"A Bronx judge should be booted from the bench for improperly awarding probate cases to an attorney pal who took him to Yankee games and helped him raise campaign cash, the state judicial watchdog said yesterday.
Bronx Surrogate Lee Holzman should have “fired” lawyer Michael Lippman when he learned his buddy billed the court for legal work he hadn’t performed on the estate cases of people who died without wills, said Robert Tembeckjian, counsel for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Instead, Holzman, whose 12-year-term as a public administrator ends Dec. 31, is accused of allowing Lippman to repay the court the improper fees he collected by assigning him even more cases."
Excerpt === go to NY Post to read more
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/call_to_boot_bx_judge_4DXLfZ42SVcOkhlnDF6kgJ#ixzz21aaqaBVB
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/01_-_January/Bronx_Surrogate_Lee_Holzman_chafes_under_cross_examination/
NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The cross-examination of Bronx Surrogate Lee Holzman was barely half an hour old, and the judge and his questioner, Brenda Correa, a lawyer for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, were already at odds.
Holzman's lengthy answers that ranged far afield -- on frequent display during three days of direct testimony -- prompted Correa's objection that he was not responding to her questions.
At one point, retired state Supreme Court Judge Felice Shea, who is overseeing the hearing, turned to Holzman and tried to resolve the problem.
"I know this is difficult, Judge Holzman, for someone who's been on the bench for as long as you have to be a witness, but you do have to answer the questions," she said.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-09-13/local/30170648_1_michael-lippman-estate-cases-public-administrator
Surrogate Judge Lee Holzman let cronies loot the estates of Bronx residents who died without wills, the court's watchdog agency charged Monday.
Holzman repeatedly approved dubious fees for a lawyer pal who was his chief campaign fund-raiser and allowed estate cases to languish for up to 10 years, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct charged.
Commission probers recommended the agency's board take disciplinary action against Holzman. The penalty could range from reprimand to removal.
The charges come two years after the Daily News exposed Holzman's lax oversight of estates in the Bronx, revealing fees the judge approved for his top fund-raiser, lawyer Michael Lippman.
