“This case is an outrage. The governor has to step in right now and set aside these convictions.”ATTORNEY GEORGE CERRONE
MARK BAKER said it more sadly than simply: “The line has been blurred between seeking justice and seeking revenge.”
He is talking about something that Gov. George Pataki has to attack today before he has his first cup of coffee.
It has to do with locking up hero cops, and with a Manhattan assistant prosecutor called Thomas Hickey, who was beset with nightmares of police officers.
Baker is the lawyer for former Lt. Patricia Feerick, one of the victims of the worst case of cop-bashing on this planet.
Feerick and officers Orlando Rosario, Myra Schultz and John DeVito were giving an awful hard time in 1990 to the “Purple City Gang,” an East Harlem crack gang that murdered seven people with bullets and God knows how many kids with their poison.
Yesterday, former officer Rosario surrendered for a two-year sentence. DeVito surrendered for a one-year sentence. And Myra Schultz started three years’ probation.
They were all convicted on the words of three skels, Benjamin Stokes, Nicki Denise Jackson and Marielle Delgado, known as “Green Eyes” on the street.
They told this maniac prosecutor, Thomas Hickey, that these cops, who were trying to keep East Harlem clean, did an illegal search on an apartment and terrorized them after a police radio was stolen in a near-riot during a drug crackdown.
The upstanding citizen Stokes was actually videotaped by Channel 5 selling drugs at the same time he was feeding fire to the district attorney’s office about how bad these hero cops were.
Three weeks ago, I interviewed Feerick. It was closely followed by a letter from Crazy Horse Hickey to the sentencing judge, Bonnie Wittner.
“Since the sentences were imposed, defendants have led an aggressive media and public relations campaign maliciously attacking the victims, the prosecutors and even your honor.”
Tricky Hickey, get it straight. I – not them – attacked “your honor,” by pointing out that my colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jack Newfield listed Bonnie Wittner as one of the 10 worst judges in New York City.
The letter continues: “Just a few weeks ago, defendant Feerick told the New York Post the same lies she told the sentencing court … She defiantly proclaimed ‘I did nothing wrong, my partners did nothing wrong.'”
Thomas Hickey has a curious record. He tried his damnedest to lock up one of the most decorated cops in this city, Sgt. Tom Kennedy, after another skel tried to wrestle a gun from him in a car-stripping job.
All the bums I’m talking about have seen the inside of a police precinct more than you and I have seen a kitchen. And now this bizarre letter from Tricky Hickey.
I contacted him: “Contact our public information, Barbara Thompson. Have a nice day.”
Barbara Thompson told me about this atrocious case of injustice at its worst: “Both prosecutors [including Hickey] acted in an entirely professional manner, and the letter is responsible answer to a motion by the defense.”
But Hickey, in his mealy-mouth whining to the nitwit judge, Bonnie Wittner, made a massive boo-boo. You see, Patricia Feerick was not only one of the highest-ranked female cops in the city, not only a registered nurse, not only someone who people said was being groomed to be the first female police commissioner, but was also a lawyer.
In his letter to Bonnie Wittner, the nitwit judge, Hickey tried to point out that Feerick really isn’t suffering too much because he said that the law license has been restored, despite her conviction.
“He submitted a lie to the court,” Patricia Feerick told me yesterday. She told me this with some difficulty because she is having real problems delivering her second child by Cesarean birth before she gets locked up on Oct. 1 for two years in jail for busting a bunch of skels.
“My law license has been suspended, and Hickey just told a straight-out lie.”
Barbara Thompson, the DA’s spokeswoman, said: “If there is a misstatement, he [Hickey] will inform the court.”
A bit late, Babs. Two guys are doing time and a mother-to-be is about to go to the slam after years of perfection, thanks to Tricky Hickey.
Attorney George Cerrone, who together with John Patten beat Hickey to a pulp in court to get Sgt. Tom Kennedy off a bum rap, said: “This case is an outrage. The governor has to step in right now and set aside these convictions.”
Steven Worth, who defended DeVito, said: “This man Hickey is on a mission. He takes everything per-sonally … It is very unfortunate when personal bias seeps into thejustice system.”
Hickey has locked up good cops before, but it gets even more ridiculous. He had a lot to do with getting a police chaplain, the Rev. Bill Kalaidjian, relieved of his post after 41 years.
At a police function, where beer was being served, the Rev. Bill used the word “fag” when addressing Tom Hickey’s terrible prosecution of Sgt. Tom Kennedy.
None of us knew Hickey was openly gay.
I would never call Hickey the name Rev. Bill used.
I would address him as: “A functional, vengeful, nasty human being who has as much regard for justice as I do for an anaconda.”
Former Officer Myra Schultz talked to me: “Hickey was across the street from the courthouse after John and Orlando surrendered at 111 Center. St., waving and smiling at me. He is a vindictive fool.”
I hope Hickey will one day call 911 for assistance, only to find that he didn’t pay his telephone bill.