The Delgado-Hockley Zone: Hock Does Not go for Leave for Appeal; Wants New Judge

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. January 21, 2004. UPDATED January 23, 2004  1:05 A.M. E.S.T.: Councilperson Glen Hockley’s lawyer Tom Abinanti has declined to ask for Leave for Appeal to appeal the Appellate Court ruling in Brooklyn in December that Larry Delgado’s quo warranto action had exceeded the statute of limitations to be brought. Thursday evening Jeffrey Binder, working on the case with the Attorney General’s Office for Mr. Delgado, said Judge Nicolai was on a tight timetable, and had promised that he would rule swiftly on the motions brought by Mr. Abinanti detailed in this story. Binder said Judge Nicolai had state “White Plains has waited long enough.”



THE STOLEN ELECTION 2001: Larry Delgado, center, with just-relected, Mayor Joseph Delfino, on the night he thought he was elected, November 5, 2001. The Republican faithful at the Crowne Plaza Hotel were expecting District 18 to bring Mr. Delgado home comfortably ahead of Glen Hockley, when something went wrong. Mr. Delgado has been fighting through four court decisions and a quo warranto action since that night. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.


 


In a telephone interview Thursday with WPCNR, Larry Delgado, the “phantom councilman,” who claimed  “was robbed” of a Council seat in 2001 when a voting machine jammed in District 18, costing him 103 votes which would have made him the Councilman over Mr. Hockley, spoke on where the quo warranto action brought by the Attorney General’s office is now.   Mr. Delgado brought WPCNR up to date on the case that has  meandered its legal way back and forth between White Plains, Brooklyn, and Albany for two years and two months without resolution. 


Delgado said that Mr. Abinanti has chosen not to appeal the Appellate Court ruling. Mr. Hockley, asked on several occasions by WPCNR whether he was going to appeal said he did not know what his lawyer, Mr. Abinanti was doing on the case after the Appellate Court had unanimously thrown out their statute of limitations claim in December.


 


The Case Without End.


 


Instead, the case has been returned to Judge Francis Nicolai’s Supreme Court in White Plains on December 3, 2003, Delgado recalls, where it all began in December, 2001.


 


Delgado said Mr. Abinanti has made several motions, the first of which was for Judge Nicolai to appoint another judge to consider the case.


 



BEGINNING A LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG WINDING ROAD: Larry Delgado, with Mayor Joseph Delfino, December, 2001, announcing at Republican Headquarters his claim to the Council seat. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.


 


Mr. Abinanti’s second motion on behalf of Mr. Hockley was a request dismiss a report in the Attorney General Office quo warranto brief which detailed the Attorney General’s investigation and interrogation of persons involved in the 2001 election in District 18, where the machine jammed.


 


The third procedure is that Mr. Abinanti has begun calling witnesses involved in the case who notarized documents to depose them in preparation for a jury trial. Among those called are Mr. Delgado and his wife, and other legal representatives and witnesses. Mr. Delgado characterized this as a nuisance tactic since the testimony has all been given before.


 


There is also, Delgado said, a motion by the Attorney General’s Office for a “Summary Judgment” by Judge Nicolai or any judge, Mr. Nicolai appoints to resolve the matter.


 


Stretching a Rain Delay?


 


Delgado professed anxieties to WPCNR that any rulings Nicolai or the judge he appoints, should he choose to do so, could also be appealed by the Hockley camp. Delgado said he sees the potential for stretching the case out for many months to come, perhaps to the end of the present council term Delgado says the courts have determined is his.  


 


Delgado said, “They can’t stretch this out much further, because the Appellate Court in their decision said the legislature needs to take a look at this, this has to be moved, because at the end of the expiration of the current term, the question they said is moot.”


 


Give Me My $60,000, Please.


 


Asked if he would seek full restitution of back pay, should Judge Nicolai or a subsequent judge instate Mr. Delgado to the Common Council, Delgado said he would test the full scope of the “remedy.” This would seem to indicate that Mr. Hockley would have to return the in excess of $60,000 in Councilperson salary he has received since March  of 2002 when he went on the Council. By rough estimate, Hockley has been paid about $60,000 since he was sworn in to the Common Council on March 15, 2002.


