ROTTING IN PRISON In recent months, dozens of newspaper articles have been written about the embattled Brooklyn judiciary and Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes's effort to clean it up. But we have seen only one article about Floyd Batten. It was in The New York Times last summer. While Hynes has been fixated on judicial candidates being told to hire certain vendors by the party machine, Floyd Batten has been rotting in prison. He's serving 20 years to life, convicted of a 1983 murder largely on the questionable testimony of a single witness.

There's a reason Hynes has devoted countless hours to sifting through Democratic county leader Clarence Norman's canceled checks, and none trying to free Batten from his tiny cell. Hynes believes Batten is guilty.

And Batten might be. But a lot of people convicted largely on the basis of eyewitness accounts have been proven innocent by DNA testing in recent years, demonstrating what is now an open secret of the American justice system: eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. In Batten's case, a salesman in a Flatbush Avenue furniture store testified that Batten, then a 21-year-old laundry worker, had asked him about a sofa bed before returning later that day to shoot store owner Igor Khutorsky to death in a November 4, 1983 robbery attempt.

The salesman told cops the killer was clean-shaven. Police nabbed Batten and, four days after the murder, took his photograph. He had a goatee and pronounced sideburns. The kind you can't grow in four days. The day after the photograph was taken, an informant told police that a Jamaican working in the furniture store had been looking for a partner for an inside job at the store. Whereupon the government leapt into action-waiting nearly two months to interview him and then promptly deporting him. He hasn't been heard from since.

Batten is not Jamaican and had never worked in the store. Could he have been the Jamaican's accomplice? We may never know, because according to the defense Batten's lawyer was never told about the Jamaican-until years after his trial when his attorney discovered the police report. In summary, we have a single eyewitness who initially said the killer was clean-shaven, but later fingered a man who had sideburns and a goatee at the time. We have potentially exculpatory evidence not given to the defense, as required. And we have a Jamaican ex-employee interviewed after Batten's arrest, then deported, perhaps because so he couldn't tell a story that might have muddied the prosecution's case.

So, what is Hynes's take? "The conviction was sound and reliable," Hynes spokesman Morty Matz told us. "The witness had a long opportunity to identify the perpetrator. He was with him 10 to 15 minutes showing him furniture." That would seem long enough for him to notice the sideburns and goatee, no? "I don't know about that (issue)," Matz said. Hynes has been fighting Batten's quest for an appeal for the last six years.

MARK HOPES YASSKY PETERS OUT The likelihood that Park Sloper Mark Peters will run for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005 could mean a total of three candidates hammering City Councilman David Yassky for his lack of experience as a prosecutor.

The other two would be the incumbent, Joe Hynes, and perhaps former Brooklyn prosecutor Arnie Kriss. Peters could state his qualifications for the office simply by saying he was chief of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's Public Integrity unit. At the moment he still runs that anti-corruption unit, but state law would require he step down before running for office. Political insiders expect him to do just that in 2004 and instead take a job in private practice.

Though Peters was president of Community School Board 15, he is not particularly well known in Brooklyn. However, he could capitalize on the popularity of Spitzer in the same way that many former employees of Chuck Schumer ran for office and won. We're thinking of Yassky, Rep. Anthony Weiner, City Councilman Mike Nelson.

But we're not sure Spitzer can be the same kind of kingmaker that Schumer became while serving two decades in the Assembly and House. In those days, Schumer spent more time in senior centers than the average octogenarian.

So when Weiner, for example, visited the same centers during his campaign for City Council in 1991, all he had to do was mention Schumer's name and a cheek-pinching festival would break out. Spitzer is a statewide official whose been in office four years. People know him from the newspapers, not by pinching his cheeks. And personal contact is big part of winning elections. Peters would need much more than Spitzer's name to beat Hynes, Yassky, and whoever Assemblyman Clarence Norman puts up (perhaps State Senator John Sampson).

However, Peters does have a résumé of his own on which he could run. For instance, he was in charge of the investigation that brought to justice a huge milk wholesaler who'd been systematically overcharging school districts across the state. His team nailed a Spring Valley building inspector on corruption charges. And he co-authored Spitzer's damning report on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics. Kriss was a prosecutor in Brooklyn from 1973 to 1978. But today he's a defense attorney. If he runs for D.A., chances are his opponents would point out that he's currently in the business of getting defendants off. One possible opponent has already told us as much.

Yassky's background as a law professor, counsel to Schumer, and City Councilman doesn't by itself qualify him to run one of the largest prosecutor's offices in the nation. As one person told us, law school doesn't prepare you to run a prosecutor's office any more than watching "Law and Order" does. But that's hardly a fatal flaw. Yassky will likely ask doubters, Was Liz Holtzman a prosecutor before she became Brooklyn's D.A.?

TONY AND TISH It only takes two words to get former candidate Tony Herbert going: "Tish James." Among the Republican's latest gripes about the new councilwoman, who soundly defeated him and two others in the last election, is that after criticizing Republicans during the campaign, she may be trying to make nice with Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg. "It was quite obvious at [former Councilwoman] Mary Pinkett's funeral how she was kissing up and trying to sit next to the mayor," Herbert fumed. "I guess now [Republicans] are not so bad."

But if James were really kissing up, she wouldn't be battling the proposed Nets basketball arena in her district-a project supported by the mayor. Which reminds us that Herbert-who signed an early petition against the project-now supports it, and (surprise, surprise) is critical of James's opposition.

