N.Y. court agrees to televise judge's bribery trial
By The Associated Press
02.12.02
NEW YORK — A judge has decided to allow cameras into his courtroom to televise the bribery case of a Brooklyn judge, making it the first case in five years to be televised in New York City.
State Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Colabella, a Westchester judge assigned to hear the case of Judge Victor Barron, made his ruling last week in response to media requests, the New York Post reported today.
Colabella found a 50-year-old state statute barring cameras from the courtroom unconstitutional in light of the facts of the case.
"Judge Colabella felt it was a case that really deserved openness ... to ensure public trust in the judicial system," David Bookstaver, spokesman for the Office of Court Administration told the Post.
Barron, 60, pleaded not guilty Feb. 8 to soliciting $115,000 from a lawyer in exchange for signing off on a $4.9 million settlement in a civil suit. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of second-degree bribe receiving. He was ordered to return to court on May 22.
The bribery charge stems from a suit filed by a family injured by the driver of a rental car in Brooklyn in 1998. The victims included an infant who suffered permanent brain damage.
Last April, Dollar Rent A Car proposed a $4.9 million settlement, which included a $1.6 million fee for the victims' lawyer, Gary Berenholtz. By law, a judge needed to approve the settlement because it involved an infant.
Barron's lawyer, Barry Kamins, said he may appeal the camera decision, the Post said.
The status of cameras in criminal trial courts has been the cause of controversy and confusion in the state since 1997, when the state Legislature and governor allowed a 10-year-old law allowing cameras into court on an "experimental" basis to lapse.
Several state trial judges, however, have allowed cameras after ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. In 2000, an Albany judge allowed television coverage of the trial of four New York City police officers acquitted in the death of African immigrant Amadou Diallo.