Lawsuit Alleges Married Couple Rigged Court Cases in New York Against Drug Defendants
A new lawsuit implicates married couple Judge Judith McMahon and district attorney Michael McMahon for trying to choose friendly judges in Staten Island courts. It's looking like a particularly sticky situation for McMahon, who some blame for failing to indict Eric Garner's killer.
McMahon’s election occurred after former-district attorney Daniel Donovan was elected to Congress. Under Donovan, a grand jury failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner. Both the interim district attorney Daniel Master and Michael McMahon failed to call another grand jury. During his election, Donovan was endorsed by multiple police unions.
Judge Judith McMahon is accused of being involved in criminal cases even after she said she would step back due to her husband’s campaign and subsequent victory. Judges were allegedly being hand-selected.
The suit also claims that judge Judith McMahon and district attorney Michael McMahon “conspired to develop and use Part N (the special narcotics part) as a way to steer grand jury applications away from judges who were deemed ‘defense oriented judges’ and towards the Honorable Charles Troia.” The judge is now located in Manhattan.
As the New York Post reported, though the former chief administrative judge “relinquished her supervision over the criminal section to Judge Stephen Rooney during the campaign and before her husband became DA,” the list of misconduct cites seven instances all occurring in 2016, after Michael McMahon was district attorney.
The lawsuit also involves the case of Ramsey Orta, who filmed footage of Eric Garner’s death. As the New York Daily News reported in July 2016, Orta has said he’s been a “target of the NYPD” because of the video, which showed Eric Garner being placed in a chokehold and saying, “I can’t breathe.” Orta has been arrested multiple times since 2014.
As the New York Post reports, “On Jan. 7, 2016 after Mike McMahon was sworn in as DA, Judge McMahon handled the decision whether to allow video as evidence in the case against Ramsey Orta case (the man who filmed the Eric Garner police chokehold death).”
Orta took a plea deal on a weapons charge and drug charge, and his case and treatment by the police has become an activist touchpoint around the treatment of those who take footage of police brutality. Orta has faced abuse and solitary confinement while in prison.
A statement was released from Michael McMahon’s office calling the current lawsuit “another desperate attempt to tarnish the reputations of the D.A. and Judge McMahon.” Judith McMahon’s representation called them “baseless allegations.”
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