NYCBA Members Newsletter

Welcome to the April 2006 issue of our Newsletter.

President's Message:

Are your CJA or 18-b vouchers being unduly delayed? When you contact the administrative staff, are you told that the voucher has been sent to the judge on the case and has not been returned? I recently learned from a NYCBA member that one judge had not returned numerous 18-b vouchers for a considerable period of time. I have emailed the NYCBA membership asking for additional details on 18-b voucher delays. And, I will be contacting 18-b administrators about these problems and suggesting solutions, e.g. an effective "tickler/followup" system. Especially since 18-b vouchers are submitted electronically, processing delays should be reduced. Please send the details about your CJA and 18-b voucher processing problems to me at hsteinglasslaw@earthlink.net.

As discussed in the October 2005 NYCBA newsletter, there have been problems with getting timely access to clients, especially at MCC and MDC. Now, a study of these problems is being done for a presentation at NYU Law School. Please send details of problems you have encountered, or learned about, to me at hjsteinglasslaw@earthlink.net and to Inga Parsons, who is conducting the study (see below).

Please plan to attend the NYCBA "Ethics Update for Criminal Defense Lawyers" and our annual dinner on June 5, 2006, and ask your friends, colleagues, associates, suite-mates, to join us at these events; and if they are not yet NYCBA members, please suggest they join by contacting NYCBA Treasurer Michael Bachrach (see below). And, please consider suggesting to your investigators, "mitigators", etc., that the annual dinner is a very enjoyable opportunity to network with criminal defense lawyers and that our Dinner Journal is another great opportunity for them to make a statement to the criminal defense community (see below).

Annual Dinner:

As previously announced, the New York Criminal Bar Association's annual dinner will be held on June 5, 2006, at Tavern on the Green. We are honoring Gerald Shargel as the distinguished criminal defense lawyer of the year. Justice Michael Corriero will be our guest speaker. And, we will present a special award to Donna Newman and Andrew Patel for their work in defending one of the most important "terrorism" cases of our time.

As Genay Ann Leitman, Co-Chair of NYCBA's Dinner Committee, recently wrote:

"This event is renowned by the entire criminal bar community and by those who have attended in previous years as the loveliest of the season. It is truly the see and be seen party!! Our outdoor reception is unsurpassed for the breathtaking view and ambiance. The conviviality and cuisine are fabulous. Cocktails are included in the dinner price and the hors d'oeuvres are delectable, followed by dinner in the glass-enclosed Crystal Room with views of Central Park; wine is served at the table" (edited for publication).

We hope you will plan on attending this event and be part of celebrating the careers of our distinguished honorees.

Reservations may be made by sending a check made payable to the “New York Criminal Bar Association,” to Michael K. Bachrach, NYCBA Treasurer, 1040 Avenue of the Americas, 24th Floor, New York, New York, 10018 or by paying online at the NYBCA Website (nycrimbar.org). Payments may also be made by faxing or emailing your credit card authorization to (866) 328-1630 or mbach2000@yahoo.com. The cost of the annual dinner is as follows:

$150/each for Members and their non-attorney guests

$175/each for Non-Members

$1350 for a table for 10, if purchased prior to May 15, 2006.

Dinner Journal

This year, we will again have a dinner journal for our June event at Tavern on the Green. Prices are as follows:

$900 for inside front cover
$750 for back cover or inside back
$200 for a full page
$100 for a half page (the minimum size).

This is a great opportunity for you to congratulate the honorees and to make a statement to the roughly 300 lawyers, judges and guests who are expected to attend.

If you want to purchase something in the journal, please

(1) send your check or credit card authorization to Michael Bachrach, NYCBA Treasurer (see above), and

(2) send the text of your copy to Genay Leitman by fax (212) (212) 986-0384, regular mail to 245 E. 44th St., NY NY 10017, or email to galesq@aol.com at your earliest convenience and so that it arrives no later than 5/22/06. Genay's telephone number is (212) 687-4499.

If you have any questions, please contact NYCBA President Henry J. Steinglass, tel. (212) 406-7700, fax (212) 406-7702, email hjsteinglasslaw@earthlink.net.

