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Wood has sat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since 1988. President Ronald Reagan had nominated her for the post on the recommendation of then-Sen. Al D'Amato, R-New York, in 1987. In her confirmation hearings, the colorful D'Amato praised her "extraordinary background as a legal scholar" as well as her beauty.
Judge Kimba Wood in a 1994 file photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"Mr. Chairman, do not let the nominee's appearance deceive you," D'Amato said. "It is obvious that she is beautiful. It might raise questions in terms of her youth. How is this that someone so youthful in appearance should be placed before this committee as a nominee?"
The soon-to-be ex-wife of Al D’Amato says she was barred from attending a Manhattan federal trial on Tuesday where the former US senator was scheduled to testify — in violation of her constitutional
rights.
Katuria D’Amato said she was met by court officers as soon as she entered the downtown Manhattan courthouse Tuesday after being featured in The Post on Mondaysaying her hubby would “flip out” as soon as he saw her.
Katuria was then escorted to a room with a video feed of the 26th-floor trial. The room was on the 12th floor and a court officer was assigned to sit and watch her the whole time.
“They banned me,” she told The Post. “I didn’t disrupt the courtroom,” she said of her attendance at the trial Monday, when she thought D’Amato was going to testify.
“Why? I’ll tell you why. My husband is going to flip out and they don’t want him to look bad in front of the jury,” she said.
“This obviously affects my constitutional rights,” Katuria D’Amato said Tuesday in an emailed statement that also falsely accused her husband of being a government cooperator.
The court’s district executive has not yet returned a request for comment about why Katuria was barred from the courtroom.
The Hell's Angels may keep their Manhattan home, a jury ruled yesterday, rejecting Government efforts to seize the motorcycle club's notorious hangout on the Lower East Side.
Ending a three-week civil trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, jurors voted that lawyers for America's best-known bunch of Harley-riding, tattooed nonconformists had successfully proved that the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club's East Coast Valhalla was not used for drug deals, as charged in a Government lawsuit.
Club members have lived at the ramshackle East Village apartment house at 77 East Third Street since 1969. The building has developed a reputation as the scene for loud parties, drug deals, orgies and random acts of violence to passers-by. A Federal lawsuit was filed under a 1984 law allowing the Government to seize property used in drug trafficking. Jurors Were Anonymous
In an unusual move for a civil case, the identities of the nine jurors were withheld in keeping with the Government's charge that the Hell's Angels are dangerous. In the case before Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the jurors found yesterday in favor of the bikers; it was one in a series of setbacks to a 20-year campaign by Government agencies against the Angels.
Moments after the verdict was read, Sandy F. Alexander, former president of the club's New York City chapter, gave his lawyer, Nina J. Ginsberg, a bear hug.
The verdict, Mr. Alexander said later, was "wonderful."
"I believe there is justice within this Government," he said.
Outside the courtroom, Courtland Candow, a Hell's Angel of 16 years and a lawyer for the group, gave a similar embrace to his fellow biker, Ted Galliano, 47, a giant long-haired man wearing jeans, a beat-up leather jacket and an incredulous smile. "I'm just so used to losing," he said. "I mean, we win, but we lose in court."
Jackie Gares lives at 67 East Third Street, two buildings down from the club. Told about the verdict, she said: "I'm glad. I think this is the safest block in New York, and it's because of them. Because people don't want to mess with them. People don't break into cars on this block. If I'm shopping and they're out, I feel safe."
The New York City chapter of the club is incorporated under New York State law as a religious, nonprofit organization, and the group that fought the seizure is formally known as the Church of Angels.
"We are surprised and disappointed with the jury's verdict, which we believe is not supported by the evidence," the United States Attorney, Mary Jo White, said in a statement.
On May 2, 1985, F.B.I. agents and the police swarmed over 77 East Third Street, arrested 15 people and seized methamphetamine and cocaine. That raid, the arrests and the convictions that followed formed the basis of this most recent civil action.
The trial was delayed in part because Mr. Alexander was in prison. Mr. Alexander, who was the president of the chapter in the mid-1980's, pleaded guilty in 1987 to selling cocaine and was paroled from prison last August. He lives in the Bronx.
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