TERM-LIMITS DON'T APPLY TO: SPOTA, DeMarco and Pascale

OP-ED:  "Landmark Case...Landmark Implications"

Last week State Supreme Court Justice Ralph Gazzillo ruled Suffolk County can't impose term-limits on the DA, the Sheriff and the county Clerk as they are state offices, created by the state constitution.

On July 26, 2012,  Dave Ambro wrote an article in the Huntington News titled: "Term-limits case has landmark implications".  In it he described the landmark case as that of Plaintiffs; Thomas J. Spota as District Attorney of Suffolk County, Vincent DeMarco as Suffolk County Sheriff and Judith A. Pascale as Suffolk County Clerk against the County of Suffolk.

Mr. Ambro had a one on one with Stuart Besen, the attorney hired by Suffolk County Executive, Steve Bellone, to handle the case for the county.  Mr. Besen, a former Huntington Town Councilman was entrusted with this very important case,  Mr. Ambro described as "a lawyer's trophy" and a case that "will establish new law in New York State."

Sorry Mr. Ambro, but Mr. Spota's attorney, Kevin Snover gets the trophy and according to Newsday,  he was "very gratified".  Your good friend Mr. Besen, was apparently way out of his league on this one.

Freelance Investigations had already asked Mr. Bellone on July 17, 2012 why he would hire Mr. Besen to handle this case for the county- since it was clearly a state constitutional issue and Mr. Besen's background as an attorney was limited to personal injury and real estate law, for the most part.  Vanessa Baird-Streeter, the press liaison for Mr. Bellone replied then, "The county does not comment on pending legal matters."

Interestingly enough, when Newsday ran the story last week, on Friday, September 28, 2012,  Andrew Smith never mentioned Mr. Besen as the losing attorney.  In fact, Mr. Besen's name is never mentioned at all in the article as being connected in any way to this "landmark" case.  Instead, Mr. Smith gives Justice Gazillo's stance this way;  "Gazillo rejected an argument by the county that said that even if Spota, DeMarco and Pascale are considered state officials, they should be bound by the law because they are elected only by county voters."

That argument (by the still unmentioned Mr. Besen) went too far in it's logical conclusion, according to Justice Gazillo.  So even though Suffolk County voters wanted term limits for the DA, the Sheriff and the Clerk, they will not be getting them.  The 1993 voter  approved three term-limit referendum does not apply to these three offices as they are state offices, according to Justice Gazillo.

After visiting in a closed door session with the Suffolk County Legislative Ways and Means Committee this week, Mr. Besen was told he should file an appeal of the case as soon as  Mr. Snover, files his clients' response.

Knowing this case was a strict state constitutional issue and according to Mr. Ambro a "landmark decision", then why wouldn't Mr. Bellone hire an attorney who is an expert in state constitutional law?
Let's see if Mr. Bellone decides to use Mr. Besen for the appeal, or maybe he will hire more attorneys to help Mr. Besen.  Time will tell...

I wonder, would Mr. Bellone  go to an eye doctor if he had a heart attack?
Either way, since Mr. Besen's case took a not so unexpected nosedive, let's see how long before he gets offered a judgeship for hitting the canvas.