FAKE WEB SITE SHOCKS ATTORNEY Sheepshead Bay attorney and longtime Brooklyn political adviser Alan M. Rocoff was shocked to discover a Web site purporting to be the home page for his law firm. We'd reported last week that the page was Rocoff's, but the attorney says he's never had a Web site. Rather, someone fabricated the site, which features some off-color humor purportedly directed at people seeking a divorce lawyer. (The fraudulent site has a photo of O.J. Simpson and the caption, "Do you hate your spouse?" The text encourages people to hire a lawyer rather than a hit man.) Rocoff, currently working on a Civil Court campaign, told us he had no knowledge of the site, which has been on the Web for months, if not longer.

As embarrassed as we are to have fallen for the prank, at least we discovered it before someone included it on a piece of campaign literature days before the Democratic primary in an effort to sabotage Rocoff's client, Housing Court Judge Dawn Jimenez. We suppose it's possible that was the aim. If so, Brooklyn politics has reached a low point.

The culprit doesn't seem likely to be a disgruntled client or someone Rocoff defeated in a court case, since he rarely handles divorce cases, the attorney told us. So politics was more likely the motivation. But as Rocoff points out, the perpetrator crossed the line between politics and personal. And the lawyer intends to see that someone is held responsible. "I have, in fact, spoken to both the F.B.I. and the Brooklyn district attorney who both inform me that this is a serious crime, particularly the assertion of a false copyright," Rocoff e-mailed us.

The copyright noted on the fake Web site, which reads "Copyright Law Firm of Alan M. Rocoff 1973 -2003," is evidence of the site's fraudulence, since Rocoff was still a teenager in 1973. Rocoff called on Jimenez's opponent, Shawndya Simpson, to investigate whether someone connected to her campaign or supporting her candidacy was responsible for creating the site. That seems unlikely, though, since Jimenez would probably have been the one spoofed, not one of her advisers.

Anyone with an idea of who might be behind the ersatz Web site should call the district attorney at (718) 250-2300. And call this column, too. We'd like to give the guilty party the attention he deserves.

A PLOT OR A PLANT? Richie Goldberg, law partner of the well connected Democratic district leader Steve Cohn, is rumored to be in line for Lila Gold's Civil Court judgeship. The purported plot, planted in the papers by a Democratic district leader who doesn't like Gold, is that Gold would be nominated by party insiders (read: county leader Clarence Norman) for Supreme Court after winning her Civil Court primary, for which she is apparently unopposed. Norman would then appoint Goldberg to fill the Civil Court vacancy, thus avoiding a primary for Goldberg.

The Daily News editorial board has strenuously opposed this scenario since Goldberg would appear to be getting a plum by virtue of his relationship with Cohn rather than with the voters of Brooklyn. Indeed, if Goldberg wants to be a judge, he should run for Civil Court and let the people decide. They might well choose him: he's got extensive experience as a criminal defense and matrimonial attorney and was president of the Kings County Criminal Bar. Goldberg, though, would rather be nominated for Supreme Court, a process which doesn't involve a primary and is controlled largely by Norman. But Goldberg has been passed over in recent years in part because

Norman prefers to diversify the bench by filling the Supreme Court with black and Latino judges who might not win a Civil Court race. "Shows you the kind of power we have over here," one Goldberg supporter offers sarcastically, downplaying Goldberg's portrayal as a connected insider.

In fact, there's a lot about this purported plot that doesn't make sense. Why would Norman hand one of his treasured Supreme Court slots to Gold, who mounted an expensive but unsuccessful campaign against Norman's candidate Mike Feinberg for surrogate judge in 1996? That's not the kind of message Norman usually sends to potential insurgents.

However, elevating Gold might be Norman's way of sending an olive branch to southern Brooklyn district leaders who would have to be part of any successful coup to replace the assemblyman as county leader. There have been examples of candidates who ran against Norman's machine and within a few years were put on one of his slates. How did they do it? Norman says it's evidence that he picks judges based on their qualifications, not just their political allegiances. Uh-huh.

Just in case, Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes might want to check the campaign expenses of onetime insurgents who magically found their way to Norman's good side. He might just find the money went to Norman's club and cronies. In fact, Hynes has already found numerous instances of just that, including candidates like Judge Bruce Balter who rented campaign offices from Norman's club and hired his friends as consultants (Carl Andrews, in Balter's case) despite being assured of winning their elections.

