Families of people killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center renewed their bid yesterday to have hundreds of tons of debris removed from the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island and sifted for human remains. In arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Norman H. Siegel, representing WTC Families for a Proper Burial, told a three-judge panel that Southern District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein erred last year when he dismissed a case by the families claiming the city mishandled the debris and had failed to live up to its promise to search all of it for human remains (NYLJ, July 8, 2008). Mr. Siegel said yesterday that 223,000 tons of debris were never sifted and “it’s disrespectful to call it dirt when it’s remains.” But James E. Tyrell, Jr. of Patton Boggs, who is also defending New York City on almost 10,000 claims for respiratory damage suffered by those who cleaned up Ground Zero, told the circuit the city was “not going to redig and resift an entire landfill” on the possibility that some remains might still be there. — Mark Hamblett and The Associated Press
Town Justice Agrees to Resign Over Record-Keeping Charges
An Otsego County town justice will leave the bench at the end of the year in the wake of allegations that she altered court records in more than 20 cases, the Commission on Judicial Conduct announced yesterday. Since 2003, Cherry Valley Town Justice Debra M. Whiteman allegedly failed to deposit roughly $8,745 in court funds within 72 hours of receipt and did not remit nearly $6,000 in funds to the state comptroller. The commission also charged Justice Whiteman, who is not a lawyer, with altering court documents in 22 cases to conceal the date she received funds and neglecting to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles to lift the suspension of defendants’ driver licenses. (Read the Commission decision.)
