SAFE HOUSE SAGA The usual way to report a police emergency is to call 911 or the local stationhouse, or perhaps use a corner call box. And then there's a somewhat slower method, preferred by opponents of a safe house for abused Asian women soon to open in Carroll Gardens. To report the alleged presence of Asian men hunting down their battered wives and girlfriends in Carroll Gardens, opponents of the shelter put an advertisement in a local paper.

Gee, by the time the ad was written, designed, and laid out, and the newspaper printed, distributed, picked up, and read by the police, do you think it might be a bit late for them to do anything? Or maybe, just maybe, these stalking incidents were imagined or invented by shelter opponents.

As safe-house supporter Damijan Saccio wrote in an e-mail, "If you really think about it, there is no way this could have happened. Any batterer so voracious in his newspaper reading to have been able to figure out where the shelter was going to be would have also seen that it hadn't opened yet, so there would be no point in coming here. If anyone saw anything, it was probably one of the many Asian construction workers who have been working on several buildings in the neighborhood." The advertisement had claimed, "Asian men from Chinatown, Flushing and Sunset Park continue to come to the block to look for their wives."

Commented safe-house supporter Howard Graubard, "Surely, if such things had occurred, one would think they would be matters of grave concern. Apparently not, as Captain [Thomas] Harris of the 76th Precinct told me that night that the precinct hadn't received even one report of such an incident." We're also wondering how the opponents knew where these Asian men lived. Did they stop them and ask?

KRISS PONDERS D.A. RACE: Former Brooklyn prosecutor Arnie Kriss would love to head the office he worked for way back in the 1970s, when he was on then-District Attorney Eugene Gold's team that put away David Berkowitz, a/k/a Son of Sam. "I'm thinking about it very seriously," he said when we tracked him down at a weekend getaway near Montauk. Problem is, were the election today, Kriss could count his votes on one hand. Still, he's well enough known in political and legal circles to raise sufficient money to siphon votes from Councilman David Yassky, which would hand the 2005 election to incumbent District Attorney Joe Hynes.

OK, that wasn't fair. Kriss could conceivably siphon votes from Yassky and Hynes, thus handing the election to a lone black candidate like State Senator John Sampson. OK, that wasn't fair either. There's every reason to believe that if Kriss ran, he'd run to win.

But he would face big challenges in the areas of name recognition (he's never held or run for office) and money (he has none yet, nor even a fundraising committee, whereas Yassky has over $300,000). Plus he'd have to differentiate himself from Yassky, like Kriss a white lawyer from Brooklyn Heights. Kriss would do that by contrasting his experience in the courtroom trenches with Yassky's as a law professor.

Yassky would be similarly hammered for his lack of prosecutorial experience by Hynes and perhaps Mark Peters, should the Park Sloper who heads Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's Public Integrity unit join the race, as seems likely. (We'll have more on Peters in a future column.) Like Yassky, Kriss got his start in politics working for a congressman who went on to higher office. Yassky worked for Chuck Schumer, Kriss for Ed Koch. A former NYPD deputy commissioner for trials, he's currently in private practice in Manhattan and chairs the Health and Hospitals Corporation's Personnel Review Board. What's that? You've never heard of that board? Neither have we, but it must be worth at least six or eight votes in a Brooklyn-wide race.

All right, now we're just being mean. We're also getting ahead of ourselves. No one has even declared his candidacy for the race. Yassky might well prefer to run for reelection and hope that when his City Council term limit kicks in four years later, Hynes will retire, opening up the 2009 D.A. election.

Sampson might well be bluffing about running in 2005. If so, his withdrawal would likely attract a different black candidate, eager to build on the success unheralded Sandra Roper had against Hynes in 2001, when her shoestring campaign netted 36 percent of the vote, including 50.3 percent in the 56th A.D. and mid-40s in other black areas.

But if not Sampson, who might that black candidate be? The Post reported that four or five candidates are being screened for the role. But why not Clarence Norman himself?

Now, that would be a race. Norman has motive (Hynes is currently prosecuting him on felony charges) and opportunity (Norman could run without forsaking his Assembly seat). Plus Norman's got hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign money that he doesn't otherwise need. Norman also has experience as a prosecutor. He was once an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, no one has leaked this unconfirmed rumor. Which is why we took the liberty of doing so.

"GREEN" COUNCILWOMAN INTO THE FIRE An indictment against Assemblyman Roger Green, which looks increasingly likely in light of recent actions by the state Board of Elections, is a headache rookie Councilwoman Tish James doesn't need. James was Green's chief of staff when the assemblyman was allegedly being reimbursed for driving expenses he didn't incur.

Also hoping the charges fizzle is State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, another member of the Green-James-Chris Owens alliance. "It will be interesting for Tish to defend Roger Green on these latest charges," one observer speculated.

"And guess what word will come up? Racism. Get prepared for Tish and Velmanette to trot that out." Another wag claimed that the Working Families Party was upset that James hired Janella Meeks, rather than a WFP person, to be her chief of staff. Not true, James told us. "I asked them for help to refer some individuals. I interviewed some individuals." But James went with Meeks, her former colleague on Assemblyman Green's staff and the sister of Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), because she "was aware of the issues, aware of the players in the district and the community-based organizations. I felt comfortable hiring Janella." James said she's still a member of the WFP, is on good terms with the party, and in fact was a featured speaker at its holiday party.

James also held a City Hall press conference December 21 to release a census showing about 1,000 residents would be displaced by Bruce Ratner's plan for a basketball arena at Atlantic Center, rather than the 100 Ratner initially estimated. Our guess most of these people could be placated with one of the 4,500 housing units Ratner would build next to the arena.