Ethics CLE Program Coming In May 2006

In May, 2006, the NYCBA will present a CLE program entitled, "Ethics Update for Criminal Defense Lawyers." The speakers are Hal Lieberman and Maranda Fritz of Hinshaw & Culbertson. Mr. Lieberman was formerly Chief Counsel of the Departmental Disciplinary Committee (1st Department). The program will be held from 5:30-7:15 p.m. at 100 Centre St., Central Jury Room (15th floor) and will be co-sponsored by The Legal Aid Society. Please watch for the announcement of the date of this program.

Annual Dues:

As a reminder to those who have not yet paid their 2006 membership dues, annual membership runs from January 1st through December 31st each year, and as such membership payments were due to the New York Criminal Bar Association on January 1, 2006. If you have not already paid your membership dues, please do so immediately. Annual dues are $100, and for your convenience you can click on this link for a copy of our Membership Application/Renewal Form.

Congratulations To Lawrence Goldman On Completing His Service On The NYS Commission On Judicial Conduct

Lawrence Goldman, the second Past President of NYCBA (immediately after founder Hon. Robert Louis Cohen) has just completed his service on N.Y.S. Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints against judges and has the power to admonish, censure or remove a judge from office (subject to review by the N.Y. Court of Appeals) - an awesome power and responsibility. Larry was Chair for the past two years and served on the Commission for a total of 16 years, its longest-serving member. Congratulations to Larry on completing this vitally important and time-consuming public service.

Lawrence Hochheiser's Reporting Of Extortion Attempt By Complainant's Lawyer Leads To Successful Undercover
Investigation By Manhattan District Attorney's Office

The New York Law Journal's lead story on 4/21/06 reports on a case in which NYCBA Past President Lawrence Hochheiser, representing a burglary defendant, contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office about the attempt by a lawyer for the complainant to extort $100,000 in exchange for testimony favorable to Larry's client. An undercover detective then obtained tape-recorded extortionate statements by the lawyer, who accepted $75,000 in checks from the detective. The lawyer was indicted , pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (as did the complainant) and received a non-jail sentence, and - although his counsel, NYCBA members Michael Ross, stressed that the lawyer was not acting to benefit himself - was disbarred in a decision reported in the New York Law Journal on 4/21/06, pg. 6 (In the Matter of Samuel Gen).

Jail Access Problems To Be Studied

Bobbi Sternheim, CJA defense counsel representative for the S.D.N.Y., has sent us an email requesting all Members of the NYCBA to assist on a special project as follows:

"Inga Parsons is doing an article and presentation at NYU Law School on prison restrictions which have impacted attorney/interpreter/staff access to clients at prison facilities. She would like to include anecdotes about attorneys or interpreters or legal assistants having to take off clothing, change clothing or having been completely denied access to clients as a result of clothing, shoes, accessories or other problems.

Inga is focusing on the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) and the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) but is also interested in hearing issues and problems in other facilities or the lack of such issues and problems in other facilities where similar clothing was worn or articles carried without incident. The more detail the better so that she can assess whether the restrictions are uniform and whether they are being consistently enforced. The issues seems to be prevalent among women attorneys but if any men have experienced any problems that would be very helpful information as well to see if these are universal problems or whether gender makes a difference.

Please email your anecdotes and issues directly to Inga at Inga@IngaParsonsLaw.com. She can be reached by telephone as well at: office 781-581-2262; cell 781-910-1523 or by mail at: 5 Bessom Street, No. 234, Marblehead, MA 01945.

All information is very much appreciated and confidentiality is assured."

BOBBI C. STERNHEIM
212 697 4090
bcsternheim@aol.com

News From the Web

• We note three new Blogs that may be helpful to criminal defense attorneys in New York. The first is the Second Circuit Sentencing Blog - which provides "summaries and commentaries on substantive sentencing decisions in the Second Circuit." This site is particularly helpful because it covers both published and unpublished decisions from the Second Circuit as well as decisions from the district courts.
  
  The second is the Online New York Criminal Sentence Assistant which is maintained by the Law Offices of Shalley & Murray. This site provides an online guide to computing sentences in criminal cases in New York State.
  
  The third blog is Indignant Indigent - which describes itself as " A practical source for New York criminal law updates and commentary" and which focuses on new decisions from the New York State Court of Appeals and from the Appellate Division - Fourth Department.
  
