"ANOTHER ELECTED JUDGE GOES BAD"

DISGRACED SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

DA Used Bugs on 2 Judges

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

A lawyer who turned against disgraced Justice Gerald Garson was so eager to avoid jail that he secretly recorded meetings with two other judges, according to prosecutors’ records.

Paul Siminovsky, a divorce attorney who is the key witness in Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes bribery case against Garson, wore a recording device placed by Hynes’ detectives on April 16, 2003, in front of Supreme

Court Justices Virginia Yancey and Jeffrey Sunshine in divorce cases, according to records obtained by the Daily

News.

Hynes’ office said neither judge was ever a target of the corruption probe.

According to the documents, Siminovsky was arrested on Feb. 25, 2003, by detectives from Hynes’ office on bribery and other charges for allegedly fixing cases in Garson’s courtroom.

Upon arriving at Fort Hamitton Army Base for questioning, Siminovsky “asked what advantage there was for his cooperation,” according to the documents.

“Siminovsky was told that no promises were made to him, but that a range of possibilities were available from no jail time and keeping his license, through to a felony conviction with jail time,” according to a report by Hynes’ chief investigator George Terra. “Siminovsky then accepted that no promises were being made and agreed to cooperate.”

Garson is charged with misconduct and bribe-receiving for allegedly fixing cases handled by Siminovsky in exchange for cash, dinners, expensive cigars and drinks. He could face up to nine years in prison if convicted. Siminovsky has not been charged with any crime.

Siminovsky then wore secret recording devices, and prosecutors wiretapped Garson’s robing room in a bid to gather evidence against the suspended judge, who is 72.

Garson was arrested on March 12, 2003, with 10 $100 bills that prosecutors videotaped Siminovsky handing him. He was held for five hours at Fort Hamilton Army Base, according to the documents.

On April 16, 2003 - more than a month after Garson’s arrest - a Hynes investigator outfitted Siminovsky with yet another recording device: a “mono Eagle Digital recorder.”

“Siminovsky was to appear at Supreme Court located at 210 Joralemon St., before Judge Yancey and Judge Sunshine,” said the document signed by a Hynes investigator. The recording was held for “evidentiary purposes,” it said.

“Under no circumstances were Judges Sunshine and Yancey targets of this investigation, then or now,” said Jerry Schmetterer, Hynes spokesman.

But Schmetterer declined to comment further. Law enforcement sources, who asked not to be named, said Siminovsky often wore recording devices when he went to 210 Joralemon St. in case he ran into targets of the corruption probe. Prosecutors may have been targeting other court employees or professionals appointed by Garson who were under suspicion as participants in the alleged bribery scam, they said.

Subpoenas to the grand jury were also issued to at least three lawyers who appeared regularly before Garson, the records showed.

Yancey and Sunshine referred calls seeking comment to court spokesman David Bookstaver, who said, “there is still an ongoing investigation, It would be improper for any judge to comment.”

Garsons attorney, Ron Fischetti, said he was unaware of the recorded meetings with the other judges. “1m quite surprised,” he said. “Garson was arrested in March. This is April. I don’t know who he would be looking at.”

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