Note: This article contains 1528 words and is being e-mailed to you late Friday afternoon.  You are invited to print it out and read it at your convenience over the weekend.  If you do not get it until Monday, print it for your evening commute .

 Henry J. Stern
 August 3, 2007

The Minnesota bridge collapse has driven the Albany surveillance scandal and the Queen of Child Abuse off the front pages.  This shows that the best outcome following accusations of misconduct is the passage of time.  Other mishaps will take place, and less attention will be paid as older traumas recede into history.  Rule 19-T: Time heals most wounds. (But not all.)
 
Of course people and agencies will do their best to pick at the scab left by unfortunate events. New players have an interest in inserting themselves into notable controversies.  The best example of this behavior is New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who said he had solved the Kennedy assassination.
 
Here there are a number of institutional predators, circling the battlefield and open for business.  Albany County District Attorney David Soares is fresh from what he considers his Hevesi triumph, and hankering for more ink. Senator George Winner of Elmira, (the last residence and burial site of Mark Twain), chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations.  He can bring Republican apparatchiks to the hunt, but may face State constitutional obstacles.

Two other figures must be more careful:  Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may wish Spitzer to be rendered hors de combat, but cannot afford to be seen as the instrument of destruction because that would compromise his own ambitions, (Is it fair to accuse someone of inappropriate ambition if all he wants is his father's old job?) (What about Dubya?) Former Fordham Law School Dean John D. Ferrick, whom Spitzer appointed to head the State Ethics Commission in April, cannot be a happy camper if his first big case is against the man who gave him the job.

With this posse in pursuit, or at least watching the action, the governor's task is basically to avoid the perjury trap. Although Spitzer insists that he is telling the truth that he knew nothing of the Bruno conspiracy, that claim flies in the face of normal political behavior.  On the other hand, even if he did know, that is no big deal - not comparable to the serious crimes of which Senator Bruno is accused. No one was killed or injured here, nothing was stolen except maybe a copter ride..

The perjury trap snaps if the hunted says something under oath that is contradicted by another sworn witness.  It is then up to  the prosecutor, or a grand jury that he summons, to decide who is telling the truth.  Years ago, a good friend of mine was testifying before such a commission.  When certain questions were asked, his able lawyer would touch the witness' knee and whisper, "perjury question".  That stopped the witness from guessing when he was asked certain questions.  If you aren't sure, say so.  After all, one can't remember everything. Some people remember very little.

If the grand jury or the prosecutor conclude that the target of their investigation has misled them, the defendant will be indicted, (merely an accusation, the presumption of innocence governs until conviction, except in the media) and the case will go to trial before a judge, or a petit jury if the defendant so requests.  On conviction of a felony (and perjury is a felony), the defendant automatically forfeits his public office in New York State.  Still there are long and laborious steps that must be taken before a conviction is obtained, and the defendant need only win once to abort the proceedings.  

What public figure, however, wants to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and having to convince twelve strangers that he told the truth every time he spoke, while facing the possibility that a former employee may turn on him as part of a plea bargain.  A strong weapon for prosecutors is the intimidation of lesser defendants, persuading them to become state's evidence.  Small fry may also be intimidated into telling the truth.  Anything can happen at trial.
 
It was Humphrey Bogart who said he came to Casablanca to take the waters.  When told that there were no waters in Casablanca, Bogart said: "I was misinformed."  Perjury requires an intent to deceive, and honest error should not lead to indictment or conviction, but throughout history, some people have been bitten by the urge to prosecute. Torquemada, grand inquisitor of Spain, and Savonarola, his Italian counterpart, both  met their Maker in 1498, the Spaniard by natural causes, the Italian by hanging and burning at the stake, after three days on the rack in the Piazza della Signoria in Fiorenze.

