potluck from Old Dorp*
Remember Romolo Versaci? He’s the Schenectady, NY, lawyer who sued Diane Richie, an unemployed widow with children, for defamation (seeking $100,000). Ms. Richie had referred to Romolo as a “so-called lawyer” on a local discussion website. (see our post, and the coverage and discussion at SchenectadyNY.info.) Pat Zollinger, the site’s administrator, was subpoenaed to be at court today (March 14, 2005), and she reports that the case was dismissed by visiting Judge Felix Catena of Montgomery County. Judge Catena apparently ruled that the term “so-called lawyer” is merely an opinion and protected speech. A Schenectady Gazette reporter was present, and I expect to have more details and be able to link to his story tomorrow. [see here for the follow-up post]
- Pat tells me that Lawyer Versaci believes that there is plenty of caselaw supporting his complaint and he says he’ll appeal (giving any winnings to his church). I don’t know to whom Romolo is referring, but he was also quoted saying “a lawyer’s worst enemy is another lawyer.”
Sunshine Causes Thin Ice: Here’s another story from Schenectady, that I think is appropriate for Sunshine Week. Basically, I want to know the identity of the man who decided to take “a shortcut from Scotia” to Schenectady, by walking across the Mohawk River on Saturday afternoon. I guess he didn’t notice that the 1000 foot span of river looked at bit unstable — sort of like a snow-covered, ice-floe-junkyard. Unfortunately for the (I presume) young man, the last 30 feet or so of the River on the Schenectady side had no ice cover at all. Happily, though “A pedestrian in Riverside Park heard the man’s calls for help and phoned for emergency help. Fortunately, a crew of three firefighters were nearby and heard the call.” “Firefighters pull man to safety after he falls into icy Mohawk,” (Gazette, at B3, March 13, 2005)
Deputy Fire Chief Robert Stanley “declined to name” the man. Well, I think we should know his identity. He recklessly caused the expenditure of city resources, and some risk for our firefighters. He also might be applying for a job (or wanting to marry someone’s daughter). While taking shortcuts can be a sign of efficiency, it can also be quite shortsighted.
where the man
fell in yesterday –
more thin ice
………………………. by dagosan
(more…)
Generously mentioning my decloaking suggestion, Kevin Heller at TechLawAdvisor has offered his website as a platform for “decloaking” associates who have been “disappeared” by their law firm websites. Monica and Denise have joined the lynch mob, and Bruce has brought more rope (and joined the illustrious group of webloggers who have misspelled my surname). I wonder if we’ll get any better rationale from the lawfirms who have scrubbed their sites of associate information.