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Books Anyone? Recent UpdatesMay 09, 2007 May 09, 2007 April 13, 2007 March 21, 2007 March 15, 2007 ArchivesChaos In Norwalk Not Racial Attack
Posted by: Norman Pattis There is something rotten in Norwalk Superior Court. There has been for years. But what's rotten is not the racial biases of the judges presiding there. No, what is rotten in the city of Norwalk was rotten long before the new judges arrived. At an extraordinary gathering last week, Chief Court Administrator William Lavery met with representatives of the NAACP, lawmakers, private counsel, the Office of the Chief State's Attorney and the Office of the Chief Public Defender. The topic? Allegations of racial insensitivity by Superior Court Judges Susan Reynolds and Barbara Bellis. The allegations against these judges are irresponsible. But what is even more shocking is Lavery's response: This week he plans to meet with Bellis, Reynolds, an NAACP representative and others to discuss the perception that the judges are insensitive to questions of race. This is pure silliness. Norwalk Superior Court has been a jurisprudential cesspool for years. What's rotten is not the jurists, but the state's attorney's office, which has been run as a hate-filled, semi-feudal domain for years. Civility is a word foreign to the prosecutor's office. Defense counsel are routinely left waiting to meet with prosecutors. Favorites are treated well. Unpopular lawyers wait sometimes for hours to have cases called. Not long ago, one firm complained that prosecutors were singling out their cases for poor treatment. What's wrong in Norwalk is self-evident. The state's attorney's office is out of control. No one cares to step on the feudal prerogatives of Robert Hall, who struts the halls like a casting reject from a high school production of West Side Story: attitude and little else. Judges Bellis and Reynolds had the misfortune of being assigned to Norwalk and thinking they could move their docket. The result has been something akin to chaos. But it has not been racially inspired chaos. Here's how the game used to be played in Norwalk before the judges arrived. The state made unreasonable offers and demands on files. Defense counsel took the issues to judges, who undercut the state or otherwise softened the state's blows. Strong judges were able to ride herd on stone-age prosecutors. Apparently, Reynolds and Bellis have been too quick to endorse the state's offers and requests. The result has been harsher sentences and orders invidious to defendants. As it happens, the bulk of defendants in any big-city criminal court are persons of color. As a result, persons of color have been hurt. But it is irresponsible to claim that Reynolds and Bellis are racists. That's cheap rhetoric that masks what is really going on. The courthouse is a rotten borough. State's Attorney David Cohen, who allegedly supervises the courthouse from Stamford, takes little interest in what goes on there. Is he afraid to lead?Judge Lavery talks a mean game about the independence of the judiciary. But along comes a gaggle of folks slinging cheap and easy rhetoric and he picks up the hem of his robe and runs. There should be no meeting with Bellis and Reynolds. No case or controversy requires it. It demeans the independence of the judiciary.Calling the new judges in town racists and then inviting them to a sensitivity session merely wastes time. The real problem in Norwalk is not about race. It is a prosecutor's office over which no one is willing to exercise effective oversight. The issue in Norwalk is the pride and meanness of a prosecutor's office that has for years been the shame of the state. Reprinted with permission of the Connecticut Law Tribune. March 12, 2007. |
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