 


Asked what his legal expenses were in mounting his legal challenge for the council seat since November 2001, Mr. Delgado acknowledged it was over $10,000 and less than $50,000, but had not totaled the figure.


 


Hockley Raises Funds


 


Mr. Hockley has, within the last week, sent out another fundraising letter to cover ostensibly his legal expenses of having Mr. Abinanti carry on the fight to save his seat.


 


Mr. Delgado has obtained a copy of that letter and objects to what he characterizes as Mr. Hockley’s distorting the facts of the case in the letter in which, in Mr. Delgado’s opinion, leads the audience to believe that Mr. Delgado is challenging for the seat without cause, when Delgado says, “I was robbed of a rightful seat.”

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Parking Authority to Ask City Court to Hike Street Parking Ticket Fines July 1

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WPCNR  TRAFFIC TATTLER. By John F. Bailey. January 21, 2004: The White Plains Parking Authority Board voted Tuesday evening to authorize Executive Director Albert Moroni to seek an increase in the basic onstreet parking violation ticket in White Plains from $10 to $15 effective July 1, 2004. Mr. Moroni said he would present the case for an increase to Judge Joann Friia of the White Plains City Court which is the governing body that controls fine structures for the city.



 


 WHITE PLAINS TRAILS OTHER MUNICIPALITIES IN FINE LEVERAGE: Executive Director Albert Moroni of the White Plains Parking Authority, right, demonstrates with Deputy Director John Larson, basic on-street parking violations of other municipalities in the region. Some of the fee structures have built-in rate increases that quickly raise the ante on the ticket if not paid promptly. Moroni plans no increase in the late ticket fees for White Plains. Photo by WPCNR News


 



The Executive Director noted that increased salary costs, an expected increase in ticket collection fees by the outsource vendor which administers the ticket collection, dictated the ticket increase. Moroni said the raise in the basic street parking ticket would net an additional $900,000 a year, based on 250,000 to 270,000 Parking Tickets issued.



 


Moroni related some interesting statistics to the Parking Authority Board: White Plains issues more parking tickets than the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The last increase in the basic parking violation was in 2001, when the levy went from $5 to $10. White Plains collects on 90% of its tickets, a “phenomenal” rate, Moroni said. No rise is planned in the late payment scale.


 


Moroni also reported that the WPPA collects $4.5 Million a year in Parking Permit Fees and $4.3 to $4.4 Million in Parking Ticket Fines, for net revenues of $9 Million a year. He said the number of parking tickets had dropped recently due to a shortage of  Parking Summons Officers which are now up to full strength he said.



A CLOSER ANALYSIS: Moroni determined that judging by the basic Parking Violations (for overtime) Fines charged by nearby cities and towns, that White Plains at $10 currently is below market rates. Photo by WPCNR News.

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White Plains Roving Photographer

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WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. January 21, 2004: The Photograph of the day, the Department of Public Safety on South Lexington Avenue.



“POLICE HEADQUARTERS” Photo by The White Plains Roving Photographer.

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20 New Police Officers Sworn In. 7 to Begin Duty in 2 weeks.

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WPCNR Police Gazette. By John F. Bailey. January 20, 2004: The White Plains Department of Public Safety swore in 20 new police officers to the police department Tuesday morning, bring the department to full strength for the first time in years. Seven of the 19 new officers pictured (one was not present), are fully trained police officers, and will be going on duty after a two week orientation to White Plains, without the five month training that their twelve comrades will be undergoing at the Westchester Police Academy. Of the seven new officers, five come from the New York Police Department, one from Mount Vernon P.D. and one from the Peekskill Police Department. Four officers were promoted in a dignified and colorful ceremony on stage at the White Plains Performing Arts Center.


 


Getting the Call: Commissioner of Public Safety, Dr. Frank G. Straub administers the oath of office to the Police Department Recruits. Over 200 candidates applied for the openings. 80 persons were interviewed, and these 19 made the grade. (One new officer was not at the ceremony). Photo by WPCNR News.


