Accusations Of Judicial Corruption Bring Entire System Into Question!
A state Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn and five other men, including his former court clerk, a court officer and a divorce lawyer who frequently appeared before him, were arraigned yesterday on charges that they ran a bribery scheme to rig the outcome of divorce and child custody cases.
Based on evidence developed in the case, prosecutors said yesterday that they would be convening a grand jury to investigate corruption in the nominating of Brooklyn judges.
In the bribery case, they said, the conspiracy involved cash payoffs in the chambers of the judge, Gerald P. Garson, the former treasurer of the Brooklyn Democratic organization.
Prosecutors said it was part of a culture of corruption in the matrimonial section of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, the equivalent of county court.
But the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, said some of the evidence in the case indicated that the entire system by which State Supreme Court justices are chosen to appear on the ballot in New York City, particularly in Brooklyn, was “nothing less than a sham” run by power brokers of the local Democratic organization.
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