Piermont,
New York village government and its Garmento Mayor Bruce Tucker just committed
a remarkable error in judgment. The Village of Piermont just violated a court
order – that is, the May 30, 2024 Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) of New York
State Supreme Court Justice Hal B. Greenwald, J.S.C. This one:
Here
is what happened. Piermont village government and Garmento Mayor Tucker just got
wind of something. One of Justice Greenwald’s clerks just indicated by phone this
week that the Judge would be handing down His Honor's written decision by end of day tomorrow
(Friday) in the case of Young v. Piermont et al., Index No.
032252/2024 (Sup. Ct., Rockland Co., April 24, 2024). These days, “handing down”
actually means “uploaded to the court website”:
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=RJq7nHtE18Bw8zpsaHieVw==&display=all&courtType=Rockland%20County%20Supreme%20Court&resultsPageNum=1
That in turn triggered the Village of Piermont and Mayor Tucker to violate Justice Greenwald’s
May 30, 2024 court order – to which they were actually dumb enough to admit in
writing through counsel in today’s October 10, 2024 letter just uploaded to the
court website. Of course, by doing this, they were once again attempting to steal the Judge's fire and essentially pre-empt the Court's decision - typically not the best idea to do when a court's decision is imminent:
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=RJq7nHtE18Bw8zpsaHieVw==&display=all&courtType=Rockland%20County%20Supreme%20Court&resultsPageNum=1
The May 30, 2024
court order restrains and enjoins the Village of Piermont and others from “processing…
site plan/subdivision[] and special permit applications concerning real
property situated at 447-477 Piermont Avenue” [emphasis added], pending the determination of the Order to Show Cause. Yet the Order to Show Cause will not be determined until, at earliest, tomorrow. The TRO is still in effect today and tonight. Read it again:
“Processing”. That’s the key word. Right here:
Yet
by now, y’all and I well know that Piermont’s General Municipal Law (GML)
referral to the County of Rockland, is a legally-mandated component part of the
process of a site plan/subdivision with attendant special permit application in New York State. The
GML referral is actually a sine qua non thereof – essentially, as used here in context, a Latin phrase
for “that without which the other things wouldn’t exist”. Although I could do without the forward-slash in the text of the underlying court order, a New York village's consummated site plan/subdivision with an attendant special permit application doesn't exist without a GML referral.
Not to mention - there may be other guests coming.
Violating
a New York court order can result in contempt of the court. Particularly when one
intentionally disobeys a court order, the violator can be charged with criminal
contempt in the second degree - a Class “A” misdemeanor punishable by a maximum
of one year in jail and a fine of US$1,000. See:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/215.50
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/215.50
When the violator is a public official, it is even worse. It is a true betrayal of the public trust. Of course, Garmento Mayor Bruce Tucker has made a living for the last six-and-one-half years betraying the trust of the residents of Piermont, New York.
