Westchester Party Bosses and Judge DiBella Play Politics and have Betrayed Westchester Citizens

Judge Robert DiBella Plays Politics and Is Unanimously Overturned for Betraying Westchester County Citizens

By TED ZELMANN

Last week a panel of four Judges of The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division for the Second Department unanimously reversed a ruling by State Supreme Court Judge Robert DiBella with regard to the unlawful raid of the Westchester Independence Party by Westchester County Executive Astorino’s Administration and the Westchester County Republican Party.

The panel of four Judges gave way to the Westchester County Independence Party to disenroll more than 4,000 people who were part of an unconstitutional, and unlawful raid by County Executive Robert Astorino, The Westchester County Republican Party, their family, friends and cohorts.

According to Robert Astorino, immediately after acceding to the Office of County Executive, he knew he would not receive support from The Westchester Independence Party in his 2013 re-election bid, motivated by greed and thirst for power he instead instituted a plan to raid the party in order to fix and rig the outcome of the 2013 election for himself and members of the Republican Party in County-wide elections.

Hear Astorino's recording on how he planned the takeover of the Independence Party



Judge Robert DiBella, knowing the facts all too well, and  aware of the old and well established case law which prohibits any such raids chose to betray the Constitutional Rights of tens of thousands of Westchester County residents over his thirst for political favor from both the Democratic and Republican Party bosses.

During and prior to the trial which was initiated by an Order to Show Cause petitioned by The Westchester Independence Party and Richard Rhoades in December 2013, Judge Robert DiBella, was seen and heard discussing " the fix" of the case, as political favor.

Judge DiBella, on several occasions met with party bosses Reginald LaFayette (Democrat) and Doug Colety (Republican) at their office at the Westchester County Board of Elections, at the Court house and other venues to discuss the outcome of the case " Ex parte", a Latin term meaning "from (by or for) one party", which is a violation of his duty as a judge.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2014,  at 3:15 pm, the date of Judge DiBella's unconstitutional decision and ruling, he visited the office of The Westchester County Board of Elections and discussed the ruling once again without knowledge of all the parties in violation of his duty as a judge.

On Thursday, March 27, 2014, a day after Judge DiBella was unanimously reversed, and in furtherance of Judge DiBella's unethical betrayal of the publics trust, Judge DiBella contacted The Westchester County Board of Elections and spoke to Reginald LaFayette by phone and demanded that they appeal the reversal of his decision by the unanimous fou
r judge panel, to the New York State Court of Appeals. 

At or around 3:50 pm on Thursday, March 27, 2014, Judge DiBella, once again walked into The Westchester County Board of Elections and demanded to speak to Westchester Democratic party boss Reginald LaFayette.  At that time Mr LaFayette was in a meeting with Douglas Colety,  the Republican Party boss who is one of the cohorts accused in the illegal raid of the Westchester Independence Party, John Flannery and Peter Mizel.  When told that LaFayette was in a meeting with Colety, Judge Robert DiBella replied, "Good, I would like to speak to them both."

A person who spoke to The Westchester Guardian on condition of anonymity, and who was present when Judge DiBella called the Westchester Board of Elections, told this writer that Judge DiBella "seemed frantic and angry and was screaming, "you must appeal this decision"… " it makes me look bad."

  

The witness was shocked to hear a judge call and speak to parties involved in a case " Ex parte" and considered the entire situation dirty and a black eye to the judiciary that must have an appearance of impartiality and fairness.  " I’m shocked to see that they were all i
n collusion,” said this person with first hand knowledge of the conversation.

The fact is that Supreme Court Judge Robert DiBella, sold his soul to the party bosses and in doing so was willing to violate the rights of tens of thousands of Westchester County citizens in order to get an appointment to The Appellate Division, which is the same Department of the Judiciary which ruled against him.

Judge Robert DiBella's hopes for a reversal by the Court of Appeals of the unanimous decision by the four judge panel is a one-in-a-trillion shot.  A better shot of success is to grieve Judge DiBella, to have this unethical jurist who's greedy thirst for power has blinded him at the expense of the rights of those people who voted for him, sanctioned or thrown off the bench. 

Ted Zelmann is a Westchester county resident who has been writing on the issue of prosecutorial misconduct and government abuse for eight years. He is a freelancer, very familiar with issues of government abuse which is plaguing our Westchester County and America.