קווינס זשאזש ארויסגעווארפן
היינט איז א קווינס זשאזש געווארן ארויסגעווארפן פון קאורט פארן לאזן א גנב אוועקלויפן.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--court-judgeremove0613jun13,0,6235307.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
State's top court removes Queens judge from office
y MARK JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
June 13, 2006, 1:07 PM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A state Supreme Court justice accused of helping a suspect evade arrest in
2004 was thrown out of office Tuesday by the state's highest court.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct voted 8-2 last year to remove Justice Laura
Blackburne from the bench in Queens County after she told a court officer to escort
robbery suspect Derek Sterling out a rear door to an elevator reserved for judges and out
of sight of a detective waiting for him.
Blackburne, who took her post in 2000, appealed to the Court of Appeals, arguing for
censure _ a public scolding _ instead of removal from office. The court suspended her with
pay in December.
In a 5-2 ruling, the court said Blackburne "placed herself above the law she was sworn to
administer, thereby bringing the judiciary into disrepute and undermining public
confidence in the integrity and impartiality of her court."
Blackburne has said the detective did not have a warrant and tried to trap Sterling by
using the "ruse" that he just wanted to question him. While the detective waited in a
courthouse hallway, Sterling fled. He was caught about 12 hours later.
"By interposing herself between the defendant and the detective, (Blackburne) abandoned
her role as a neutral arbiter, and instead became an adversary of the police," the court
said of the June 10, 2004 incident. "This is completely incompatible with the proper role
of an impartial judge."
Judge George Bundy Smith, writing for the dissenters, said Blackburne has been an
"outstanding" judge who did not deserve to be fired based on a single incident.
"While it is true that judges should set high standards, it is also true that judges are
human and may err," Bundy Smith wrote. "An error in judgment by this judge, approximately
two years from retirement, should not lead to removal."
The union representing 50,000 active and retired New York City police officers welcomed
the decision.
The "Court of Appeals has done the people of New York City a great service by permanently
removing Laura Blackburne, a notorious cop-hater, from the Queens Supreme Court bench,"
said union president Patrick Lynch.
Blackburne's lawyer, Richard Godosky, didn't immediately return a call for comment.
Separately, the court ruled 7-0 against a couple from the Warren County town of Queensbury
who sought to overturn lower court decisions granting part of their land to a neighbor
under the state's adverse possession law.
Dating back to English common law, the statute allows a person to get title to land from
the actual owner simply by using the land. If someone doesn't dispute his neighbor's use
of the property, the actual owner has abandoned his rights to that land.
Paul and Denise Przybylo said a dispute in 2003 led neighbor G. Scott Walling to sue them
and win the rights to about 5,000 square feet of land between their homes. The land had
been used by Walling since 1986 and his use of it was uncontested until the Przybylos did
a survey and found it was part of their original deed.
Under New York's adverse property law, if the owner of the land doesn't claim it for 10
years, it goes to the person occupying it, even if that person knew the land wasn't his to
begin with.
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