 



Taking the Oath: The White Plains Police Department Class of 2004 take their oath of office. Commissioner Straub described them as representative of the city they will serve and where it’s going, noting that the 19 is the most diverse group of recruits the department has ever assembled. The new White Plains Finest are: Anthony Carelli, Jennifer Coggins, Gerard Cole, Sebastian DaCosta, Michael Dawson, John Emhardt, Morgan Finnie, James Ford, Hector Fuentes, Brian Johnson, Irene Logan, Andrew McNulty, Julio Orellana, Sheila Ortiz, Daniel Pagan, Michael Petrosino, Felix Rosado, Sean Suarez, and Jennifer Suggs. The force is now at full-strength at 210 men and women. Photo by WPCNR News.


 



“IN THE ARENA,” Commissioner Straub after administering oaths of office to four officers being promoted, paid tribute to the promotees and challenged the new recruits with his keynote address. Drawing on a quotation from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt which was on a coffee cup given him early in his law enforcement career, he said “It is not the critic that counts…” but the person “in the arena” that counts who strives to be their best. He paid tribute and urged the new recruits to join the rest of the department in that arena. Straub urged them to bring the passion and “his commitment to cause” that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exhibited, which was described at the Monday morning King Breakfast at the Slater Center. Straub left the recruits with this challenge in their new job: “It’s about the effort we make every day. It’s about failure, it’s about succeeding, it’s about going to be the best we can be for the people we serve.” Photo by WPCNR News.



“YOU’RE THE MAYOR OF WHITE PLAINS” Mayor Joseph M. Delfino addressed the new police officers and officers being promoted, saying that they more than he are the Mayor of White Plains to persons visiting White Plainsm, because how they act and perform forms an impression of the city. “I am so proud of the men and women in this department, I cannot express it in words.” He thanked the families of the new recruits, parents, spouses, ” for they can’t do this job without your support, it’s a very difficult job. Without the support of family, they cannot achieve.” Photo by WPCNR News.


 



The White Plains Police Department Ceremonial Unit strikes the colors, as White Plains Police Officer Jacques Petit sings The National Anthem a cappella.  Police Chief James Bradley is Master of Ceremonies at the podium. To the right are dignataries, Mayor Joseph Delfino, the Department of Public Safety Commissioners Straub David Chong and Charles Jennings, Fire Chief Richard Lyman, Reverend Schumacher, Eve Monroe, and Judge Jo Ann Friia. Photo by WPCNR News.

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The White Plains Roving Reporter

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WPCNR ROVING REPORTER. January 18, 2004: Presenting the White Plains Photograph of the Day. Shot on a very cold morning.



WAKE-UP CUP . DOUBLE CAPPACHINO LATTE CITY LIMITS. Photograph by the White Plains Roving Photographer. 

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The White Plains Roving Reporter

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WPCNR ROVING REPORTER. January 19, 2004: Six inches of fresh fallen snow blanketed White Plains Sunday afternoon as the best forecasts of weathercasters failed to define the snowline of a slow moving tropical low.



THE MORE IT SNOWS, TIDDLEY-POM. Photo by The White Plains Roving Reporter

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An American Value.

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WPCNR Daily Mirror. By John F. Bailey. January 19, 2004: This morning at 8 A.M. at the Slater Center, the man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be remembered. I am not that familiar with Dr. King’s life, but I do know that he, like other great men of America who have their days, Dr. King’s name stands for a value that America holds dear.


 


George Washington stands for honesty.


 


Abraham Lincoln for freedom


 


Columbus for discovery,


 


Dr. King’s name stands for Opportunity.


 


When I think of Dr. King, I think of the Selma marches, I think of Birmingham, I think of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he lead the African-American community in demonstrations asking for the right of equal opportunity in America: a seat on a bus wherever they chose; a restaurant or hotel of their choice; the right to apply for a job without being turned down because you were black. Blatant in-your-face- discrimination was publicized by Dr. King and America was shown it was not right.


 


Today, subtle discrimination denying equal opportunity, and guaranteeing less opportunity are the evils that Dr. King, had he lived would be attacking today.


 


When I write those sentences I just wrote, it seems incomprehensible to me that someone would deny another person that. When you think about it, it is an awful situation to think about. In the 36 years since Dr. King was murdered, the nation has come a long way in my opinion, in breaking down the visible barriers of racism based on creed and the color of one’s skin.


