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An attorney with close ties to one of Mayor Eric Adams’ top aides announced earlier that the judge he fought against would not be reappointed by the mayor, a friend of the attorney told the city.
Attorney Arthur Aidala represented disgraced entertainment producer Harvey Weinstein in his sexual assault trial in Manhattan before Judge James Burke, and tried to get Burke dismissed from the case.
Aidala is a close friend and longtime friend of Adams’ chief of staff, Frank Carone, who is also involved in the mayor’s decision to appoint criminal and family court judges on the recommendation. of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary (MACJ). . One of the MACJ members was a partner at Abrams Fensterman, Carone’s law firm before he became chief of staff.
Burke’s term was up at the end of the year, and he applied for reappointment, but in mid-October MACJ informed him that he didn’t make the cut. That decision was not made public.
Burke’s failure to be nominated again is highly unusual. Burke and another judge, Charlotte Davidson, are the only two criminal court judges MACJ has not ordered to reappoint the 15 whose terms expire this year.
Indications that Aidala may soon be numbering Burke’s days on the bench came from Craig Rothfeld, a “prison counselor” who advises Weinstein on how to navigate life in prison. behind bars while Weinstein serves his New York trial and continues to face trial. in Los Angeles.
Rothfeld said he was brought to the Weinstein case by Aidala, who shared a statement when news broke that Weinstein had tested positive for COVID-19. Last week when a City reporter asked about MACJ’s announcement of MACJ’s decision not to recommend Burke for reappointment, Rothfeld replied, “I knew it was coming.”
Asked how he knew, he replied. “Because of my relationship with Arthur and his agency. They knew it was coming. When asked how smart Aidala was, he replied, “How smart do you think he is? Carone told him.
Rothfeld explained that he and Aidala learned about the decision before it was made public, first by the New York Law Journal – which did not mention Aidala or his ties to Carone – or by THE CITY, which wrote the following. relationship.
Through a spokeswoman for Adams, Carone declined to comment on the MACJ decision against Aidala.
“No one in the mayor’s office or the MACJ disclosed directly or indirectly to any outside party prior to MACJ’s publication in the New York Law Journal,” said a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. Jonah Allon. Furthermore, as previously stated, no one in the mayor’s office responded to Judge Burke, nor did they participate in or influence MACJ’s decision regarding the reappointment of Judge Burke.”
Aidala did not respond to multiple requests for comment from THE CITY, and the mayor declined to release MACJ’s letter to Burke, with Adams spokesman Maxwell Young saying the document was “not the people.”
Burke did not respond to THE CITY’s multiple requests for comment last week. Davidson agreed to make a statement on behalf of the courts.
On Monday, Adams announced the appointment of a new executive director of his judicial advisory board, Ayanna Sorett, a former Manhattan prosecutor and most recently a senior fellow at Columbia University for the Law
Adams said the designated areas he said were caused by an epidemic. Court officials say there are 10 vacancies on Family Court — including four new positions — and three on Criminal Court.
“Establishing competent judges in our courts is important to reduce the number of cases that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and stop one of the rivers that feed the sea of crime,” Adams said in prepared remarks.
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