First, Mozel Tov to Marilyn Martinez and an actual WIN (Yes, I know, if you keep your job it
is a type of win, but Marilyn's is a true win) in her 3020-a hearing. False charges were brought against Marilyn by her principal at  Central Park East 1, Monika Garg. Norm Scott, who time and time again is at the forefront and one of the few people that I know who put their money where his mouth (Norm does what he does for complete selfless reasons. He is a true Mensch! If there is one person other than a actual attorney I want in my corner it is Norm!) is in helping teachers has much more about the mishagas that has been going on at CPE 1 and with Marylin over at his Ednotes blog.

So Marylin I was told had herself a NYSUT attorney. This was shared with me and though that person forgot the attorney's name he was described to me. I'm 99% sure it was my first NYSUT attorney. I can't give his name, but for today we will call him Bruce Wayne.

I'll tell you this about Bruce Wayne. He was on top of me. He cared. He returned phone calls. He listened to my ideas. He got incredulous when I was to appear on Howard Stern's Howard 101Sirius channel. So incredulous he sent me a certified letter and called me several times begging me not to do the show (He was concerned that I would say something ungood or get into a fight with High Pitched Erik).

But Bruce Wayne passed the baton to, in my opinion, a great lawyer and this lawyer saved worked her butt off. Bruce would have worked his butt off too I am convinced. I know he did for other teachers. Bruce Wayne is damn good.

So what is the point I am trying to make? My point is that don't let anyone fool you when they say to watch out for all NYSUT attorneys. That they don't care, that they don't want to go to trial. That they want you to resign.

Yes, I am sure, I have heard of, and know of NYSUT lawyers that don't care, don't return phone calls or emails, aren't prepared, etc... And yes I have heard and and know of teachers who were screwed over by their NYSUT attorneys and I feel for these teachers. . But I believe in my heart of hearts that such NYSUT attorneys are the exception rather than the rule.

Any legal representative telling you will win your case, is doing you a great disservice and being unethical. Don't believe anyone who tells you that they will win or your case is easy. Any lawyer, or for that matter anyone, who does not share with you offers from the DOE lawyer is doing you a disservice and is being unethical.

Heck, my second lawyer told me that I was given offers to resign and all that, but never was I told that I must. I was given the pros and cons of each offer that was made. In fact I tried to see if I can resign but do it in 18 months so I can retire with 20 years in. I forget whether or not if that offer was accepted. But that was the state I was in. But as anyone knows who reads this blog or knows me I decided to go feet first into the 3020-a abyss and it was scary.

What saved me was that as good great as my lawyer is the one person that is my best advocate, and is anyone's best advocate, was myself. I was not a spectator in my 3020-a. I was involved. I was involved in organizing papers, researching, taking copious notes during my hearing, brainstorming (Even when my ideas were out of left field!), and letting others, such as Norm, help out as well. 

Yeah, I was suspended for 4 months and it sucked! But guess what? I could have been terminated and that would have sucked a whole lot more! For four months I delivered auto parts, at $9.75 an hour. I worked 60 hours a week. I did what I had to do. I learned a lot about myself during my two years in exile and during the suspension(I also learned what a rip-off the mark up at your local garage is on parts). If I had another arbitrator it is entirely possible I could have been terminated. There but for the grace of God.

The whole point of this post is to tell anyone going through the hell of a 3020-a hearing is to be your best advocate. Roll up your sleeves and jump in and be your NYSUT, or if you go outside NYSUT, attorney's partner. At your first meeting ask any question that pops into your mind. Demand to know your attorney's background, their law school, etc... Every question is relevant.

Do not accept lack of communication. Do not accept anything other than your attorney's best effort. Come across as strong. You will not be hated but rather respected. And if you feel you are getting nowhere with your NYSUT attorney, go up the chain of command.

And if you decide that you don't want a NYSUT attorney for your 3020-a, as is your right, contact Jordan Harlow (Read his reviews here) ASAP!! Here is his contact information.

Again, you will not go wrong with Jordan.

Lots going on lately. Too much baseball.

Time to start opening up here. Lots of information soon to be published here. Scandalous is to say the least. For example this true story.

Remember, this shit can't be made up!

I can't name the DOE district that this happened. I can say it is in the Bronx, and it is one of the most dysfunctional districts in that borough.

I can't name the superintendent, the two school administrators involved, or the school.

But everything is true. Everything happened. Everything was covered up.

An assistant administrator at a school, which happens to be neither a elementary or a high school, put in "long hours" at home doing the scheduling. I mean really really long hours.