  
• Our friends at www.ussguide.com have posted a copy of a Letter, dated March 28, 2006, from the U.S. Department of Justice to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit stating the Government's position that, post-Booker, a sentencing court has an obligation to advise the defendant if it is considering going above the guidelines range based on a Booker adjustment not otherwise identified in the PSR or the parties' papers. It was previously thought that such notice provisions only applied to upward departures.
  
  
• The U.S. Government's official polygraph handbook, formally called the "Federal Psychophysiological Detection of Deception Examiner Handbook," published by the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity (parent agency of the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute), and marked "For Official Use Only" is now available to the public. This 72-page booklet, in PDF format, can be downloaded by clicking here.

NYCBA Web Site Features:

Each month, we try to point out some of the latest resources that we have posted on our Website at www.nycrimbar.org/. In keeping with that tradition, we note the following items:

• On the Decisions section of our Website, we have posted the decision entitled People v. Stephen Pacer, 2006 N.Y. Slip Op. 2291 (N.Y.Ct. of Appeals, March 28, 2006), in which the Court of Appeals unanimously held that the trial court violated the defendant's rights under the Confrontation Clause, as articulated in Crawford v. Washington, when it admitted an affidavit from an employee of the Department of Motor Vehicles suggesting that the defendant knew or should have known that he was driving with a revoked license. For a more complete summary of this ruling, see "Panel Reverses Trial Court's Suppression Ruling," by Mark Fass, New York Law Journal, March 30, 2006.
  

• On the What's New section of our Website, we have posted a number of items including the following:
  
  "Statement of Kathleen M. Williams," Federal Public Defender from the S.D.Fla. to the U.S. Sentencing Commission on March 15, 2006 in which she urged the Commission to "re-examine its role and responsibility" for the "unprecedented social and juridical tragedy" that has been created by the Commission's near-rote approval of more than 680 Guideline Amendments that have dramatically increased prison sentences which are "exacting too high a cost, both in human and financial terms."
  
  "Bar Task Force Fights Waiver of Privilege," by John Caher, New York Law Journal, March 28, 2006, which starts by stating: "Addressing what it views as a serious assault on the attorney-client relationship, the New York State Bar Association yesterday called on the U.S. Sentencing Commission to abandon a policy that encourages corporate criminal defendants to waive the attorney-client and work product privileges to obtain more lenient sentences."
  
  "OCA Unveils Reform Plan for Translators," by Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal, April 10, 2006.
  
  "Those Doggone Sniffs Are Often Wrong: The Fourth Amendment Has Gone to the Dogs," by Jeffrey S. Weiner and Kimberly Homan, The Champion Magazine, April, 2006.
  
  

• On the Legal Memoranda section of our Website, we have posted an interesting article entitled "Evidence," by Prof. Michael M. Martin, that was published in the New York Law Journal on April 13, 2006. In this article, Prof. Martin discusses some of the differences between the Federal and State rules on the admission of expert opinion testimony which are caused by the fact that the New York State courts still generally follow the standards that were established in Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), while the Federal courts follow the standards articulated by the Supreme Court in the more recent Daubert/Kumho Tire line of cases.
  
  
  
  

• On the Computer Tips section of our Website, we have posted two articles of interest to attorneys:
  
  "Latest Wireless Gadgets Leap Ahead of Old Hardware," by Alan Cohen, that was published in The American Lawyer on March 17, 2006; and
  
  "Presenting Depositions a Better Way: Electronic Transcripts," by N. Kane Bennett, Esq., that was originally published in The Connecticut Law Tribune on March 30, 2006.
  

Comments and Newsletter Contributions Welcome

Comments on this and future issues of this Newsletter are most welcome, as are your own stories about cases, issues, arguments, events. etc. - whether just a sentence or a paragraph to alert us to a recent development, or a longer piece. Please send your material to Scott Tulman, Chair of the Internet and Newsletter Committee at Tel.: (212) 867-3600 or email: stulman@aol.com - or send your comments by email directly to our committee at: nycrimbar@nyc.rr.com.

Yours for a better defense,

Henry J. Steinglass
President
(212) 406-7700

Internet and Newsletter Committee:
Scott Tulman, Chair
Harvey Fishbein
Michael K. Bachrach
Peter G. Schmidt