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Connecticut
Last-Minute Deal Averts Crisis In Judicial Branch
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING and JON LENDER The Hartford Courant
April 23, 2010
In a last-minute deal to avert a crisis in the state's courts, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the judicial branch have agreed to keep open courthouses that had been threatened with closure because of the state's budget woes.
The deal also clears the path for an important public hearing today for nine judicial nominees whose futures had been in question in a bitter budget battle involving all three branches of government: the Rell administration, the legislature, and the judicial branch.
"Judicial is ecstatic. They're very happy," said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, the longtime co-chairman of the judiciary committee. "This is what they've been asking for all along. It solves the problem. ... This is the outcome that everyone wanted."
The judicial branch now will have enough money to keep the threatened courthouses open. No courthouses have been closed yet, but some law libraries have been closed. Lawlor did not reveal all the details of the deal, saying that the agreement is sensitive and minor issues remain to be worked out.
The judiciary committee and the Democratic-controlled legislature had threatened to hold up the appointment of the nominated judges, including Rell's longtime budget director, Robert L. Genuario, and the public safety commissioner, John A. Danaher III.
Lawlor said five of the nine judicial nominees are personal friends of his, and the issue was about principle, not personalities.
"She has no control over the appointment of judges. We do," Lawlor said in an interview at the Capitol. If the deal falls apart at the last minute, Lawlor said, "They won't be appointed. Period."
That point was reinforced later Thursday by Lawlor's fellow judiciary co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D- Stamford, who said the Democrats are taking a "trust, but verify" approach with the governor's office.
Lawlor had said Rell needed to either address the judicial branch's financial problems or withdraw her nominations. If her office didn't budge, Lawlor said, the judiciary committee would perform its statutory duty to hold a confirmation hearing Friday but would also vote by Monday, its deadline, to give "unfavorable reports" on the nominees when it sent them on to the House and Senate for final votes. Then, he said, they wouldn't receive those final votes and the nominations would die.
The pressure apparently worked.
Now that Rell's office and the judicial branch have an understanding, McDonald said the Democrats plan to give the nominees "favorable reports" in the committee vote Monday. However, they also will hold up final approval in the House and Senate until after both chambers approve a budget bill implementing the terms of Thursday's deal to help the judicial branch.
That judicial budget bill would be transmitted immediately to Rell for her signature, McDonald said. Only after that would the nominees receive votes for final legislative approval, he said.
Rell's spokesman, Rich Harris, said the administration had no comment Thursday night on the latest development. Earlier Thursday, Rell said in a radio interview that she was moving ahead with the nominations.
"I am not withdrawing the judges," Rell said. "I don't have money to simply hand out because they want it" in the courts.
Rell noted that the courts have 22 openings for judges, and the nine judges she nominated represent less than half that number. Thus, the money for judges should already be in the budget, she said. "This is not new money," Rell said.
House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero said he expects that there will be 31 vacancies for judges by the end of 2010. The clash over the judges, he said, was really part of a delay tactic that has "more to do with the hope that it will be a Democratic governor to fill those vacancies."
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
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[click here] for:
US Domestic Spying and Abuse, Poster Boy?
Is John A. Danaher III a posterboy for systemic citizen and US Constitution abuse?
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http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2006/12/attn-connecticut-state-police.html
If Rockville Court, prosecutors, or the Connecticut Judicial Branch is being investigated, shouldn't Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan be investigated for this, and perjury to be reconfirmed?:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2010/03/j-kaplan-hearing-transcripts-feb-17.html
Should the State of Connecticut be shut down for this public corruption?:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2009/01/state-police-mob-hits-pay-to-play-for.html
Whoever was on the Connecticut Judiciary Committee in Dec. 1996, and every day since, is aware of the public corruption, police misconduct and brutality, and court case rigging that is common practice in the State of Connecticut. Whistle blowers face retaliation. "Big Mouths" face cops paying informants to kill in murder-for-hire plots and to beat up complainers, illegally paying out tax dollars to thugs. State Police put in for overtime not worked, committing fraud and theft, and aren't prosecuted and don't have to pay back the money when caught. Even more major defrauding of taxpayers is occurring in the Judicial Branch. Ritt Goldstein fled to Sweden seeking political asylum shortly after appearing in front of the Connecticut Judiciary Committee legislators, Dec. 1996, producing this video:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2010/03/usdoj.html
A US Marine coming home is stabbed 13 times and faced 6 months in prison for the offense of causing a disturbance. The felon on probation encouraged to murder the marine wasn't even violated on probation for attempted murder of three people!:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2007/01/beyond-ridiculous.html
Are Connecticut State Senator John A. Kissel, Rep. Michael Lawlor, and Senator McDonald, complicit in rigging the system, enriching themselves in the practice of law within the realm of the judicial branch while pretending to be legislators in the Legislative Branch?
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Judicial-Branch-Rigging-Ex-by-Steven-G-Erickson-091228-834.html
http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/
Has the Connecticut Mafia, State Police, Intelligence/Investigations, and courts been exposed for drug dealing, murder-for-hire, and investigation and court case rigging here?:
http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2010/04/bad-john.html
This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com
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