Wednesday, June 30, 2010

If the PBA pres. can sue, we can too

Police Benevolent Association Bob Fitzgerald filed a lawsuit against Mayor Harry Tutunjian, the City of Troy, former Corporation Council David Mitchell and a few others over a suspension handed down by the aforementioned.

Fitzgerald is asking for millions of dollars, in part, because he claims the aforementioned caused him emotional harm and a “loss of enjoyment of life" when they suspended him in 2007.
Well, we took a step back and thought about that and realized that a number of people, at one time or another have done the same to us including:
Women, state legislators, county legislators, council members, women, lawyers, town board members, school board members, lobbyists, women, governors, mayors, public relations people, women, reporters, cops, bosses, co-workers, teachers, women, gadflies, homeless, budget people, women, budget directors, flacks, secretaries, good government groups, women, athletes, bartenders, bar owners, women clerks, prosecutors, neighbors, women, social services workers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, advocates, environmentalists, authors, priests, women, alcoholics, soldiers, bible salesman, veterinarians, women high school students, college students, dogs, cats, fish and a host of others including and especially women.
So, we're suing too. And we're looking for a lawyer.

Jim Franco

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Judge should toss Bruno's conviction

The Supreme Court today didn’t strike the honest services charge as unconstitutionally vague but they did narrow its scope to only include charges of brides and kickbacks.
As near as we can tell the Supremes said that failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest does not fall under the statute.
While bribes and schemes and kickbacks and other unsavory behavior were heavily implied in the narrative outlining the indictments, a jury didn’t convict him of any of that. Bruno was convicted, in part, of failing to disclose a potential conflict of interest between his private consulting firm and his position as majority leader.
As such, we see no other option than for Judge Gary Sharpe to toss out Bruno’s conviction.
In the least - if the judge determines our legal opinion unsound - the decisions will certainly bolster Bruno’s chances on appeal, Sharpe should recognize that and allow Bruno to stay out of jail while the appeal is pending.
Any opinion could take years to work its way through the system and could actually end up back in front of the Supremes and, well, Bruno is 80...

Jim Franco