Courts

Former Deputy Mayor Steve Casey is providing affidavit testimony in the racketeering case against the three-term Mayor Byron W. Brown at the crux of corruption charges that could send him to prison. The testimony also represents the shattering of the political

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he has met with federal authorities about the corruption case against a former top aide and close family friend — and acknowledged he could be called as a witness should the matter go to

BY ZAIN MEHDI The organizational structure of Italian mafias impacts each syndicate’s stability and use of violence, according to Prof. Maurizio Catino, sociology of organization, University of Milan Bicocca. Understanding how these mafias are structured is a difficult task because

A New York Times investigation of thousands of parole decisions in the state found that minorities faced marked disadvantages, underscoring a host of problems in the parole process. via For Blacks Facing Parole in New York State, Signs of a Broken

A beefy ex-Rikers Island guard broke down in tears Friday as he explained to a jury how a colleague repeatedly kicked an infirm inmate in the head despite his pleas to stop. “I heard him scream, ‘you motherf−−ker,’ and he

Donald Trump is unlikely to nominate Kathleen Sweet to fill the federal court vacancy here, left by Judge William Skretny, who has moved on to senior status on March 8, 2015. Skretny was appointed to the bench in 1990 by

BY TONY FARINA Is  former State Senator George Maziarz out of the woods nearly two years after he left office under the cloud of a federal investigation?  While Maziarz left office denying he was being chased out, it appears the

BY FRANK PARLATO Artvoice has filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Erie County Assigned Counsel Program to learn how often courts assign a free lawyer to someone in Erie County who has not been charged with a

Linda Byrnes is a 70 year old woman who has been in prison for 22 years. She is serving a 27 year and 9 month sentence for conspiracy to distribute marijuana. This April she was diagnosed with tongue cancer and has

Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations last week. The nation’s leading law enforcement agency for public corruption cases is interested in a 2014 incident in which Zellner was widely perceived to be

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI Upper West Side residents are complaining of drug sales and rampant prostitution near the corner of Breckenridge and Grant Streets, a transitional neighborhood not far from the burgeoning Elmwood Village. Neighbors are complaining of condoms and needles

BY TONY FARINA The Empire State Development Agency (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York’s two principal economic development entities, the Urban Development Corporation and the Job Development Authority.  It is the governor’s chief economic development tool and the

BY TONY FARINA Political operative and former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon faces nine felony counts in a state prosecution involving former State Supreme Court Justice John MIchalek who has already pleaded guilty to two felony counts, including taking

BY FRANK PARLATO A POLITICAL QUESTION The question of whether politics was a motive for New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman’s prosecution of political operative and attorney G. Steven Pigeon, 55, has been debated in a few circles. Last

BY FRANK PARLATO A lot has been written about political operative and attorney G. Steven Pigeon, 55, after a state grand jury was led to indict him on June 30th on nine felony counts of bribery, rewarding official misconduct and

BY TONY FARINA Almost lost in the unbelievable feeding frenzy over the indictment last week of political operative Steve Pigeon was the news that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s highly-touted job-creation program Start-Up NY has created more tax-free zones than jobs. Empire

BY JIM OSTROWSKI The war on human beings who use, sell or possess drugs (private property), is, from the perspective of reason or morality, dead. Yet, it survives in political backwaters such as Buffalo and in the intellectual backwater of

BY JIM OSTROWSKI Jurors in this state and throughout the United States are firmly told by judges they must follow the judge’s instructions “on the law,” but in so doing, are the judges themselves following the law? Keep in mind