Manuel Martinez, a former lawyer now in prison for having a client’s husband killed, has lost a petition to compel an investigation into the judge who presided over his case and to lift a ban on contacting witnesses who testified against him. A unanimous Appellate Division, First Department, panel affirmed the dismissal of a suit filed by Mr. Martinez, Martinez v. State Commission on Judicial Conduct, 114000/09, on Tuesday.
Mr. Martinez was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for using organized crime connections to have real estate mogul George H. Kogan killed in his Upper East Side apartment. Mr. Kogan was the estranged husband of a woman Mr. Martinez was representing in a hostile divorce. Mr. Martinez received a sentence of 25 years to life.
