GARSON'S FATE IN BALANCE You might have read that Supreme Court Judge Mike Garson was ordered by a judge to repay $163,000 to his incoherent, elderly aunt, whose finances he controlled. For Garson, believe it or not, that was the good news.

The bad news: sources tell us a grand jury convened by Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes could soon indict the judge for allegedly forging a document that gave him power of attorney for his aunt in 1997. Garson, working with his first cousin, Supreme Court Judge Gerald Garson (already under indictment for fixing divorce cases), disbursed $350,000 in gifts from their Aunt Sarah to various family members, reportedly including themselves. They claim they were intentionally bankrupting her estate so the government would pay for her nursing home care. It's a claim that would ring truer if they hadn't enriched themselves in the process, or if Mike Garson didn't have big stock market losses to cover.

The judge who ruled on the $163,000 made it clear that the more serious matter of the vanished $350,000 was not part of the case before him. Which isn't to say that the vanished $163,000 isn't serious. Normally, the disappearance of $163,000 would result in years of jail time. Garson, though, will be allowed to simply repay the missing money to his 91-year-old aunt (assuming he loses his appeal). He claimed the cash was mostly used for Aunt Sarah and an aide to eat out for three meals a day. But he had not a single receipt to support his claim.

Garson said he "never dreamed" he'd have to account for the money, the Associated Press reported, because he regarded Aunt Sarah as a family member and not a client. Such a breach of fiduciary responsibility by an attorney generally results in disciplinary charges (possibly leading to disbarment), but that's on hold until Hynes's criminal investigation runs its course, sources said.

THE RESILIENT GINGKO We asked the Parks Department if it could replace a female ginkgo tree whose putrid fruit has been driving one Park Slope block crazy for 30 years. The answer was no, since the tree was perfectly healthy. Which brought us to Option Two: waiting for the tree to die. Unfortunately, we discovered that ginkgoes can live for 1,000 years. They're not native to the U.S., but were planted in many cities here because of their resistance to pests and smog. Unfortunately, someone screwed up and planted fruit-bearing female ginkgoes instead of males throughout brownstone Brooklyn.

Then again, these neighborhoods do have a transgender community. Perhaps the ginkgo trees were originally male, only to discover their true identities later in life.

NELSON SHOWN THE DOOR City Councilman Mike Nelson didn't find much Christmas spirit at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club holiday party. In fact, he was shown the door by Democratic district leader Bernie Catcher. Nelson's crime: siding with Councilmen Bill deBlasio and Al Vann in their successful joint effort to oust Lew Fidler as head of Brooklyn's Council delegation. "I threw him out. I asked him to leave," Catcher said. "I thought what he did to Mr. Fidler was pretty disgusting."

Another person who attended the party said Catcher's exact words to Nelson were, "Get the &%$# out." If there was anyone who should have stuck with Fidler, it was Nelson. Fidler and the TJ Club helped run Nelson's campaign when he was first elected in February 1999. Fidler personally designed Nelson's literature and sent people from his club to stuff envelopes and gather petitions for Nelson. "We ran his campaign," Catcher recalled. "We were his friends."

Fidler did not expect to lose Nelson's support. "He told me I had his vote," Fidler said. "When someone gives me their word, I don't need a signature. There is no difference." Apparently there is. When Nelson saw that deBlasio and Vann had the votes to replace Fidler, the Sheepshead Bay councilman jumped to the winning team.

So why was Nelson kicked out of the holiday party but not deBlasio and two other councilmen who voted for him, David Yassky and Simcha Felder? "If you're part of a team and you've not complained about your teammates and continued to pledge your support for your team and you wind up on the other team, that's viewed a little bit differently when you come to your team party," said Fidler.

"It's an integrity issue. What did Yassky, deBlasio, or Felder owe the Thomas Jefferson club? The answer is, nothing. On the other hand, Mike Nelson walked into a room full of people who had broken their cojones to help him get where he wanted to be in life." If by switching sides Nelson thought he'd be able to get more money for his district, he was mistaken, Catcher said. "Fidler and he are neighbors," said the district leader. "Fidler, as head of the Brooklyn delegation, was in a position to help southern Brooklyn." Vann's base is central and eastern Brooklyn, while deBlasio's district runs from Borough Park to Carroll Gardens.

Besides, it's Council Speaker Gifford Miller who controls most of the money, not the borough delegation leaders. Not that Nelson has tried to curry favor with Miller. Nelson endorsed Republican Marty Golden for State Senate in 2002, though Golden was a plaintiff in a failed lawsuit that would have booted Miller from office in 2003.

We should mention that Nelson wasn't the only councilman who promised Fidler his vote but then reneged. Fidler said there was another, but declined to name him.

TENNIS, ANYONE? Every once in a while, the city government does something right, though often it takes a nudge from the citizenry. Such was the case with the ouster of the private operator of the indoor tennis concession at the Parade Ground.

The Parks Department terminated the concessionaire's contract last summer for non-payment of rent, which it probably only did because a large band of tennis players had been demanding the concession be put up for bid. The players had a long list of gripes, but non-payment of rent wasn't one of them (only because they didn't know about it).

The concession was then awarded to the Prospect Park Alliance, which immediately promised a slate of improvements, including nine upgraded Har-Tru ("green clay") courts and two new wheelchair-accessible hard courts on the Park Circle side.