We recall  the Salem witch trials of 1692, the Scottsboro boys in the 1930's, the California day care accusations (repeated in other states), overzealous federal and state prosecutors, etc.  Not everyone who is prosecuted is guilty, although it is true that a large majority of defendants today are wrongdoers.  More guilty people escape punishment than innocents are falsely convicted, although reading or watching the media or listening to prisoners could convince one that the opposite is true.
 
The best article I read recently on the travails in Albany comes from a blogger who calls himself  PeeWee, who writes for Room Eight.  That is a website about New York City affairs whose name is a take-off on Room Nine, which is the City Hall pressroom.  Few people know that the rooms in City Hall were numbered many years ago, the bullpen on the second floor, for example, is Room 16, the former Board of Estimate chamber.  Whoever he may be, PeeWee is worth reading, but you can skip the cantata that precedes his substantive essay.
 
The Post keeps the Florida child abuse scandal alive today by printing, on p18, an interview with the biological son of the alleged child-abuser.  ADOPTION MOM  'NO MEANIE'.  Bio Son's Defense, by Leonard Greene and Lorena Mongelli.  Simply put, he loves his mother. The son, Eddie, appeared on WCBS- TV, although he was not mentioned by name.
 
The Post fans the flames of its Spitzer crusade with a story at the top of p2 by State Editor Fredric U. Dicker, DISGRACED SPITZER CRONY LAWYERS UP.  In this headline, the word 'lawyers' is used as a verb, and the word 'disgraced' is conclusory.  Another story related to Coptergate is reported in the Times, on B3, by Danny Hakim, but you would hardly think the two men have the same view of events. The Times' headline is SUSPENDED SPITZER ASSISTANT IS BLAMELESS, HIS LAWYER SAYS.  The story includes a large picture of Mr. Dopp and another Spitzer aide, Francine James, whose appointment was announced on the same day last December.
 
Hakim's lede: "Darren Dopp, the top aide to Gov. Eliot Spitzer who was at the center of an effort to tarnish Mr. Spitzer's chief political rival, emerged on Thursday as his lawyer lashed out at Republicans and accused Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of rushing to judgment."
 
Both the Times and the Post published what might be called a companion story on the same page as they ran the the Dopp article.  The Times: COURT RULES AGAINST AN ALLY OF BRUNO. The lede: "A state appellate court ruled on Thursday that a lobbyist investigated over a private flight provided to the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, must comply with a subpoena he fought."  The Post relies on the same AP story, using just three paragraphs under the headline, BRUNO FLIGHT SUBPOENA STICKS.  There is a head shot of the Senator.
 
An editorial in today's News deals with Bruno's misconduct, much of which has been lost sight of in the pursuit of Spitzer. Under the headline, WHAT GOES AROUND ..., the editorial begins: "Considering Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's incessant charges that Governor Spitzer is hiding dark misdeeds, it was delicious that an appeals court issued a reminder yesterday that a Bruno pal is stonewalling an investigation into who paid for the senator to fly on a private jet.  The case has to do with Jared Abbruzzese, who has had financial, political and personal relationships with Bruno. ..." The rest of the editorial explains the facts of the case.

Throughout my years in politics, I have found that, more often than not, crooks are more charming and have better social skills than reformers, who tend to sanctimony, self-righteousness, and an ineffable air of their own moral and intellectual superiority, which they do not hesitate to express to others.  

We cite Rule 2 - "Stereotypes are often true, that's why they became stereotypes."  That is not always the case, and the Rule should never be a basis for conclusions as to guilt or innocence, and truth or falsehood. It is a shame that this observation must be made, but I owe my readers candor for their pains in going this far.  Wiser heads than mine will have  to figure out why this is so, but I have named the phenomenon: "The Arrogance of Rectitude".  You fill in the dots..

Enjoy the weekend. Stay out of the heat unless you are at the beach; and in that case use plenty of sunscreen. If you do not receive or read this until Monday or later, I hope that you had a good time and were not burned.
                                                                                                        

#399  8.3.07   1528wds