need a pro bono lawyer to sue to have NY PML Sec 109 (formerly Sec 105) declared unconstitutional and/or inapplicable to Nassau OTB.
Perhaps Jerry Delakas bets horses and believes in NY Const. Art. 1,Sec. 3?
See below (and NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3)
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Published: June 1, 2012
City using law firm to evict Astor Place newsstand icon
Last Updated: 2:30 PM, September 17, 2012
Posted: 3:14 AM, September 17, 2012
Print The city has gone nuclear in its efforts to oust a longtime Greenwich Village newsstand operator beloved by thousands of New Yorkers and made famous in feature films.
Legal papers show the city has retained — for free — the services of powerhouse international law firm Proskauer Rose to boot Jerry Delakas from the Astor Place news kiosk he’s run for the past quarter-century.
“This truly is David vs. Goliath,” said Gil Santamarina, the lawyer waging a long-shot battle to keep Delakas from being evicted over his lack of a license.
Delakas — a neighborhood fixture who alongside his newsstand has appeared in such movies as“Sex and the City,” as well as countless ads — has run the business for 25 years by subleasing from the family who held the license.
The city Department of Consumer Affairs became aware of that forbidden arrangement, and began eviction proceedings, only after the estate of the family tried to renew the license and keep Delakas there when the last relative died.
Last week, “much to my shock and dismay,” Santamarina said he received a new letter revealing that the city now is being represented pro bono by a lawyer for the prestigious Proskauer Rose — instead of by a city Law Department attorney, as had been the case since last year.
Such charity legal work is strongly encouraged for lawyers as a means to help criminal defendants and others who can’t otherwise afford legal counsel.
“So, Proskauer, a firm whose lawyers charge upwards of $800 per hour, is lending their legal services for free for the purposes of rending a 64-year-old man unemployed, jobless,” Santamarina said of the firm’s donating associate Alyse Fiori’s time — and the global company’s vast resources — to try to evict his client.
“What this means is that while Proskauer could have used its pro- bono time toward protecting battered women or saving someone from execution, deportation or eviction. Instead, that time was taken up assisting the city in conducting an eviction!” the lawyer fumed.
For Delakas, Proskauer Rose’s involvement in the case was just the latest bad news after a series of legal losses that has left him with one last chance in the state Court of Appeals — even as more than 5,000 supporters have signed a petition seeking to allow him to stay.
“I feel horrible, again,” Delakas said. “I did nothing wrong.”
A city Law Department spokeswoman, speaking on behalf of both the city and Proskauer Rose said, “The city must decide who can operate newsstands in a fair and evenhanded way. The fact that Mr. Delakas flouted the rules for so long cannot — and should not — be the basis for denying another vendor an opportunity that’s rightfully his or hers.
“The lawyer handling the matter worked on it while part of the city’s Public Service Program for young attorneys before she left to go into private practice,” the spokeswoman said. “It made complete sense for her to continue on the case given that she’d worked on it since its inception.”
dan.mangan@nypost.com
Legal papers show the city has retained — for free — the services of powerhouse international law firm Proskauer Rose to boot Jerry Delakas from the Astor Place news kiosk he’s run for the past quarter-century.
“This truly is David vs. Goliath,” said Gil Santamarina, the lawyer waging a long-shot battle to keep Delakas from being evicted over his lack of a license.
Delakas — a neighborhood fixture who alongside his newsstand has appeared in such movies as“Sex and the City,” as well as countless ads — has run the business for 25 years by subleasing from the family who held the license.
David McGlynn
MORE BAD NEWS: A powerhouse attorney, working pro bono, has joined the city’s fight to oust longtime Astor Place news vendor Jerry Delakas (above).
Last week, “much to my shock and dismay,” Santamarina said he received a new letter revealing that the city now is being represented pro bono by a lawyer for the prestigious Proskauer Rose — instead of by a city Law Department attorney, as had been the case since last year.
Such charity legal work is strongly encouraged for lawyers as a means to help criminal defendants and others who can’t otherwise afford legal counsel.
“So, Proskauer, a firm whose lawyers charge upwards of $800 per hour, is lending their legal services for free for the purposes of rending a 64-year-old man unemployed, jobless,” Santamarina said of the firm’s donating associate Alyse Fiori’s time — and the global company’s vast resources — to try to evict his client.
“What this means is that while Proskauer could have used its pro- bono time toward protecting battered women or saving someone from execution, deportation or eviction. Instead, that time was taken up assisting the city in conducting an eviction!” the lawyer fumed.
For Delakas, Proskauer Rose’s involvement in the case was just the latest bad news after a series of legal losses that has left him with one last chance in the state Court of Appeals — even as more than 5,000 supporters have signed a petition seeking to allow him to stay.
“I feel horrible, again,” Delakas said. “I did nothing wrong.”
A city Law Department spokeswoman, speaking on behalf of both the city and Proskauer Rose said, “The city must decide who can operate newsstands in a fair and evenhanded way. The fact that Mr. Delakas flouted the rules for so long cannot — and should not — be the basis for denying another vendor an opportunity that’s rightfully his or hers.
“The lawyer handling the matter worked on it while part of the city’s Public Service Program for young attorneys before she left to go into private practice,” the spokeswoman said. “It made complete sense for her to continue on the case given that she’d worked on it since its inception.”
dan.mangan@nypost.com
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/bazooka_vs_mouse_T4F0wpUptLKxahwXiotUpI#ixzz26xSiuJx9
No comments:
Post a Comment