Politics on the Hudson

The bill that would have required manufacturers to ID bullet casings—known as “microstamping”—was pulled from consideration on Tuesday after it became clear Democrats couldn’t muster enough votes for its passage.

Police chiefs and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported the measure as way to curb crime, but three Democrats from conservative districts did not back the measure. Only one Republican, Sen. Frank Padavan of Queens, voted yes.

The measure was denounced by gun-rights supporters who believe it is too onerous and criminalizes firearms owners.

With the tenuous 32-30 advantage Democrats hold over Republicans, the vote was another sign that passage of controversial legislation is not easy in the Senate.

But despite the lack of support from fellow Democrats, the party’s state Chairman Jay Jacobs issued a statement knocking the GOP.

“By blocking commonsense gun control, Senate Republicans showed they care more about gun industry profits than the safety of their constituents,” Jacobs said. “Democrats understand what Mayor Bloomberg and law enforcement agencies across the state know from experience: linking bullets with the criminals who fired them would save lives and wouldn’t interfere with the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

Update: As readers pointed out, the post mistakenly dropped the word casings.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County, today asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to launch a criminal investigation of the search-enging giant Google for the apparent violation of a privacy law he penned several years ago.

Brodsky, a candidate to replace gubernatorial candidate Cuomo as AG, said the company’s use of WiFi technology while the company was taken photographs for Google Street View.

The Google Maps feature allows a user to see 360-degree photographs of a road or avenue.

But Brodsky said that while conducting the survey, the company was able to tap into unsecured WiFi connections and was able to store e-mails of unwitting computer users. That is a possible violation of New York’s law that prohibits the unauthorized collection of computer data.

“We spent a week on the phone with Google which we asked to understand what it was they had done,” Brodksy said. “At the end, it’s clear to me what Google did violated the law.”

In the letter to Cuomo, Brodsky wrote that his investigation “has concluded that there is a strong likelihood of a violation of the computer trespass law, and a degree of likelihood that the wiretapping and deceptive practices laws were violated.”

Brodsky said the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., could face criminal charges.

Google issued this response:

“This was a mistake, but we believe we did nothing illegal. We’re working with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns.”

Google Letter

The New York Civil Liberties Union is raising concerns about the state’s proposed expansion of the DNA database.

“There is an emerging body of research and empirical findings that raise important questions about the state’s maintenance of a rapidly expanding DNA databank: questions about inefficiency and error, about quality assurance standards and protocols, about oversight and accountability in the operation of crime labs,” the group writes in a document posted today on its website (pdf).

Gov. David Paterson submitted legislation earlier this month that would expand the DNA database to include nearly all felony convictions. Paterson said at the time that the expansion could prevent crimes from being committed, solve “cold cases” and overturn false convictions.

The measure has broad support, including Republican District Attorney Dan Donovan of Staten Island and Democratic District Attorney Kathleen Rice of Nassau County, both candidates for attorney general.

But Robert Perry, the legislative director for the NYCLU, wrote in the document “Unanswered Questions” that the fundamental flaw in the collection of DNA is that it is prone to human error.

“However, the collection and analysis of DNA evidence is a human endeavor. It is susceptible to human fallibility – and venality – and this scientific fact has not been given sufficient consideration in the debate over the size and scope of the state’s DNA databank,” Perry wrote.

If approved, the law would take affect on the first day of 2011 and cost about $1.6 million to maintain each year.

The proposed expansion of the state’s criminal DNA database has raised the concerns of the New York Civil Liberties Union that the bolstering of the 14-year-old network goes too far.

Gov. David Paterson today announced the proposed expansion, which would include all those convicted of a felony or misdemeanor criminal charge. The law would not include those convicted of minor offenses and traffic violations.

At a press conference that included two leading candidates for state attorney general—Republican Dan Donovan of Staten Island and Democrat Kathleen Rice of Nassau County—Paterson hailed the proposal as a “moral imperative.”

If approved by the state Legislature, the measure would take effect on the first day of 2011 and cost about $1.6 million to maintain, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state first began collecting DNA samples from some convicts in 1996. Today, the state database includes more than 300,000 DNA profiles.

Expanding the database to include those convicted of all criminal offenses would help prevent crimes and prevent wrongful convictions, Paterson said.

But privacy advocates argue the expansion is ill-conceived.

“There’s the fairly mundane phenomenon of mislabeling samples, crossing samples and sometimes misinterpretation of a sample,” said Bob Perry, the legislative director for the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Samples are often degraded, they’re often mixed, and it can be quite a complex understanding when looking at a sample. That can significantly compromise the DNA database.”

An independent analysis needs to be done in order to fully understand the risk of expanding the database, Perry said.

“I’m not trying to cast the existing workforce of lab technicians as somehow corrupt or inept,” he said. “I’m saying human error inevitably enters into the process. At this point we simply do not have the capacity to provide the regulatory oversight to ensure the integrity of the DNA databank.”

Here’s the bill:
Dna

Gov. David Paterson has created a task force to “examine the issues and implications arising from police-on-police shootings and confrontations, especially between on-duty and off-duty officers and between officers of different races, nationalities and ethnicities, and how to prevent such incidents in the future.”

Presumably the cases the task force will review will include that of Christopher Ridley, 23, an off-duty Mount Vernon officer who was shot as he struggled with a mugger in downtown White Plains on Jan. 25, 2008. The Journal News gave this account in a recent story of what happened: “Authorities say Ridley’s gun went off and four county police officers fired on him after he failed to respond to orders to put the gun down. A Westchester grand jury cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.” More recently, the list has included the death of New York City Police Detective Omar Edwards.

