Plea for hearing
Con to judge: Check out my new tune!
CAN A distinguished 94-year-old Brooklyn federal judge get jiggy with it?
A convicted fraudster serving eight years in federal prison at the hand of the jurist wants to find out.
Inmate John Star recently wrote poker-faced Brooklyn Federal Judge Leo Glasser to serenade him with some big news — his new single dropped.
The auspiciously named Star said he wanted to build the buzz by sharing with Glasser (photo left) “a new development in my life in that my record company have released my music single.”
“African Girl” is an auto-tune heavy midtempo R&B love song, that starts with a few chords on the harp, then launches into an electronic drum beat over which Star (photo right) intones, “You won my heart/Your beauty won me/I love you, my African girl.”
Star recorded the song a cappella over a phone in a Pennsylvania federal prison, where he’s serving time for mortgage fraud.
Lagos-based producer B Rhymszs, whose real name is Adeshina Moshood, got Star’s recording from a friend about three years ago and built the song around that, he told the Daily News in an email.
Usually, when inmates write to judges, it’s about fighting their cases or looking for leniency on upcoming sentencings.
But the 47-year-old onetime real estate broker and investor styled himself as a jailhouse marketer instead of a jailhouse lawyer.
As for Glasser, he’s heard plenty of song and dance routines from inmates.
He listened to Sammy (Bull) Gravano singing on the witness stand during the trial of Gambino family crime boss John Gotti. He saw the curtain go down on “Oddfather” Vincent (Chin) Gigante’s phony crazy act when the mobster eventually pleaded guilty to racketeering.
The vaunted jurist and WWII veteran was Brooklyn Law School’s dean before taking his seat on the bench.
The nonagenarian judge is no-nonsense, but he also has a big heart, observers say.
Star insisted he’s for real in the letter filed last Tuesday.
The inmate “vowed to remain transparent and to notify the court and the United States government of any change of circumstance in my life.”
The News asked Glasser if he’d give Star’s song a listen, but he was not about to commit himself.
“I might,” the judge said after wrapping up his case calendar earlier this week. AN 18-YEAR-OLD Queens woman was found dead in a Flushing apartment Sunday, police said.
Emily Gonzalez was unconscious and unresponsive when her mother called 911 shortly after