JUSTICE OF PIECE
Judge targets (literally) ‘s---’ lawyer during trial
A QUIRKY BROOKLYN judge lambasted a lawyer as a “piece of s---” and hung “Wanted” posters featuring the man’s photo — then drew a bull’s eye in red ink on the face, court papers allege. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack — who has been hailed nationwide as a hero for standing up for the little guy in foreclosure cases — is in the crosshairs of lawyers trying to boot him off their case.
In papers filed in Brooklyn, lawyer John McDonough accuses Schack of the bizarre behavior and offers it as proof Schack should step down from a big-bucks civil trial against Duane Reade.
“Justice Schack has sufficiently revealed such a level of personal animus towards defendants’ counsel as to make it inappropriate for him to continue as the trial judge,” wrote lawyer Kenneth Fisher, McDonough’s partner.
The trouble started when a $100 million civil case involving a badly maimed woman, Shirly Miller, ended in a mistrial in April.
McDonough, Duane Reade’s lead lawyer, says he arrived to find the courtroom plastered with about 20 “Wanted” posters. When he asked who made them, “Justice Schack responded that the marked-up pictures were his handiwork,” papers state.
About two months later, McDonough’s partner asked the judge — outside the presence of opposing counsel — to sign trial transcripts. Schack allegedly replied, “Bull----. I’m not signing it.” Then he added, “Tell that piece of s--- McDonough he should not have made you do this,” the recusal motion states.
Schack then drew a red bull’s eye on McDonough’s photo and told the lawyer to give it to his partner “and send him his regards,” according to the motion.
Schack, a Brooklyn-born judge who was a high school history teacher before becoming a lawyer, was on vacation and did not reply to a request for comment.
“It makes him look bad, but there are two sides to every story,” a source close to him said Friday.
Miller’s lawyers also offer a somewhat different version of events, and say the legal maneuver is a bald-faced stalling tactic.
It’s “another intentional attempt to deprive my client of justice by delaying this case in hope that she will die before they have to pay her,” said Miller’s lawyer Evan Torgan.
Torgan said the “Wanted” posters were meant as a joke to mark the mistrial — something he said McDonough had been gunning for.
“(McDonough) knew that day it was a total joke,” Torgan said. “He was laughing at it.”
As for the curse words, , three lawyers who were in court when they were allegedly uttered denied hearing them, Tro- rogan’s law firm stated in court papers.
McDonough and Fisher declined to comment on the recusal mo- tion.
Miller, an Israeli woman struck by a Duane Reade truck on her 32nd birthday, was blinded, partially paralyzed and suffered brain injuries as a result of the 2008 crash in a midtown crosswalk, her lawyers said.
They have argued that the Duane Reade driver called his dispatcher, instead of an ambulance, and that employees from the retail giant were on the scene before cops.
Miller is asking for as much as $100 million to cover her past and future medical costs, according to court papers.
The trial started early this year, but after three months and numerous holdups, some jurors had to be excused, prompting a mistrial. A new trial was set for September. In another twist, Schack originally set a hearing on the motion for November — two months after the retrial was set to start. After McDonough appealed, it was bumped up to Tuesday.
The 67-year-old jurist who once worked as a lawyer for the Major League Baseball Players Association was appointed to the bench in 1999.
He’s known for defending homeowners in foreclosure cases, often penning decisions peppered with movie quotes or pop-culture references.
A year ago, he tossed out a foreclosure suit, writing that the action “in the words of Ebenezer Scrooge, is ‘bah, humbug!’ ”
While Schack has earned many admirers for his quixotic stance, a host of his anti-bank rulings have been reversed on appeal.
Still, Trogan defended him, saying, “Judge Schack is a very funny guy and there was a lot of joking (during the trial) even though the case is very serious.” He noted that Miller, who was in New York working for the Humane Society as a veterinarian when sh she was hit, has already spent $300,000 on the legal fight.
Trogan has vowed to see the case through to the end, no matter who’s the judge.
“Duane Reade Read has a lot of money and they’re just trying to outlast us,” he said.
“They will never be able to do that.”