The Greatest Gift During the Holidays
Base10 is happy to report that Supreme Court Justice/Jackass Laura Blackburne is to be removed from the bench. According to the NY Post,

November 25, 200--On Tuesday, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct finally threw the book at Queens Supreme Court Justice Laura Blackburne, ordering her booted from the bench.

About time.

The commission acted more than a year after Blackburne helped a drug dealer avoid arrest for robbery by ordering court officers to escort him to safety out the back door of her courtroom. (He was nabbed, 12 hours later.)

Normally, it takes more than one incident to prompt the commission to fire a judge. But, as commission administrator Robert Tembeckjian said, "There are occasions when even a single act of judicial misconduct is so egregious that removing the judge from office is warranted."

And this, he added, "is such a circumstance." It certainly is.

To be sure, Blackburne isn't the only sitting jurist who probably needs to be shown the exit. (She can petition the state Court of Appeals to reverse the ruling.) But she's only the fifth Supreme Court justice since 1978 that the commission has tapped for removal.

Still, in this case, as the commission said, Blackburne "transcended the boundaries of acceptable judicial behavior." Her flamboyance — and arrogance — left commissioners no choice.

Actually, Blackburne is probably lucky she wasn't prosecuted for obstruction of justice or official misconduct. And how she ever got to be a judge is a mystery (save for her ties to key Queens Democrats). The Queens Bar Association found her unqualified. As head of the city Housing Authority under David Dinkins, she spent hundreds of thousands on expensive foreign junkets and to throw herself an "inaugural gala."

As a judge, her conduct was (to put it mildly) bizarre. She once cleared her courtroom, declaring that "the public part of the trial is over." Another time, she dismissed charges against an accused cop-shooter and freed him without bail.

Laura Blackburne is a menace who doesn't belong anywhere in public life, let alone the bench.

Good riddance.

Don't you love it when a corrupt public official gets fired right before the holidays?

Base10 wrote about the previous incidents here, here, here, and here.

Here's some coverage in the Times, Newsday, WCBS, and WNBC.

And here's another article in the NY Post where ex-Justice/still-Jackass Laura Blackburne's attorney accuses the police of setting her up. Ha ha.
- posted by Base10 @ 3:20 PM