 


Today the barriers to Equal Opportunity are more subtle and just as effective.


 


Barriers still exist: in the classroom. There is reluctance to deliver quality education to the black and Hispanic populations in America today. The only reason there is a concentrated effort to do so are the state achievement tests which showed the shame of our education programs for minorities.


 


There is the perception that because your name and skin color sound Spanish or Jamaican, or Dominican, or you look that way you automatically need help and are slow-tracked into remedial classes; the inclusion of the slower (read minority) children in one corner of a classroom so you can deal with the “problem children” all at once; the notion that it is all right to use millions of dollars meant for rebuilding poor performing schools with better buildings, better teachers, but is used to create educational  bureaucracies for the politically connected instead.


 


In the last ten years the products of this subtle unequal educational opportunity have been well documented and given a name: The Achievement Gap. The educational establishment invests millions in studies to fine solutions to it and they have learned a lot about it. It takes more School District heads to stand up and say like Dr. King, “we simply are not going to educate half the population any more.” 


 


The lagging behind of the African-American youth is blamed on the home and family breakdown. Well then you have to bring more attention to the family unit and those youngsters’ home environment, putting the education in there. It’s expensive but if you want to solve the Achievement Gap you have to do that.


 


The argument that you have to speak English in the schools and learn it is obvious racial superiority. Of course you have to learn to speak English, but really, Bilingual education is how we English-speakers learn another language….why not have teachers educate Hispanic background children in their own language with English simultaneously? It is proven to work. It is time to stop the subtle prejudice that we do not want Hispanic children in our towns and schools because they are too hard to educate and will cost us money to do that. They are children, you simply cannot throw them away because they are Hispanic.


 


That’s discrimination I think Dr. Martin Luther King would find hard to take. He would also bristle at lowering standards for minorities, because he would see right through that argument, saying well when are you going to raise the standards for my people because you don’t have to work any harder at educating them if you do not raise your expectations for them.


 


I think Dr. King would look around today and appreciate how Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslims and  other races mingle together in today’s America.


 


I think he would observe we are all becoming more appreciative and respectful of each other. But, I do not think he would like today’s buzz word :”diversity” and priding ourselves on diversity. He would say that’s nice, but let’s keep our eye on the prize, to borrow the wonderful motto of the White Plains Department of Public Safety, let us treat all with integrity, professionalism, respect, and to that add opportunity.

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“Say It Ain’t So, Ro?” Rose’s Decade of Lies Gives Him a Black Plaque.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. “VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK,” By John Baseball Bailey. January 18, 2003: For a decade, Pete Rose denied he had ever bet on baseball. He scoffed at baseball evidence, vilified Bart Giamatti, refused to admit any part in gambling and conducted a self-serving, sorry-for-himself campaign against the media-maligned Bud Selig, Baseball Commissioner to get himself into the Hall of Fame. Now, the shattering of his integrity raises more troubling questions about Pete Rose than it answers.


 


 



VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK.


Pete Rose batting in Wrigley Field, 1975.


 Photo by WPCNR Sports


On ABC Television last week he admitted he bet on baseball four or five times a week. This raises the very legitimate question of how much Rose bet on baseball when he was a player. Obviously, Mr. Rose had a big-time gambling problem. The sportswriters and fans who believed Mr. Rose, and I myself was one, have been betrayed by a cheap hustler whose admission in cavalier fashion raises more questions than it answers.


Far from now making him eligible for the Hall of Fame, it is good reason for baseball to keep him out of it.


 


How many times as a player did Rose know things about the opposition and placed bets on games based on this insider knowledge, or perhaps threw meaningless, or maybe not-so-meaningless-games by his performance on the field at certain times? He will of course, deny this, but the box scores do not lie.


 


His admission on television casts a black cloud on the less-than-steller performances of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 and 1972 postseasons when Rose was a key member of that club.


