By Sarina Trangle
A judge struck down a pregnant lawyer’s bid to delay the corruption trial of former Queens GOP leader Vincent Tabone and state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis), propelling the case back to the issue that initially derailed it — Yiddish.
White Plains Federal Court Judge Kenneth Karas dismissed Deborah Misir’s request to adjourn the court proceedings for Tabone, her client, until September. She sought the delay because of what she and her doctor described as a high-risk pregnancy and planned maternity leave.
But prosecutors successfully convinced the judge last week that Tabone’s right to an attorney of his choice did not outweigh Smith’s right to a speedy trial. They also prevailed on their point that splitting the two trials would impede the government’s case.
Misir’s firm called the decision disappointing.
“We believe the U.S. government should comply with the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, and provide reasonable accommodation to women who have high-risk pregnancies,” Lally & Misir, LLP said in a statement. “As a result of this decision, Mr. Tabone will be deprived of his choice of counsel at retrial, which involves charges never before prosecuted by the U.S. government, namely the use of the federal honest services statute to prosecute political volunteers for ‘disloyalty’ to their political party.”
Lally & Misir is a Nassau firm led byMisir and her husband Grant Lally, a Republican who lost his bid earlier this month to unseat U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Great Neck).
Karas’ decision gives Tabone about six weeks to decide whether Leo Ahern, who was retained by Lally & Misir as co-counsel, will take over his case and whether he wants to hire other attorneys.
It was unclear who would represent Tabone.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Jan. 5 in what federal prosecutors have branded as an elaborate ploy by Smith to bribe his way onto the GOP ticket in the 2013 mayoral election.
As a registered Democrat, the senator needed at least three of five county GOP parties to approve of his running on their line.
Prosecutors contend Smith routed about $500,000 in state funding to a sham upstate project in exchange for its recipients agreeing to pony up money for his suspected bribes.
Tabone is charged with pocketing one of these alleged bribes — a $25,000 payment — while acting as the day-to-day leader of the Queens Republican Party when its chairman, Phil Ragusa, was battling the leukemia that ultimately claimed his life.
Lawyers for both have maintained their innocence.
A jury previously found Bayside’s former GOP Councilman Daniel Halloran guilty of brokering Smith’s deals and accepting kickbacks.
Halloran’s case was severed from Smith’s and Tabone’s in June. Their attorneys successfully sought mistrials because prosecutors did not release hours of conversation and text messages in Yiddish from a wiretap on a cooperating witness’s phone ahead of the trial.
Discussion about Yiddish has resumed a place in the case as attorneys prep for jury selection.
Gerald Shargel, Smith’s attorney, filed a model questionnaire that he suggested be used to screen potential jurors. The 63-question document asks whether respondents rent or own their home, whether they believe politicians tend to be dishonest and whether they speak, read or understand Yiddish.
Shargel said Yiddish speakers could pose a problem if they brought their own understanding of translated tapes into the juror’s deliberations, while comparing this to an attorney sitting on a jury.
“A lawyer is sometimes chosen as a juror. And the lawyer is not supposed to go back into the jurors’ room and say, ‘Well, I am a lawyer, so I can tell you more about the instructions,’” he said.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4546.