From the governor’s news release: “The Task Force will examine police-on-police shootings across the State of New York specifically examining how training, tactics, policies and procedures, technology and equipment, and sociological and psychological factors may contribute to such shootings and confrontations. Members of the Task Force will solicit the input of a broad and diverse range of contributors including law enforcement officials, community representatives, scholars and other relevant experts.

Its final report is due six months from when it begins work. Read the executive order here.

The criminal complaint filed yesterday against the governor of Illinois has sparked a lively discussion regarding which state has the most corrupt government officials.

According to the Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal publication, the answer is Louisiana.

The basis for that ranking? Their analysis of a 2006 report by the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department which can be found on the Internet at www.usdoj.gov/criminal/pin/docs/arpt-2006.pdf

The rankings, based on federal convictions, put Mississippi at No. 2 followed by Kentucky, Alabama and Ohio.

Illinois ranked No. 6.

New York was No. 10 just behind New Jersey.

This was written by Heather Senison of Gannett News Service:

   A state investigator violated suspects’ Miranda rights, ingested the narcotic Fentanyl while on duty and ran an unsafe undercover operation according to a report released today by state Inspector General Joseph Fisch. Louis Crisafi, 49, investigates illegal prescription drug distribution for the state Department of Health’s Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Manhattan.

   “This employee is clearly unfit for a law-enforcement position, having shamelessly broken the laws and rules he was hired and pledged to uphold,” Fisch said.

   The investigation into Crisafi was sparked by a New York Times article that reported he allegedly abused a police placard on a yellow Corvette he parked in Battery Park, Manhattan for more than a year. Crisafi also ran up $1,310 in parking fines on a state vehicle, Fisch’s report found.

   Crusafi, who earns $58,000 a year, is facing disciplinary action on a series of alleged abuses, such as denying two suspects their right to an attorney. Crisafi drove a state car with a loaded weapon after eating an Actiq lollipop, which contains the highly addictive anesthetic Fentanyl, according to Fisch’s report.

   Also according to the report, Crisafi sent officers on a dangerous undercover mission to investigate a drug sale they could not understand because they did not speak Spanish. Crisafi also could not verify having a GED and lied about having the required five years of experience for his job, the report said. (more…)

   This has been quite a week for the Spitzer family. Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of New York’s infamous ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, made the news yesterday for joining a New York hedge fund. Eliot Spitzer’s father, Bernard Spitzer, testified in court as a defendant in a discrimination lawsuit brought by African Americans who were fired from their jobs in a building owned by the real estate mogul.

   A Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, woman pleaded guilty today for her involvement in a high-class prostitution ring that was the downfall for Eliot Spitzer. She was a booker for Emperors Club VIP. Spitzer resigned as governor in March after it came to light that he was an active customer of Emperors Club VIP. The Dutchess County woman was the fourth and final employee charged in connection with the scandal. Prosecutors recently announced they were dropping all charges against Eliot Spitzer.

   The New York Times reported this afternoon that a congressional committee will investigate the circumstances surrounding Eliot Spitzer’s bank transactions being flagged, which led to revelations that he was a client of Emperors Club VIP. The panel will probe whether political retribution was involved. Before being elected governor in 2006, Spitzer was an aggressive state attorney general who became known as the Sheriff of Wall Street.

(Photo: Reuters)

   Judith Kaye, New York’s first woman and longest serving chief judge, will deliver her final annual State of the Judiciary report tomorrow in Albany. Kaye is stepping down Dec. 31 because she is “aging out” of the judicial system, which has a mandatory retirement age of 70.

 As leader of the state’s highest court for 15 years, Kaye has ruled on cases that put an end to the death penalty in New York and required the state to pour billions more dollars into the New York City school system. She has been unsuccessful, however, in securing pay increases for the judiciary. Lawmakers, who traditionally align their pay hikes with those of judges, have not taken up the cause. Judges’ pay has not increased since 1999. Judges have filed a lawsuit to force the Legislature into approving raises. The suit is pending.

   Kaye, a native of Sullivan County, speaks at 1 p.m. She will be at New York University to deliver her address, which will be webcast.

   A commission has been charged with vetting potential successors and recommending seven names to Gov. David Paterson by Dec. 1. The governor will announce his pick by mid-January.

(National Archives photo.)

Gannett News Service intern Heather Senison attended a court appearance today by a former state assemblyman from Plattsburgh charged with felonies this week. This is her report:

   A former state assemblyman and Parole Board member from Plattsburgh who was charged with attempting to solicit sex from minors over the Internet returned to jail today after his bail hearing was postponed.  

   It was the second day in a row that the hearing was postponed for Chris Ortloff, 61. He went back to jail after Judge Randolph Treece granted a request for an indefinite delay from Andrew Safranko, Ortloff’s lawyer. Ortloff’s first appearance in federal court was Tuesday, but U.S. Attorney Thomas Spina asked for a postponement because he was waiting for the results of “a series of search warrants,” he said.

   Ortloff was arrested about 5 p.m. Monday in a Colonie motel room, where he had allegedly arranged to meet who he believed to be 11- and 12-year-old sisters. Federal authorities said Ortloff intended to engage in sexual acts at the hotel, located in an Albany suburb. Ortloff had actually been communicating with undercover agents and was found with a video camera and sex-related items in the room, police said.  

   After court was adjourned in Albany Wednesday, Safranko said he withdrew the bail request because he received “new information from the government right at the 11^th hour” Tuesday. He declined to comment on the nature of the information.