A Money Tree Totters in Brooklyn
By Henry J. Stern

June 19, 2003

    In the 1940's a radio commentator named Gabriel Heatter (1890-1972) on WOR, I believe, started many of his nightly newscasts with the phrase: "There's good news tonight."  Heatter is largely forgotten today, but was important in his day, not as big as Walter Winchell, but a significant figure in what we now call early radio.  You can read a bit more about Heatter, if you are curious.

    The reason I begin this way is that there is good news today.  The corrupt Brooklyn Democratic machine is tottering.  The parade of honest whistle-blowers grew this week with 89-year old retired Judge Thomas Jones' story.  Read in particular what Meade Esposito said to Jones.  Today Ruth Messinger told about the attempted shakedown of her campaign.   In 1997, it was Mark Green's turn to be shaken down, and he paid off the Brooklyn Democracy with $245,000, which is largely unaccounted for.

    The Daily News, the Post, and Newsday have been very good on this issue.  The drumbeat began with repeated News editorials on the judge factory, which had produced a number of crooks, a few of whom have so far been found out, beginning with former Judge Victor Barron, now in prison for soliciting and receiving bribes.  I suggest that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes grant immunity from prosecution to lawyers, or retired lawyers, who have information about corrupt judges. This would encourage people to speak without fear.  I trust that those judges who are vulnerable to exposure are shaking in their robes.

    I will use no stronger word than 'shaking', because, on January 4, 1966, Michael J. Quill, leader of the Transport Workers Union, said of Judge Abraham N. Geller, who had granted the city's request for an injunction to forbid the strike, "The judge can drop dead in his black robes.  We will not call off the strike, we will defy the injunction and go to jail."  Two hours later, in the Civil Jail, Quill collapsed and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition, later diagnosed as congestive heart failure.  He died on January 28, 1966, at the age of 60, in his apartment at 15 West 72nd Street, of a massive heart attack.  A new bus depot on West 41st Street in Manhattan is named in Quill’s honor, and I see his smiling face every morning because the buses on the M-86 route are garaged there

    For many years, District Attorney Hynes has received deserved criticism for his apparent lack of interest in official corruption.  He seemed apathetic to problems in this area. Indeed, when his patron, Borough President Howard Golden, was driven from office by term limits, Hynes hired him for a made-up seldom-show job at a six-figure salary which lasted until the farce became too embarrassing to continue.

    What I suspect helped to change the DA from a passive observer into a fighter against judicial corruption is, in part, that someone came to his office with a complaint who was willing to wear a wire.  Although he might not initiate investigations himself, the DA and his staff were not so out of touch that they would ignore specific information about criminal conduct which was handed to them.  The Barron case opened the window into the Brooklyn judiciary and now that the chase is on, more people are coming forward with stories of extortion by Brooklyn boss Clarence Norman, his confederates and co-conspirators.

    As luck would have it, the very first article I wrote for New York Civic, on March 21, 2002, was titled "A Money Tree Grows in Brooklyn."  You can find it on our home page or by clicking Tree.  Nine days later, my second article dealt with the corruption of Councilmember Angel Rodriguez, who had been Clarence Norman's candidate for Speaker of the Council.  The title was "He's No Angel"  and on April 5, I followed up with "Angel's Veto Power", inquiring why a single member should be able to hold the Council hostage on a land use matter in his district.  I was back in Brooklyn on October 3, when I wrote "The Road to the Robe", about the way to become a judge in Brooklyn..
 
    We close with the timeless, and relevant to Brooklyn, words of the great Winston Churchill, spoken at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon at Mansion House in London on November 10, 1942:  " This is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Henry J. Stern is the director of NYCivic.