Also on the way is a modern clubhouse with a pro shop, viewing area, locker rooms, air-conditioning, and other amenities missing from the wreck of a trailer that the previous concessionaire had used. Players who use the courts during the outdoor season will get new night lighting, landscaping, fencing, and signage (all badly needed). Work on all this could begin in the spring.

The new clubhouse will be in the middle of the 11 courts, with five on one side and six on the other. At least one bank of courts should be open during most of the construction. This summer, the Alliance will also sell court time at night.

Already, the Alliance has upgraded the bubble over the courts and resurfaced them. The previous operator could hardly be bothered to turn on the heat, and her bookkeeping was so abysmal that the city may have been cheated out of money, an audit found. The Alliance's newsletter says proceeds from the Prospect Park Tennis Center (718-436-2500) will go toward maintenance of the Parade Ground and Prospect Park. That's because the Alliance is a not-for-profit organization that can only spend money to improve the park.

But that assumes that the new tennis center will be profitable. If it isn't, of course, the tennis facility would drain money from the rest of the park. We hear that the Alliance is hoping to at least break even on tennis, though Prospect Park administrator Tupper Thomas told us, "Our business plan shows that we can make money." Either way, it should be a net gain for the community (sorry, couldn't resist one tennis pun).

TAKE IT TO THE JUDGE The wags who speculate endlessly about the 2005 race for Brooklyn district attorney are now circulating the bio of federal Judge Sterling Johnson, who they say would be more of a heavyweight candidate than another black who's been mentioned, State Senator John Sampson. Unfortunately, no one has taken this news to Judge Johnson, who was amused and surprised when we called his Eastern District office to ask if he might run. "Hell, no!" Johnson bellowed. "There is no job better than the job that I have. As Thurgood Marshall said, I have a job with a lifetime contract and I intend to honor it."

Johnson, 69, would bring an impressive résumé to the race for D.A. Appointed by the first President Bush to the federal bench in 1991, Johnson not only lives and works in Brooklyn, he grew up and was educated here. Raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he resides today, Johnson spent three years in the Marines after high school, then was a New York Police Department officer, detective, and sergeant for eight years-all the while working his way through Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School. He graduated in the top 10 percent of his law school class in 1966.

He served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District, executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, executive liaison officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and a special narcotics prosecutor before joining the federal bench. All of that would play well to voters seeking an alternative to incumbent D.A. Joe Hynes. But when we asked Johnson about joining the race, he said, "Not thinking about it, hadn't heard about it." He did ask us what other names had been mentioned, but added, "You can count me out."

Johnson faces no mandatory retirement age, unlike state judges. Federal judges can remain on the bench "as long as you're in good health and don't get caught with your hand in the cookie jar," Johnson said. Wags have also been circulating the bio of former U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter, though he told us last May he would not be a candidate. Dutifully, we asked him again this month to see if he had changed his mind. "There is no change," he replied. "I am not running."

Carter, chief prosecutor for the Eastern District from 1993 to 1999, is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney and would have to take a huge pay cut to be Brooklyn's D.A. But because of his credentials, including his prosecution of the cops from the Abner Louima case, his name continues to pop up. Another name floating around is Paul Wooten, whom we know as an election attorney. We were playing phone tag with him at press time.

POLITICAL TIDBITS Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman just got engaged to Vernice Williams, a Buffalo woman. That immediately spawned rumors that Norman's been making detours to Buffalo from his Assembly job in Albany. Also, Norman is looking forward to another two-year term in the Assembly. He's scheduled a fundraiser to kick off his campaign at Pete's Downtown on January 29. Last we checked, Norman had several hundred thousand dollars in his campaign fund and no competition for his job. Why would he raise more money? To disburse to other candidates as favors to be redeemed later…

Future congressional candidate Chris Owens has been engaging us in a back-and-forth about the proposed basketball arena and housing development next to Atlantic Center mall. "I still oppose the construction of the arena and the inappropriate utilization of eminent domain," Owens wrote. "I have no problem with building well-planned, appropriate and affordable housing over the rail yards and I doubt that any of my 'anti-arena' colleagues would disagree with me. Of course, razing that ugly mall would be applauded as well."

First, Councilwoman Tish James blasted the Nets basketball arena plan because it would replace too many apartment buildings. Then she criticized the plan for sparing the Newswalk condos at 170 Pacific Street. If plans had called for it to be demolished, would James have criticized that too? Just wondering… …We're told that contrary to reports here and elsewhere that Community Board 15 Chairwoman Anne Dietrich was fired from the staff of State Senator Carl Kruger, in fact she left the job on her own accord. "She quit because she found it intolerable," one insider said. Kruger and Dietrich were in a dispute over who should be the next district manager of the community board…

Rep. Nydia Velazquez garnered press coverage with a press release blasting the shutdown of a Small Business Administration loan program by the Bush administration. "Here we have just another example of the ever-widening credibility gap between the Bush administration's rhetoric supporting small businesses, and the reality of its destructive policies on our entrepreneurs," said Velazquez, the senior Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, in a statement. "Democrats in Congress will oppose the move and will use every available avenue to stop it." (In contrast to the government's increasing unwillingness to lend small businesses money, the city is proposing to give wealthy developer Bruce Ratner tens of millions of dollars to offset whatever sales tax revenue his proposed basketball arena would bring the city in its first 10 years. Go figure.) According to a list compiled by Velazquez's office, while the shutdown was covered by 30 newspapers, it was ignored by every New York City daily except Newsday.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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