 


The Reds allowed themselves to be closed out in 1972 against the Oakland A’s in 6 1-run games, in a series where the Reds were heavily favored,  games in which the Reds left gazillions of men on base against legions of Oakland pitchers. It was mystifying how a strong Oakland pitching staff consistently shut down the Reds in the clutch, especially Rose who hit .214 in that series, managing 1 homer and 2 RBIs. Rose also had a bad series in 1970 against the Baltimore Orioles, hitting only .250 with 1 double and a homer and 2 RBIs in 5 games, though in that Series, Baltimore was favored.


 


Moreover the Reds were a powerful team in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1974, losing the pennant in 1969 by 4 games in 1969; 11 games in 1972, and 4 games in 1974. A game here and there made a huge difference in whether Cincinnati won or lost a pennant. Rose has stoutly maintained he never bet on baseball up until the ABC TV interview.


 


Now we know he did bet on baseball a lot.


 


The question is did he bet a lot when he was a player? Rose was no rookie in the early 1970s when the Reds were a strong contending team. This reporter finds it hard to believe that Rose did not gamble on baseball in his playing days, as he steadfastly maintains.


 


As baseball found out in 1919, it is very easy to throw a baseball game, by not hitting, by making a crucial error. Mr. Rose played the outfield in those games against Oakland and Baltimore. Did he let singles drop in front of him? Or balls go over his head deliberately? It is horrible to even think that, isn’t it?


 


The Chicago and Cincinnati papers in 1919, even wrote columns saying “I’m forever blowing ball games, pretty balls games in the air…”


 


The video tapes of the 1972  World Series should be looked at very carefully to watch Rose’s efforts in the field and at the plate. Did he have good at-bats? Did he swing at bad pitches? 


 


 Rose was not the only Red who did not hit in those series. But, that’s the problem with a gambler in baseball, you never know. Does anyone really believe Rose when he says he just started gambling on baseball when he quit playing?


 


Are you kidding us, Pete?


 


The Reds lost the 1973 National League Championship Series to the Mets by primarily by being unable to get the Mets out due to lousy pitching. That was also the series where Rose got into a fight with Bud Harrelson the Mets Shortstop at second base, and was not suspended at all, or kicked out of the game. Did Pete have something riding on the Series? Was he trying to take himself out of the Series? How were his finances during the time he played?


 


What concerns you about a player  with a gambling problem and Pete Rose has admitted that now, is whether or not Rose might have compromised his team on the field in those close pennant races in the years I mentioned. In the years the Reds lost pennants they were heavily favored to win them.


 


Think about this:  The Reds lost the pennant in 1969 by 4 games; They lost it by 11 games in 1971, and 4 games in 1974. A game here and there made a huge difference in whether Cincinnati wins the pennant in those years.


 


Ironically, Ty Cobb, the player Rose passed by setting baseball’s all-time hit record, also performed terribly in the World Series he played in in three consecutive years. And Cobb was a known gambler.


 


It is an obvious, nasty question, which Rose will deny. But there is no way he can prove he did not. Hopefully, the ABC interviewer asked him that question, if they did not, shame on them.


 


Now that Bud Selig, the Baseball Commissioner, and his investigators have been vindicated, it is clear that Rose should not be in the Hall of Fame ever. Their decision was correct.


 


More pressing is whether Rose should be allowed to manage again. Clearly that answer has to be “No.” 


 


He will go back to doing the same thing.


 


“Say it  Ain’t so, Ro?”


 


I cannot believe you. Baseball should never again trust you.


 


If Baseball puts Rose in the Hall of Fame, he should be given a Black Plaque that notes his gambling ban.


 


Ironically, Pete Rose idol of millions of fans for years for his abilities has delivered a valuable lesson to fans, youngsters and idealistic fans that once your integrity is compromised, you can never regain it.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

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The White Plains Roving Reporter

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WPNCR WHITE PLAINS ROVING REPORTER. January 19, 2004: Here is a postcard from the new White Plains, created over the weekend. One hundred years from now perhaps the controversy will be saving the City Center from demolition.



DOWNTOWN WHITE PLAINS, 2004


Photo by The White Plains Roving Reporter.

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The White Plains Roving Reporter

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WPCNR ROVING REPORTER. January 18, 2004: Presenting the White Plains Photograph of the Day captured at White Plains High School, former J. C. Penny Estate.


 



5 Degrees, 7:15 A.M. Photo by The White Plains Roving Reporter


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