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Like helping wanted suspects escape arrest by sneaking them out the back door of her courtroom. Before that incident, she demonstrated her anti-cop bias following the 1999 episode in which Police Officer David Gonzalez was shot by a drug dealer named William Hodges. Blackburne dismissed the attempted-murder charges against Hodges on a technicality, claiming the defendant had been denied the right to a speedy trial. As Queens DA Richard Brown pointed out, many of the delays had been caused by Hodges’ lawyers. But that didn’t sway Blackburne. Officer Gonzalez (now a detective) walks with a permanent limp. Cop-shooter Hodges went free. The PBA reacted swiftly, by expressing its outrage at numerous press conferences with Officer Gonzalez and suing Hodges civilly in January 2003 in Queens Supreme Court for the shooting of Officer Gonzalez. We won that suit last November, getting a million-dollar judgment against Hodges. This assures that any funds that come into Hodges’ hands in the future will be used to satisfy the judgment. But Blackburne’s release of this violent criminal continued to have damaging repercussions for police officers. In a July 26, 2003, incident at Jamaica Hospital, Hodges shoved one police officer and bit another officer in the leg. This June 16 in Queens Supreme Court, Hodges was acquitted of a felony assault charge in that case but found guilty of three misdemeanor charges for which he faces a year in prison. Also, DA Brown is appealing Blackburne’s dismissal of the charges in the Gonzalez case, and if that appeal succeeds, we hope to see Hodges — now free on $10,000 bail while awaiting sentence in the biting incident — locked up for the maximum allowable term of 20 years. As I told the news media after Hodges’ last trial, had Blackburne not released this dangerous felon onto the streets two years ago, we would have been spared the burden of arresting him for assaulting a police officer because he would have been in jail. | Blackburne then really outdid herself on June 10 when she helped the suspect named Derek Sterling use a judges-only elevator to elude a detective who came to the courthouse to arrest him on a robbery charge. (He was later arrested in a much more dangerous street situation.) We immediately denounced Blackburne’s actions. On the very next day, we held a widely-covered press conference with the detectives and court officers’ unions where we demanded her removal from the bench and the filing of criminal charges against her for judicial misconduct and obstruction of governmental administration. The PBA then filed a formal complaint against Blackburne with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The PBA’s response produced quick results. On June 14, the state’s chief administrative judge removed Blackburne from criminal cases and reassigned her to civil court. As I said publicly at the time, I believe she should be removed from the bench completely. Many people go to civil court for justice as well as criminal court. What’s in question here is her judgment, and if she has a bias against police officers, she’ll have that bias regardless of what bench she sits on. Two days after her transfer, the 11-member Commission on Judicial Conduct announced that it would begin a formal investigation of the PBA’s complaint against Blackburne, a probe that could lead to a private warning, public admonition, public censure or removal. The commission’s process is long and secret, and an elected judge is seldom removed, but this one, in particular, lacks the judicial temperament to be on the bench. If she survives this process, we will work to ensure that, after her term expires in three years, she is never elected to any position of responsibility again. |
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This
PBA goes back a long way with Laura Blackburne. Maybe not as far
back as 1992 when, as a Dinkins administration appointee as Chairwoman
of the New York City Housing Authority, she had to leave the job
under pressure because of that extravagant pink couch she bought
for her office and other questionable spending practices. We got
involved after she became a judge and started making dangerous pro-perp
and anti-cop decisions. 