Ex-con’s the ‘fixer’ in Brooklyn court
Helped judge get elected, now . . .
A convicted fraudster spends his days in a Brooklyn courtroom steering deadbeats to lawyers in debt-collection cases that often get favorable rulings by controversial Judge Noach Dear, The Post has learned.
And the ex-con, Chaim Pinkesz, helped put the jurist on the bench, sources said.
Pinkesz, 58, acts as a messiahlike figure in his Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, holding “office hours” in his home for debtors and others who need lawyers.
Pinkesz is part of the Shmira neighborhood safety patrol, and keeps a scooter parked outside his Borough Park home where he also holds fund-raisers for political candidates and ran a charity to help single mothers.
But behind the scenes, he has been accused in court papers of threats and harassment.
Lawyer Alan Rubenstein, who is embroiled with Pinkesz in a legal dispute over a $5 million lifeinsurance policy, alleged in a letter to Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes that “these threats began literally the moment this action was commenced and occurred even in the courtroom itself. His threats ran the gamut and included threatening me with criminal prosecution, disbarment and financial ruination.”
Pinkesz, who pled guilty in 1986 to trafficking in counterfeit mer- chandise like phony Cartier watches, for which he served four months in federal prison, denied threatening Rubenstein.
In Dear’s courtroom, which handles consumer-debt matters, Pinkesz introduces defendants from the Orthodox community to lawyers.
Dear is known for routinely dismissing consumer-debt cases or forcing settlements that favor debtors over banks or collection agencies. He heard the cases for many years as a Brooklyn Civil Court judge before winning a term on the higher Supreme Court in 2015.
But Dear recently managed to get back to Civil Court on Mondays and Tuesdays, when members of the Orthodox community are frequent defendants.
On two days last month, Pinkesz darted in and out of the courtroom and was spotted at one point huddled in a hallway engaging in a lengthy conversation with a lawyer and a Hasidic defendant.
Pinkesz, who is also known as Edward or Joseph, told The Post he earned his living as an insurance agent and was a “community activist” who liked to provide moral support to those in court.
“I never take money,” he said. “If anybody offers me money, I get very, very upset.”
Lawyers can face disbarment if they share fees with non-lawyers.
Pinkesz said he knows Dear “just like everybody else knows him, from the community.”
But Pinkesz actively campaigned to win Dear his Supreme Court seat — a job that pays $194,000 annually and comes with a 14-year term — according to one Jewish leader.
Pinkesz did political work such as witnessing petition signatures for Ari Kagan, an influential Democratic district leader in Brooklyn, in an attempt to garner Kagan’s support for Dear’s judicial nomination, the source said.
In 2015, district leaders hammered out a backroom deal between Orthodox Jews backing Dear and a reformer contingent supporting Civil Court Judge Debra Silber. Under the agreement brokered by Kagan and other district leaders, each faction agreed to approve the other’s candidate, The Post previously reported.
Democratic nominees are typically assured victory in New York City once they are placed on the ballot by a nominating committee.
Pinkesz has donated $18,000 to local political campaigns and committees since 2013, including $750 to Kagan and Kagan’s Bay Democrats political committee.
Kagan said he backed Dear on his merits and did not recall if Pinkesz asked him for any support. Pinkesz claimed ignorance on any conversations with Kagan about Dear, who through a court spokesman declined to comment.