"You're talking about $2 billion coming to the district. If they can do it constructively and there are some givebacks to the people who live in the area… For the borough to bring in money and jobs, the housing units and the whole nine, I got to support it," Herbert said. "There's a lot of opportunity for the businesses in the area, particularly the restaurants that are hurting, to grow." Studies of other sports venues have found that they don't help, and sometimes even hurt, local economies.

That doesn't necessarily predict the impact of the Nets arena, which would also include 4,500 housing units and other elements, but it's worth mentioning. Herbert also ridiculed James's suggestion that the arena be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, farther from residential areas.

"The Navy Yard idea is disastrous," Herbert said. "One, there's environmental issues. How are you going to move housing in there? Did she do her homework? There's no transportation over there." Borough President Marty Markowitz, who supports the Fort Greene/Prospect Heights arena plan, told us he checked out the Navy Yard idea and found it would be utterly impossible to build there.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Rep. Anthony Weiner must be slipping. In October his office posted 18 press releases on his home page. In November, another 19 press releases were added. But in December, just four were posted as of December 26. Winter blues, perhaps? Still, that's 41 press releases in 59 business days. Any more and Weiner might find himself a target of the anti-spam bill he just signed. Not too far behind Weiner was Rep. Jerry Nadler with 26 press releases since October 1.

By comparison, Rep. Ed Towns posted a total of four press releases and Rep. Major Owens just three. Heck, they barely eclipsed Steve Solarz (who's been out of office since 1992). Also in the single digits were Rep. Nydia Velazquez with nine and Rep. Vito Fossella with eight. We're not suggesting that the diligence of a member of Congress can be measured by the number of press releases issued (though it might in some cases). But our unscientific survey does show the different approaches of Brooklyn's delegation members, possibly reflecting their immediate ambitions for higher office.

CHUTZPAH AWARD The executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Jeff Feldman, is under fire for his role in the election of judges. His wife Marsha Steinhardt is, not coincidentally, a Supreme Court judge. So how did they sign their holiday card this year? "Jeff and the Judge." "These people are too much," said one recipient.

MAKE THE ROAD BY SUING A non-profit workers' rights organization called Make the Road by Walking and Rep. Nydia Velazquez were shocked when the federal Department of Labor took no action despite finding that Bushwick's Danmar Finishing Corporation owed its workers about $200,000. The company also retaliated against 13 workers who cooperated with the department's investigation, Velazquez reported. But after pressure from the non-profit and the congresswoman, the department sued Danmar and other garment manufacturers and settled for $400,000 in back pay and damages, plus $10,000 for the 13 workers who cooperated and were punished for it, according to Velazquez's office.

POLITICAL TIDBITS Here's political columnist Maurice Gumbs on Chris Owens's hope to succeed his father Major Owens in Congress: "Major was fairly straight. He admitted that Chris was just one of several candidates he could support, and that he had made no decision. Well, when last did a father oppose his son in an election, Major?" If anyone can recall that happening, please contact us…

Flatbush Democratic district leader Lori Knipel's holiday party was held at an old-age home. Appropriately, the featured entertainer was 65-year-old singer Jay Black, a Tilden High School product (he was David Blatt then) whose last name no longer reflects the color of his hair…

Word on the street was that Councilwoman Tracy Boyland was hoping to raise half a million dollars by the end of January for a campaign against Rep. Major Owens, and was trying to book 79-year-old Shirley Chisholm to appear at a fundraiser. Chisholm in 1968 became the first black woman elected to Congress, and in 1972 became the first to run for president. She represented Brooklyn in the House of Representatives from 1969 to 1982 before retiring…

Rumors of indictments related to the $245,000 that Mark Green's mayoral campaign sent to Assemblyman Clarence Norman's political club continue to swirl. One person we haven't heard from in a while is Jackie Ward, who got over $90,000 of that. "She may be crawling into the Saddam hut," one observer remarked…

DUMBO developer David Walentas couldn't have been too happy with the story about him that just ran in the Village Voice, which described him as "a Porsche-driving real estate tycoon" who "made millions forcing industrial employers out of his buildings to make way for posh lofts" and is now orchestrating "the city's biggest-ever non-union construction project." The reference was to a 500,000-square-foot, $100 million development at Atlantic and Court streets, which got under way in early December. Walentas's chief critic in the story was Anthony Pugliese, an organizer for the District Council of Carpenters who's been mentioned as a possible candidate for Congress. Pugliese ran for City Council in the 2001 Democratic primary, finishing fourth behind Bill deBlasio…

Speaking of deBlasio, we noticed his young son wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt at the Courier-Life holiday party at Lundy's December 23. Bill explained that he grew up in the Boston area rooting for the Sox and asked rhetorically if he should have changed his allegiance for political reasons upon being elected in New York. Of course not, we said. But since his son is not growing up in Boston, why groom him to be a Sox fan, dooming him to a lifetime of heartbreak rooting for a team that hasn't won the World Series since 1918? "It's character-building," deBlasio said…

Borough President Marty Markowitz and Mayor Mike Bloomberg are never going to be buddies, but at least they have a sense of humor about their testy relationship. Bloomberg has been heard to introduce Markowitz as "one of my five favorite borough presidents."

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

2003
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2001
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2000
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1999
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