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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. July 2, 2004: While Mr. and Mrs. White Plains are eating hot dogs at a backyard barebecue, beaching at the Hamps, basking in the Berks, hiking in the Pokes or lounging on the Jersey Shore, celebrating the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights on America’s Birthday weekend, White Plains’ Elena Sassower, a 25-year resident of the city, founder and Coordinator of the Center for Judicial Accountability in White Plains is in jail for the next six months, and ordered to pay fines of $500 and $250 to the Victims Fund.
She has been in the District of Columbia Capital Jail since Monday. Her crime: disruption of congress.
WHITE PLAINS’ ELENA SASSOWER: Jailed for asking to speak at Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on the appointment of a Federal Judge. Photo Capture from the Center for Judicial Accountability website.
How did this happen? According to the Center for Judicial Accountability, Elena Sassower, “respectfully requested, the right to testify at a Congressional public hearing in opposition to President Bush’s appointment of Judge Richard Wesley to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, covering New York, Connecticut and Vermont. “
Citizen Arrested for Addressing a Senate Committee. Tried. Convicted. Jailed.
That hearing was on May 22, 2003. According to the Center for Judicial Accountability, Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican Senator from Georgia, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee was notified beforehand of her written request to speak at Wesley’s confirmation hearing.
However, Senator Chambliss adjourned the hearing after two hours of favorable testimony towards Judge Wesley without any inquiry by Senator Chambliss “as to whether anyone present wished to be heard. At this point, Elena Sassower rose to speak and asked,
“Mr. Chairman, there’s citizen opposition to Judge Wesley based on his documented corruption as a New York Court of Appeals Judge, May I testify?”
Off to the Dungeon With Her! Cuffed. Isolated. Not One Phone Call.
According to the CJA, “Within eight seconds, Ms. Sassower was thereupon taken out, arrested, handcuffed behind her back, incarcerated for 21 hours, during which she was held incommunicado, and criminally prosecuted for disruption of congress.”
SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS: Gavels down the Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearing on Judge Richard Wesley without asking if anyone wished to be heard. Photo Capture by WPCNR from the Senator’s Website.
In April of 2004, Ms. Sassower was tried before Judge Brian F. Holeman in District of Columbia Superior Court. The trial lasted a week before a jury and Ms. Sassower was convicted, and returned to Washington for sentencing June 1 before Judge Holeman.
When WPCNR received the news release of Ms. Sassower’s impending sentencing May 31, this reporter reviewed it and automatically assumed Ms. Sassower since she appeared not to have threatened the committee in any way, would have received probation or a fine, or a plea bargain of some sort.
I reread the news release Thursday and called to see how the case came out, and was shocked to learn Ms. Sassower had been given a sentence of six months in jail last Monday. (June 28).
The Center for Judicial Accountability calls the charges “spurious and concocted” and plans to appeal based on the trial court’s many “reversible errors.”
Malicious Prosecution?
The Center feels Ms. Sassower’s sentence is harsh because other protestors at a Senate Committee hearing were let off with no punishment whatsoever May 7 at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee who interrupted the hearing by shouting out for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to be fired and unfurled a “FIRE RUMSFELD” banner. They were not arrested, according to the CJA.
The Center in a statement views the criminal case against Ms. Sassower for “disruption of Congress” as “a vicious assault on citizens’ rights – and retaliation for its longtime public advocacy in exposing the corruption of the federal judicial selection process.”
Have We Got a Plea Bargain for You: Shut Up or Go to Jail.
WPNCR has learned that Ms. Sassower did receive a plea bargain from Judge Brian F. Holeman. But, it is a plea bargain that would essentially prevent Ms. Sassower from pursuing her profession that of watchdog on the court system.
To avoid jail time, Ms. Sassower would have had to have essentially given up her right to free speech, according to her attorney, Mark Goldstone.
In a statement released Thursday, Mr. Goldstone said,
“Judge Holeman offered Ms. Sassower a long list of unconstitutional conditions for her immediate release, which she rejected.”
Among the conditions for her release (no jail time) were:
1. Being placed on probation for two years.
2. Ceasing electronic, verbal and other communication with NY Senators Clinton and Schumer for two years.
3. To stay away from all Capitol office buildings.
4. Requiring her to report all her activities as Coordinator of the Center for Judicial Accountability for two years.
5. Do 400 hours of community service.
6. Write letters of apology to Senators Clinton and Schumer and their staffers as well as Judge Wesley (the nominee she sought to present opposition testimony).
According to Goldstone’s statement detailing the events June 28, released Thursday, “Ms. Sassower stated (after hearing the conditions to avoid jail), that the conditions exacted by the judge would infringe on her rights of free speech.”
Judge Throws Book at Her: No Stay. Go Directly to Jail.
When Judge Holeman heard Ms. Sassower’s rejection of the plea bargain, he rejected her plea for a stay, pending appeal, doubled the 90 day sentence he originally announced to the six month maximum jail time.
“Seconds later” according the CJA account, Judge Holeman bade U.S. Marshals to lock Ms. Sassower up.
Ms. Sassower now at this moment is in the DC Capital dungeon, 1901 D Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003. She may be reached at 1-202-673-8121.
“Trumped-up Charge”
Doris Sassower, Elena Sassower’s mother, also a resident of White Plains, in a statement said,
“…an innocent American woman has been condemned to prison for the next six months on a trumped-up criminal charge of Disruption of Congress. It is frightening to think that the charge of Disruption of Congress has been knowingly misapplied to a case of First Amendment protected free speech rights, with no ACT of disruption. To respectfully request to testify at a pubic hearing is not a crime in a democracy when providing legitimate opposition in the pubic interest. When legitimate dissent becomes criminalized by a politically-motivated judicial misapplication of the law, our sacrosanct First Amendment protection of free speech is no more.”
Adversary Disposed of.
Elena Sassower had filed extensive papers regarding the appointment of Judge Richard Wesley over the last year and a half with the Senate Judiciary Committee, and members of congress. She is protesting his conduct on the New York State Court of Appeals in which he ruled on a case involving what the Center for Judicial Accountability calls a “corrupt” New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. T
The CJA contends Judge Wesley failed to recuse himself from that case, and in ruling against Ms. Sassower’s position, she alleges he was rewarded by Governor Pataki with nomination to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In turn, she feels this makes him unfit to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
As of yet, Senator Hillary Clinton’s and Senator Charles Schumer’s offices have not responded to WPCNR’s request for comment on the sentencing. The CJA has also been highly critical of Senator Clinton’s and Senator Schumer’s conduct in handling judiciary appointments.
For more information on the Center for Judicial Accountability, go to their website, http://www.judgewatch.org.