JACKIE WARD'S "BLOOD" MONEY A daily newspaper reporter told us Assemblyman Clarence Norman's supporters dispute our characterization of campaign cash-bagger Jackie Ward as "Norman's half-sister," and say it's an example of the media's crusade of fabrications against him.

They claim Norman's mother's maiden name is Ward, but that she isn't related to Jackie Ward. That may well be true. But our information, from someone close to Ward, is that she is the daughter of Norman's father's second wife. That would indeed make her Norman's half-sister or half-step-sister. Regardless of whether Norman is related to his former chief of staff, he has yet to explain how paying her $95,120 of Mark Green's money for five weeks' work was an honest attempt to elect Green mayor. Green's people say they didn't know just what Norman did with their money until much later, at which time they realized they'd been taken to the cleaners.

LAWSUIT ROCKS NOACH The Federal Election Commission is suing Noach Dear's campaign fund for alleged massive violations during his failed runs for Congress in 1998 and 2000. Dear's campaign received $40,000 in sequentially numbered money orders, many in the same handwriting, in the names of people who told the FEC they gave nothing to Dear, the suit charges. Dear's campaign also allegedly accepted $564,000 beyond the legal limit and later filed false reports claiming that $300,000 had been returned.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn, adds that Dear's City Council campaign committee paid $40,000 for a poll used for his 2000 race for Congress, making it an improper contribution. Dear's last City Council race was in 1997. Dear told the Daily News it was all proper. He's facing penalties exceeding $400,000. Dear did get some good news when on July 2 a judge threw out a lawsuit filed by Assemblyman Dov Hikind to stop Dear from running for Dear's former City Council seat against incumbent Simcha Felder, Hikind's protégé and former chief of staff.

Hikind believes that the term-limits law forbids Dear from running for council until 2005, so he asked the court to make that clear, as well as stop Dear from spending money on the race or collecting signatures to get on the ballot. Hikind was joined by nine other plaintiffs, including seven other Democrats and two Republicans, one of whom is many-time candidate Susan Cleary, secretary of the Brooklyn Republican organization. Arguing their case was the organization's second vice chairman, election attorney Aaron Maslow of Marine Park. Maslow told us that even if Dear were ultimately to be denied a place on the ballot by the Board of Elections, just by petitioning Dear is injuring legitimate candidates and petition signers because people who sign Dear's petitions are ineligible to sign someone else's.

Responded Dear's attorney, Jerry Goldfeder, "There are 36,177 registered Democrats in the City Council district. Need I say more?" Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Joseph Levine ruled in just one day that denying Dear the right to gather petitions would be premature. Dear's opponents will simply have to wait until after he files his petitions to bring a case. Rest assured, they will.

KENDALL STEWS UP TROUBLE City Councilman Kendall Stewart isn't exactly writing a primer on how to get reelected coming off a two-year term and an election won with a mere 21 percent of the vote. In the last two years, the Democrat whose constituents are largely black and Democratic has:

(1) endorsed white Republican Governor George Pataki over black Democrat Carl McCall;

(2) seen his campaign fined for a "misrepresentation" to the Campaign Finance Board;

(3) redrawn his district to exclude the residence of the runner-up in the 2001 primary; and, most damaging,

(4) responded to accusations in a Daily News story that he is a "slumlord" by blaming Haitians for breaking the locks in his buildings, calling it "a cultural thing." By one account, Stewart's district includes about 3,000 registered Haitian voters.

Stewart responded to the media outcry by telling the Haitian Times he was misquoted. Then, according to The New York Times, Stewart later suggested his remarks about Haitians were taken out of context. Then he realized there is no context in which such remarks would be appropriate, so (reported the Daily News) he denied making them. And he apologized for the remarks he denied making. (The Daily News refused to tell us to whom Stewart denied making the comments. Our information is that he never denied making the comments, but merely said they were taken out of context and not quoted verbatim.) Stewart's excuses and apology didn't keep the Haitian Times from running an editorial headlined, "Councilman Stewart Must Go," and to prevent a City Hall protest of his comments by Haitian clergy members.

