Orange district attorney fires back at judge, sends prosecutors to traffic court

By Oliver Mackson
September 16, 2006
Times Herald-Record
Town of Wallkill � The sequel to The Great Wallkill Ticket Showdown was almost as dramatic as the original.

With state police banned by their brass from plea-bargaining tickets, county prosecutors pinch-hit for the troopers yesterday. And like the troopers, they declined the deals that have become routine in traffic trials.

But unlike last week, most of the tickets issued by troopers ended in guilty pleas yesterday.

Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips did the equivalent of sending a gun to a knife fight: Two senior prosecutors, both veterans of several murder trials, showed up at Wallkill Town Court and represented the state police in traffic trials.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office doesn't prosecute traffic tickets. But Phillips made an exception yesterday, in the wake of a statewide ban on troopers negotiating plea bargains on traffic tickets that took effect Sept. 1.

In the most dramatic response so far in New York state, Wallkill Town Justice Ray Shoemaker dismissed 70 tickets last week, saying that the troopers' new policy reduced them to witnesses instead of prosecutors.

Phillips said he decided that he had to send a message yesterday.

"I was advised by a fairly reliable source that a few other judges might have been looking at this, and may be thinking of doing the same thing," he said. "We made a point to the judge and the public and the police that we are not going to let a judge disregard the law. If we have to try every ticket in Wallkill until a higher authority resolves this, we will."

Phillips said yesterday that he'll probably decide next week whether to appeal the 70 tickets Shoemaker dismissed Sept. 8 or sue Shoemaker and ask a state Supreme Court justice to ban him from doing any more blanket ticket-tossing.

Prosecutors also brought a court reporter with them, to keep a record of the proceedings.

Shoemaker ejected her.

Why did you change your user name, John?

More importantly, how did you get your new handle to post on all of your old posts, replacing your former name?

Yea John, nobody goes by their initials anymore.

My publicist recommended a new image.

Click on the 'MyPop' hyperlink under the Post A Reply heading at the top of this page, then find the 'profile' tab, click and change the 'display name' line.

So, why were troopers negotiating their own tickets anyway? The judge seems all offended that the officers are 'mere' witnesses rather than prosecutors. Strange State.

Hey Philip, nice to meet you, albeit briefly, the other day. I tried changing my display name once, but it didn't change all the past posts as John's did.

How'd he do that?

Since it's no longer being used, does that mean I can claim it for my own user name? .

I have no idea how he got it applied retroactively. Probably bribed the administration with Shiner.

I agree. It was fun to meet you. We all headed over to 'listen' to Pelican West after Wednesday nights events, then closed down 'Coconuts' to end the evening. Next time, I'll have to be sure you come along.

rebecca gibson did the same thing and managed to make it retroactive.

quote:

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Originally posted by JMH:
Since it's no longer being used, does that mean I can claim it for my own user name? .

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I recommend that we all change our user names to some variant of John Bradley or JB. I have dibs on JB jr., and A.P. has called JB III. So JB IV is up for grabs...

See this thread for more frivolity

https://tdcaa.infopop.net/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=347098965&f=457098965&m=7271020731

See?

OK. So I'm now John Bradley. Please wait while I look for some crazy and off the wall article on the i-net to make you all wonder, "Where in the #^@$ did he find that and where in the @%#^$& does he find the time."
(Right now I'm concentrating on Willie's arrest/citatition in Lousianna for Pot and Shrooms. Please bear with me - I'm new to this and I'm a little intimidated by such a momentous task.)

Push to criminalize false info on Web

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

By MARGARET K. COLLINS
STAFF WRITER
BERGEN (NJ) COUNTY RECORDE

It's perfectly legal to take an actual child's name, put it on a Web site and destroy that child's character by creating a slimy profile.

Now, a state legislator is intent on making it a crime, not just a civil offense.

Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole, R-Wayne, has drafted a bill making it a crime to knowingly post false information about another individual on a Web site. Such a law would be privacy-based, similar to one on the books making it illegal to observe and photograph individuals in bathrooms or dressing rooms.

O'Toole acted after hearing about the defamation of a Nutley girl online.

"We're looking into what the penalties would and should be," O'Toole said of his bill. "But we are crafting a bill that is going to protect the young generation and are trying to balance that with the free speech issue."

The draft of the bill is now being reviewed by the Office of Legislative Services in Trenton. It is set to be returned to him this week and then advanced through legislative channels.


In February, someone created a phony profile of 12-year-old Monirae Hickey of Nutley on MySpace.com, posting her name, cellphone number and a photo of a provocatively dressed woman; the page said she was a stripper. As a result, the girl was barraged with phone calls.

The incident involving Hickey closely followed the death of a 14-year-old Roselle girl, possibly after a Web site meeting last winter. Combined, they spotlighted the dangers posed by Web social sites.

They also attracted the attention of Wayne Councilman Paul Margiotta, a father of two, who was outraged to find out the Nutley prank is not illegal. He initiated a Wayne Council resolution last spring calling for state criminal sanctions. O'Toole acted on that request.

"It could have been kids joking around," Margiotta says of the Nutley case. "But even so, there's got to be consequences for that. Or maybe for parents who should be policing what these kids are doing more. You think about what could have happened, and it just turns your stomach."

The state's Office of the Attorney General confirmed that Tuesday: You can seek relief by filing a defamation or harassment suit in civil court, but there are no criminal statutes in place.

"There's no specific criminal prohibition right now to address that issue," said David Wald, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

Nutley police said Tuesday they have not yet found the person who fabricated Hickey's profile, but that it was removed from the Web site and the harassing phone calls have ceased.

Nutley police Detective Lt. Steven Rogers said O'Toole's bill "would give us some teeth," but would not ultimately help catch culprits. For that, he said, legislators must give police more money and resources to investigate Internet crimes.

It's relatively easy to create a Web page, and often there are few controls in place to verify whether the information is true. As a result, there have been reports nationwide of children being sexually harassed or solicited by adults pretending to be teenagers online.

MySpace.com is one of the most popular such sites where individuals post information about themselves and message friends or strangers. The company did not return a call for comment Tuesday, but authorities say MySpace.com has made safety improvements, and its Web site says it will delete false profiles.

Wayne police Detective William Jurewicz, a school resources officer, said Tuesday that while he has seen safety improvements on social networking sites, he also has seen students abuse them.

"I've had a couple of instances where we've had to deal with 13- or 14-year-old kids posting false profiles about classmates," Jurewicz said.

And not just as a prank.

"It's vicious," he said.

Balancing Internet free speech and personal privacy is possible, says one law professor, especially in cases involving children.

"There's no constitutional right to defame somebody," Frank Askin, director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers Law School said Tuesday. "I think it could be made criminal."

Askin said he had not heard of a case charging the posting of false information about another on the Web as criminal.

He said most recent case law regarding the Internet has involved "efforts to shut down people's criticism."

For example, he said, people have sought the names of individuals who posted anonymous criticism on a Web site in order to sue them for defamation.

Margiotta, the Wayne councilman, concedes that the Internet is hard to police.

But he argues for greater controls overall, citing the death of Judy Cajuste, 14, of Roselle. Her body was found in a Newark trash bin in January, and police are pursuing the possibility she met a disguised killer through an online social networking site.

"I'm not saying we're going to catch them all," Margiotta said of predators and pranksters. "But at least if we do there is something in place."

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Originally posted by Shannon Edmonds:
Push to criminalize false info on Web

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James Buffett once said he was glad he didn't live in a trailer, I guess I'm glad I don't live in NJ.

JB jr.