Namm - A whistleblowers lament : the perverted pursuit of justice in the state of New York

The Perverted Pursuit of Justice in the State of New York

JUDGE STUART NAMM (RET.)

A WHISTLEBLOWERS LAMENT

2014 Stuart Namm

Published by Hellgate Press

(An imprint of L&R Publishing, LLC)

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Hellgate Press

PO Box 3531

Ashland, OR 97520

email: sales@hellgatepress.com

Editor: Harley B. Patrick

Cover design: L. Redding

Cover photo courtesy of Newsday

e-Book edition: April 2014. ISBN: 978-1-55571-741-4

The tragedy of A Whistleblowers Lament is that it is not a book of fiction, but a book of pain, suffering and the disturbing truth about the Suffolk County Criminal Justice System. This book is a must read for everyone, especially those who doubt the stories about Suffolk County. Judge Namm deserves another award for his courage in exposing injustice.Marty Tankleff, released after 17-1/2 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, but by others who go unprosecuted!

For years there had been rumors of corruption in the highest echelons of the Suffolk County (N.Y.) District Attorneys office and the Homicide Squad of the county police department. But it took one insider Judge Stuart Namm to go public for any serious investigation to be launched. This is a story that had to be told; now, Namm has done just that.

He masterfully interweaves information from his own trial notes, court records, newspaper articles, and the reports of investigative agencies into a comprehensive and highly nuanced history of the earliest attempts to investigate and root out this corruption. It also offers remarkable insight into the mind of a whistleblower. This is a very important book for anyone interested in politics, criminal justice, public corruption, or the future of Suffolk County itself. Remarkably, at the same time it is also a fast-moving and suspenseful narrative that reads like a smart whodunit.

Namms message is that in order to get corruption out of the justice system, we must get politics out of the courthouse. Whether there has been any fundamental, lasting improvement at all in the Suffolk County criminal justice system since the 1980s is a matter of some debate; what we do know, however, is that no reform seemed possible until Stuart Namm spoke out. He started it all; and, for that, we owe him a huge debt. His story is fascinating, and we fail to read it and heed its lessons at our own peril.Peter Davis, Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Procedure, Touro Law School

Judge Namm gives a riveting account of how in the 1980s he became a whistleblower exposing problems in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases in Suffolk County, New York.Carolyn Colwell, former Newsday reporter

Namms accounts of his career is gripping and shockingA candid and frightening account of the consequences of confronting an entrenched criminal justice establishment from within.Paul Gianelli, Esq., prominent defense attorney

It is difficult to comprehend the extent of corruption that ran rampant in the Suffolk County Police Department and District Attorneys office in the 1980s. Judge Namms first-hand account of his transformation from a judge who had faith in the police and prosecutors to a whistleblower is a raw and unvarnished expose of Suffolk Countys web of official corruption.Robert Gottlieb, Esq., prominent defense attorney

ONE
The Hanging Judge

TWO
An Ungrateful Electorate

THREE
Robert Catone: Flying High on Drugs and Alcohol

FOUR
Johnny Pius: A Microcosm of Middle America

FIVE
Lai, Wang and Barbaran: No Video, Please!

SIX
Timothy OToole: Bloody Forensics

SEVEN
My Eye Opener

EIGHT
Was She ShSh.

NINE
They Got the Fly, Then They Spun the Web Around Him

TEN
Between Corso and Diaz

ELEVEN
James Diaz: The Twenty-Two-Year-Old Drifter

TWELVE
Perjury and a Pathological Liar

THIRTEEN
We Were Afraid That We Were Letting a Murderer and a Rapist Go

FOURTEEN
The Investigation Begins

FIFTEEN
Im Giving This Case to Another Judge!

SIXTEEN
Stuart, Keep Your Powder Dry

SEVENTEEN
His Eyes Had a Crazy, Wild Look About Them

EIGHTEEN
There Is a Time to Clean Up Your House

NINETEEN
All They Need Is a Dead Body and a Confession

TWENTY
More Than One Has Referred to Suffolk as the Wild West and Has Despaired of Meaningful Reform

TWENTY-ONE
Weve Had Everybody and His Brother Looking at Us

TWENTY-TWO
He Shouldve Been a Basket Case

TWENTY-THREE
Dont Worry About It, We Just Want to Talk to You

TWENTY-FOUR
This Is Not Your Year, Stuart

THIS BOOK, WHICH TOOK OVER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS TO FINALLY publish, is dedicated to the three wonderful women of my life, without whose support it would never have happened!

Lenore Rhona Abelson Namm, my teenage sweetheart whom I met when I was seventeen years old, and she was sixteen, and to whom I was married for forty-one sometimes tumultuous years. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934 to a family as poor as church mice, during the depths of the Great Depression, at a time when a young woman, no matter how smart (except for the fortunate few) could not pursue an education at a college, even one without tuition like Brooklyn College or City College of New York. Her lot in life was to go to work and contribute to the family. The mother of my three very talented children, she never lost the desire to pursue an education. Thus, when our youngest daughter Suzanne was signed up for kindergarten, and we were living on Long Island, she decided to pursue that dream and was accepted at the State University of Stony Brook where she earned both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Sociology, with honors, going to school part time, both in the daytime and evenings, but always there for our children when they needed her. Upon graduation from Stony Brook, she was hired as a Suffolk County Probation Officer after passing a civil service examination. At that time, I was already a judge in Suffolk County, and she was assigned to the Family Court to avoid any conflict of interest. She loved her work, and was very proud of what she had accomplished. Then came the evening that I told her that I felt compelled to write to Gov. Mario Cuomo to blow the whistle on a corrupt system of justice and that our lives would never be the same! She never flinched or had a second thought when she responded, Stuart, do whatever you feel you have to do!

That was 1985, and Lenore continued her work as a probation officer until the decision was made by the powerful political bosses of Suffolk County, at the end of my ten year term in the County Court, to not nominate me for a second term. The fix was in, and we had to leave New York for our property in North Carolina for fear that if I stayed around, who knew what might have happened!