs to party ties, cronyism and nepotism, a Post investigation has found.
Queens Surrogate Judge Robert Nahman has a court-certified list of 1,800 lawyers to choose from in appointing guardians for estates, infants and missing heirs.
But in his six years in office, he's given paid appointments to only 180 of them.
A two-month Post investigation found that the vast majority of lawyers receiving repeat Queens Surrogate's Court assignments have direct ties to the Queens Democ-ratic Party and its county leader, Rep. Thomas Manton.
Most are lawyers with interconnections and layers of past associations that amount to the political equivalent of incest.
Among them are officers of the Queens Democratic Party, district leaders, the sons and spouses of politicians, and retired judges.
"It's just a coincidence," Nahman insisted when asked about the pattern of patron-age found in his court.
Not so, said a well-known veteran Queens Boulevard lawyer, who spoke for many when he told The Post: "Queens Surrogate's Court patronage is a tight, closed club. Merit is irrelevant to these people."
He added: "They are my friends and they give me referrals, so don't use my name."
Surrogate Nahman was maneuvered into his powerful position by Manton without a pri-mary in 1991. His predecessor, Louis Laurino, resigned just after the deadline for filing primary petitions, paving the way for the Democratic Party to unanimously nominate Nahman.
Among the key findings of a Post probe were:
Frank Bolz III, chairman of the Queens Democratic Party's law committee, is the single biggest recipient of assignments from Nahman - collecting $178,050 for 47 paid guardianship appointments since 1992.
Bolz is the law partner of Queens Assemblyman Joseph Crowley's father and brother.
Lois Rosenblatt, a solo practitioner from Far Rockaway, is another front-runner in fees, receiving $127,832 for 60 paid appointments.
Rosenblatt, a member of the law committee, has a reputation as a tenacious elec-tions lawyer.
Nahman said she has "expertise" in trusts and estates. In a telephone interview, Rosenblatt acknowledged she has never published a single article on trusts or es-tate law.
Several other close Manton associates also have received large numbers of Queens Surrogate's appointments.
William Driscoll, Manton's former chief-of-staff, has collected $34,850 in fees.
Steven Denkberg, whom Manton put in a part-time patronage job at the Board of Elec-tions, has received $13,356.
Blaise Parascandola, a close Manton crony since the 1970s, has received $23,400 - plus another $4,600 from Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg.
Several of the top recipients have a number of other guardianship appointments for which they haven't been paid yet.
Mindy Trepel, former law secretary to Laurino, was named to the $75,000-a-year pub-lic administrator's post by Nahman as soon as he took over as surrogate - without benefit of a screening panel or interviews with other candidates.
"I felt she was the best qualified," Nahman said.
Trepel has used $700,000 of estate money to hire seven employees, even though it's against the regulations for Surrogate's Court, according to city audits.
The husband-and-wife team of Madaleine Egelfeld and Michael Feigenbaum has pulled in almost $190,000 in fees - with $170,000 going to Egelfeld.
Egelfield was Nahman's law secretary when he was a Civil Court judge from 1982 to 1987.
Feigenbaum, who only recently married Egelfeld, was counsel to the Queens public administrator from 1989 to 1986. He was ousted from the post after he was accused of paying kickbacks from estate fees to politically influential people.
A federal investigation into the charges was later dropped.
Nahman said he was unaware of the scandal, which was prominently reported in 1986.
"I never paid much attention to Surrogate's Court at that time," Nahman said. He added, "Mike Feigenbaum is absolutely well qualified."
Neither Egelfeld nor Feigenbaum responded to phone calls requesting interviews.
Gerard Sweeney, Manton's former law partner and campaign treasurer, is the current counsel to the public administrator - appointed by Nahman.
Sweeney's law partner, Michael Reich, is executive secretary of the Queens Democ-ratic organization and has received 27 real-estate receiverships from nine differ-ent Queens judges.
Reich is also frequently appointed the auctioneer of property by Queens Supreme Court judges.
Sweeney has said he shares a cut of his court earnings with his law partners.
Ten years ago, Manton, in a published interview, said he had forbidden Reich and Sweeney from taking government jobs because he didn't "think it looks good."
Nahman has given guardianships to four Queens Democratic district leaders: John Seminero, John Umland, Augustus Agate and James Wrynn.
He's also doled out assignments to Queens state Democratic committee members Cath-erine Glover and Dennis Cappello.
Other politicians on the receiving end from Nahman include Staten Island Democratic Party Leader Robert Gigante, $18,350; Republican State Sen. Michael Balboni of Nas-sau County, $17,700; and City Council Minority Leader Tom Ognibene of Queens, $1,750.
Adam Falk, counsel to Queens Councilman Walter McCaffrey, has been paid $11,400 in fees while presumably working full-time for the city at $42,500 per year.
Louis Laurino and his son, Louis M. Laurino, partners in a Mineola law firm, to-gether have received $117,115 in guardianships from Nahman.
Louis Laurino was censured by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for con-flicts of interest when he was Queens surrogate.
His son was once an associate in Sweeney and Reich's law firm.
The sons of other prominent politicians also have profited from Nahman appoint-ments.
Two sons of Queens-based City Council Speaker Peter Vallone have received multiple appointments, with one, Paul A. Vallone, collecting $17,750 in fees, and the other, Peter F. Vallone Jr., collecting $18,400.
Barry Goldstein, the son of former Queens Assemblyman Ralph Goldstein, has had 21 appointments worth $16,150.
Lee Mayersohn, a city tax commissioner and the son of Queens Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn, has received $4,250.
The wives of sitting judges and politicians also have been handed prime cuts of pa-tronage.
Bonnie Cohen Gallet, wife of former Bankruptcy Judge Jeffry Gallet, received $12,052 in fees before becoming law secretary to a Queens Supreme Court judge.
Catherine Glover received $9,800. Her husband, William, is counsel to Queens County Clerk Gloria D'Amico.
Lorraine Coyle, wife of Oliver Koppell, currently a candidate for state attorney general, has collected $7,200 in fees.
Nahman has also bestowed guardianships on 16 former judges, with ex-Bronx Supreme Court Justice Jack Turret collecting $55,350, and ex-Appellate Court Judge Joseph Kunzeman, a Republican, $73,850.
Other former jurists with Nahman appointments include Milton Mollen, Ann Dufficy, John Monteleone, Stanley Harwood, Ralph Sherman and Robert Groh.
Arthur Terranova, full-time executive director of the Queens Bar Association, has garnered $23,750 in surrogates fees.
Nahman, in justifying the appointments, said Terranova is active in a law firm. But when reached by The Post, Terranova acknowledged, "I don't have a law office. I don't have any law clients. I work full-time for the bar association."
Asked to explain his Surrogate's Court guardianships, Terranova said, "It's part of a tradition. Every former director of the Queens Bar Association has gotten assign-ments like me. It's a traditional salary supplement."
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