NY judge Luis Gonzalez turned his Appellate Division court into a patronage mill — state Commission on Judicial Conduct gives him a pass

From the Daily News: “When an early-retirement program produced 25 administrative openings, almost every one went to buddies and kinfolk. [Judge] Gonzalez okayed a half-dozen well-paying jobs for people who had family ties to his chamber, never mind that some lacked the published qualifications for the posts. . . .

“Gonzalez managed or enabled all this by dismantling a reformed hiring process put in place by his predecessor. Under that system, job openings were publicly posted for the first time. A panel of senior career employees passed on the qualifications of applicants. Gonzalez dropped the listings and the panel.”

In addition, the New York Law Journal wrote that Gonzales “had simultaneously claimed two primary residences, including a rent-stabilized apartment in the Bronx, benefiting from both the tax advantages of home ownership and the advantages of rent stabilization.”

They can all Bite Me: Gonzalez for being a pig. Governor George Pataki for putting him on the Appellate Division, First Department bench. Governor David Paterson for elevating him to Presiding Justice. And the Commission on Judicial Conduct for letting him get away with it.

Luiz Gonzalez turned his high court into a patronage den – NY Daily News. Brought to our attention by The Flacks Report.

John Haggerty legal defense fund

John Haggerty, convicted of stealing $1,000,000 of the money that Bloomberg was laundering through the Independence Party, now has a legal defense fund. The Daily News notes that it was set up by a group of ex-Pataki aides.

But the News forgot that they had written back in 2010Haggerty did not register Special Elections Operations [the front that Haggerty funneled the money through] with the state Secretary of State’s Office until Dec. 3 — a full month after the general election. The operation shares an address with an Albany consulting firm run by former Pataki administration aides.[Emphasis added]

How this all fits together is beyond me. But the connection between Haggerty and those Pataki aides is pretty clear.

Ex-Pataki Aides Team Up For John Haggerty | New York Daily News.