The editorial stated, "While Councilman Stewart has called the editor of this newspaper to personally apologize and insisted that he was misquoted, we believe that he should resign. Councilman Stewart didn't sound contrite. Instead he sounded belligerent and blamed 'them' for his troubles. He said that the Daily News was out to get him and other black leaders. "Still, Councilman Stewart should do the honorable thing and resign. His district is overwhelmingly Haitian and he would have an extremely difficult time convincing people of his sincerity."

Outrage among Haitians has prompted Assemblyman Nick Perry to put his planned endorsement of Stewart on hold. More on that next week. Don't expect Councilman Mike Nelson to endorse Stewart either. Stewart recently told the Nottingham Association that Nelson had lost capital money earmarked by then-Councilman Anthony Weiner to fix up a local park, but that he, Stewart, would fund the project after the election.

After Stewart left the association's meeting, Nelson arrived and, upon hearing of Stewart's remarks, gave a very different version of events and essentially said his colleague didn't know what he was talking about. Judging from the applause he received, the audience believed Nelson, not Stewart. "Stewart's first visit to the southern tier of his new district didn't go that well," one source surmised.

One of Stewart's three or four opponents in this year's primary, CUNY professor Sam Taitt, on his Web site called Haitiangate "the most recent in a now too frequent display of arrogance, insensitivity, disrespect, neglect, and misplaced values which is unbecoming and must no longer be tolerated." He, too, said Stewart should resign. Stewart had been hoping to turn the conversation away from his Pataki endorsement, but this was not how he wanted to do it. Taitt has been using the endorsement to equate Stewart with Pataki. By remaking them as the same person, Taitt associates Stewart with such unpopular Pataki positions as the endorsement of a court decision requiring the state to provide no more than an eighth-grade education. (The decision was overturned by the Court of Appeals on June 26.)

Adding to the pile-up on Stewart, political gadfly Maurice Gumbs blasted the councilman in a commentary at footnotes-ny.com for not securing any goodies for the community from Pataki in exchange for the endorsement. "On the dais at Governor George Pataki's victory party, two happy black faces bounced around like raisins in a bowl of oatmeal. Bobbing and weaving to get their faces captured on national television were former district leader DeCosta Headley and East Flatbush Councilman Kendall Stewart," Gumbs wrote.

But Stewart failed to secure a promise of funding for East Flatbush from Pataki, and even if he had, the governor wouldn't be obliged to keep it because he's not running again and Stewart didn't deliver any votes for him anyway, Gumbs added. Asquith Reid, Stewart's top aide, explained, "The councilman believed that because the governor had implemented a number of programs that benefited immigrants and people in the community, that he would continue to do that. He wasn't promised anything, and he didn't ask for anything." Reid said of Stewart's endorsement of the governor, "It is a political liability. He took a calculated risk. But he did it because he thinks he should do what benefits the constituents, not for political expediency. He could have played it safe, but that's not his style." It certainly isn't.

Stewart would be rare among politicians if he simply endorsed the best man for the job, which would be admirable, though it could be argued that endorsements should be used first as bargaining chips to get local funding. It could also be argued that Pataki, who favors SUNY tuition hikes over increasing rich people's taxes, was not the best man for the job.

Meanwhile, Flatbush district leader Lori Knipel is backing Taitt in the September 9 Democratic primary. Knipel is still furious that in a public forum during her run for State Senate last year, Stewart sarcastically asked her if she could navigate her way east of Ocean Avenue. The implication was that Knipel avoids the district's black areas. She considered the question "blatantly racist" and without merit.

Not that Knipel would have endorsed Stewart anyway. She was already upset that he falsely listed her as an endorser of his 2001 campaign on his literature.

CORRECTIONS We erred in mentioning last week that Civil Court candidate Shawndya Simpson had retained printer Ernie Lendler. Rather, Simpson's campaign manager, Gary Tilzer, is handling her literature. The erroneous information came from a Simpson supporter who made an honest mistake, not an opponent pursuing an agenda, which is why we didn't initially double-check with Tilzer. Also, in the June 16 column we wrote that Republican Jim Sutliff was running in the 48th Council District, where Democrat Mike Nelson is the incumbent. In fact, Sutliff is running in the 47th, the domain of Democrat Domenic Recchia.

Borough Politics Archive

2003
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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