Six buildings would be condemned by eminent domain under the plan, said James, which would mean property owners would be forced to sell for fair market value. "I think it's an abuse of eminent domain," she added, noting that eminent domain is supposed to be for national interests, not for private entities. Ratner's people are going to have to explain how this would work. A basketball arena is obviously not a national interest, and besides, eminent domain converts land to public ownership. When Charles Ebbets built his baseball park, he bought the land on the sly for several years before anyone knew what he was up to.

O'HARA ALERT Be warned! The most dangerous convicted illegal voter living in the United States, and also the only one, could soon be let loose on the unwitting public. The infamous John O'Hara of 61st Street, who put lives at risk across Brooklyn by voting five times from his girlfriend's address on 47th Street in the early 1990s, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside his conviction, which cost him his law license, a $20,000 fine, and so far about a thousand hours picking up trash in Shore Road Park.

There's about a one in 50 chance that the court will even hear the case. O'Hara has appealed his conviction several times unsuccessfully, but has had some luck generating positive newspaper stories and editorials. The latest appeared in the Albany Times Union on December 22. Wrote the paper, "Is it asking too much of the Supreme Court to set aside what this state's highest court should have put an end to already?"

BCAT SPAT Despite BCAT employees' public letter declaring their dispute with Borough President Marty Markowitz over, conflict continues. Sources told us that an attorney for the Association of Community Access Producers told Markowitz's general counsel that the beep's plan for the station violated regulations for public access. He encouraged Borough Hall to air government productions not on BCAT but on government channels, which currently feature 24-hour traffic cams. Hmmm, traffic cams-not sure how those promote Brooklyn.

Markowitz spokesman Michael Kadish confirmed that the call took place but offered no other details. Anyway, the producers are holding off on legal action to see if the problem can be amicably resolved. But we hear another aggrieved group is planning to sue. Stay tuned.

POLITICAL TIDBITS Chris Owens was quoted in Crain's Insider December 12 about his ambition to succeed his father, Rep. Major Owens, in Congress. "It's fair to say that I am as liberal as he is. I may be more practical," the younger Owens said. That seems to us a subtle, polite way of saying he could get more done in Washington than his father has. While Major Owens's political philosophy has never been questioned, he's often accused of being relatively powerless for a two-decade incumbent…

Council Speaker Gifford Miller declined an invitation to the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council breakfast this month, which sparked a rumor that he backed out when he learned that his prospective 2005 opponent, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, was the keynote speaker. Not true, according to a Miller spokeswoman. "Miller would never snub an event just because the mayor was the keynote speaker," Alexa Hinton e-mailed us. "He had already scheduled churches in Harlem to speak at." Ah, the old scheduling conflict…

Just to be sure everyone knew who was responsible for elevating Judge Ray Guzman from Civil Court to Supreme, Assemblyman Vito Lopez orchestrated Guzman's December 17 induction ceremony at Borough Hall. Lopez's girlfriend Angela Battaglia (director of a nonprofit funded through Lopez) was the mistress of ceremonies (in more ways than one, we suppose). Her brother, Civil Court Judge Jack Battaglia, who many feel also owes his job to Lopez, presided over the oath of office. Lopez himself spoke, as did his former chief of staff, Councilwoman Diana Reyna. "An all-Vito, all-the-time affair" was how one wag described it…

If nothing else, the legal problems plaguing Assemblyman Clarence Norman, the Brooklyn Democratic leader, should save him an inch or two on his waistline this winter. Usually a regular at the unending political holiday parties, Norman was nowhere to be seen at those hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club and district leader Lori Knipel…

Norman's co-indictee, party executive director Jeff Feldman, has hired a new lawyer to defend him on charges that he pressured judicial candidates to hire campaign vendors close to Norman. Feldman's new counsel is Ben Brafman, a renowned criminal defense attorney. "If he hired Ben Brafman, he must be in big trouble," one observer commented. A key witness against Feldman could be retired Civil Court Judge Maggie Cammer, who did not seek reelection when her 10-year term expired last year. The fledgling political operation that put up insurgent candidates that year believed it was the threat of a primary that scared Cammer into retirement. But now it appears that her own party leadership did the deed, as Feldman allegedly told her she'd need to raise $100,000 if she wanted the party's support. Indignant that she was being treated like a puppet instead of being endorsed on the merits of her performance, she quit. The party machine's position is that an underfunded candidate is not viable and thus doesn't deserve its support. Cammer's spot on the ticket went to Robin Garson, who cruised to victory when her primary opponent was knocked off the ballot…

Councilman Bill deBlasio knew he'd face a rough crowd at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club holiday party, given that he'd just conspired with Councilman Al Vann to wrest the chairmanship of the Brooklyn Council delegation from club favorite Lew Fidler. And indeed, district leader Roberta Sherman reportedly gave deBlasio a piece of her mind. Not that Sherman's an unbiased source. She works for Fidler…

Crain's Insider again mentioned Councilman Al Vann as a potential replacement for Democratic county leader Clarence Norman. It's worth mentioning that Vann would have to give up his Council seat to be county leader. Not likely, given that term limits won't force Vann from office until 2010. Regardless, as one observer commented to us, too many white district leaders are afraid of Vann to elect him county chairman…

A false rumor cropped up that Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes's office holiday party was held at Marco Polo Ristorante in Carroll Gardens, which would have been an odd choice given that his office just investigated the eatery for alleged sales-tax evasion. But it turns out Hynes didn't throw an office holiday party this year.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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