There were no time cards to be punched nor signed. The administrator of the assistant administrator did not have enough money to pay per session so the pay was in comp time.

There was shit loads of comp time involved. Remember, all unverified.

The assistant administrator took vacations with this comp time. All during instructional time for weeks at a time.

Countries and cities of a far off continent were visited all while the students of this school were busy this assistant administrator was off gallivanting around.

Meanwhile the school is going into the crapper.

Somehow the Commissioner of Special Investigations office got wind of this. Praise be to God! We all know how CSI can be when going after those who misrepresent time taken off and defrauding the DOE claiming they worked while in reality they did not.

Just ask Matthew Kaye aka Matt Striker or Lynn Stewart's daughter. We know how seriously CSI takes this stuff.

This is where that superintendent comes in.

CSI, the bastion of all keeping all that is correct in the NYC DOE drops the ball!!!!!!

There was proof up the ying yang!!

They kick it back to the superintendent for the discipline phase.

The administrator is buds with the superintendent.

The assistant administrator gets a letter in the file!

Imagine if a teacher had done this??? OH baby!

Of course the assistant administrator could not have done this without being enabled by the administrator.

I might not be a lawyer, but dang, if this doesn't seem like fraud, larceny, conspiracy, and a few other felonies, then I mock my SUNY education.

Why hasn't Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson been notified of this?

But he is a dolt. How about US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara?

It has been said, and by very reliable sources, that the assistant administrator had much more than a professional relationship with the administrator. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean? Know what I mean?

So this happens and teachers all across the city, and the country are getting crapped on.

Why? Where is the logic behind this.

It is not us running the schools. We just work there.

Maybe it is time to go after the schmucks in charge? 
 
Yeah, this shit can't be made up!!!

So there I was today sitting in section 209 at that monstrosity they call Yankee Stadium. Yes, I am a HUGE Yankees fan, but this stadium, it was not needed. So I am in the heat, sun beating down on me and thinking about something that blogger Chaz commented on in my post about Little Philip Oliveri. Chaz was right on the money when he said:

The DOE's 3020-a lawyers don't last very long prosecuting teachers. It is very hard to win when the evidence against the teacher is embellished, twisted, and perverted by the DOE administrators. The result is the DOE lawyer is reduced to character assassination and the Arbitrators roll their eyes. Eventually, the DOE lawyers either quit or are fired. It is a sleazy job that does not allow for long-term employment.

Well said, point taken.

So here I am at the game today thinking about this, and it occurs to be that lawyers have this thing called ethics. In fact they are spelled out very clearly and have just been revised by the New York State Bar Association. It seems to me that these lawyers that the DOE hires have a ethical responsibility to the law that precludes them from using testimony and witnesses that they know are lying. And lying also means stretching the truth.

So I researched and came across the New York State Bar Association Professional Standards for Attorneys and came across some interesting tidbits, or as one could say "ethics abnormalities."

So if we look at the Rules of Professional Conduct we come across rule 1.16 sec a and it reads:

"A lawyer shall not accept employment on behalf of a person if the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that such person wishes to bring legal action, conduct a defense, or assert a position in a matter or otherwise have steps taken for such person, merely for the purpose of harassing or maliciously injuring any person."

Think Little Philip and Sith Lord Marvin Pope are following this? No.

There is also rule 3.3 sec a paragraph 3;

"Offer of use evidence that the lawyer knows to be false......"

Again, Little Philip knows, so does Sith Lord Marvin Pope knows that the evidence they have against David Pakter is a crock of crap.

So there we have it. Little Philip in his desperation to live up to Daddy's ideals has sold himself out and become nothing more than a dine store floosy so he can have some career advancement and sold out his ethics so he can feel like a big man. Sith Lord Marvin Pope should go back to following ambulances. So what does one do about ethically challenged attorneys? One reports them? In my honest opinion there is enough to on both of these "attorneys" to file ethics complaints with the New York State Bar. Perhaps it is even time to turn the tables and file ethic complaints on any and all 3020a prosecuting attorneys. Wait, Joel Klein is an attorney is he not? Hmmmmm. I wonder..................

To make a complaint against an attorney:

New York and Bronx Counties:
Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Department
61 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10006
(212) 401-0800

Kings, Queens and Richmond Counties:
Grievance Committee for the Second and Eleventh Judicial Districts
Renaissance Plaza
335 Adams Street, Suite 2400
Brooklyn, NY 11201-3745
(718) 923-6300