3/17/2010, Utica, NY Civil Rights Forum at Hotel Utica on January 19, 2010

Report on

Civil Rights Forum

Held on

January 19, 2010 at

Hotel Utica Ballroom

Lafayette Street

Utica, New York

Prepared by:

Leon R. Koziol, J. D.

March 17, 2010

Civil Rights Report

page one

Scope of Report

On January 15, 2010, the Justice Department publicly acknowledged its intervention in

pending litigation involving a Mohawk Central School student alleging violation of gay-status

human rights. At the same time, there were at least two civil rights cases pending in the same

federal court involving long time victims of race and parenting discrimination. These cases

merited similar consideration given their widespread impacts upon mainstream society.

Accordingly, this report is intended to secure the involvement of the United States Justice

Department in litigation and events involving victims of race and parenting discrimination in the

City of Utica. It has a two-prong theme which is merged in the case of at least one featured

victim, Casey Stuckman. At the same time, it has purely a remedial design with no interest in

disparaging the good work of our law enforcement community.

To the contrary, as the contents make clear, the report’s author has previously represented

police and corrections officers, a deputy police chief and even a public safety commissioner in

career saving civil rights litigation. The discussion regarding a former Utica police investigator

further demonstrates this remedial goal. Its references to draconian child control laws are

designed to reduce the numbers of suicides and child victims in our greater law enforcement

community.

Concerns raised in this report affect all families and should not be treated as ahead of their

time. Until our government takes a more serious approach to correcting them, costly

consequences will continue to follow. Significantly, while our nation focuses attention upon

health care and job productivity, a broad based solution lies in the amelioration of needless

litigation and a return of our people to their families and workplaces. The contents of this report

come from a concerned civil rights advocate and are not to be construed as the rendering of any

legal opinion or service.

Civil Rights Report

page two

Author

Leon R. Koziol is a civil rights advocate who has practiced law for a period of nearly a

quarter century in upstate New York. Featured for his work on the CBS Program 60 Minutes,

New York Times and CNN, Mr. Koziol secured a final judgment in New York Supreme Court

declaring unconstitutional the operation of the Turning Stone Casino. He possesses a doctorate

degree and is presently engaged in the publication of his second book.

A former city councilman, Mr. Koziol served as Corporation Counsel for the City of Utica

during the nineties. In both capacities, he generated reports on risk management for the benefit

of city officials, code inspectors and city taxpayers. On November 19, 2001, as a private

attorney, he submitted a report on race discrimination in city government. Thereafter, he secured

a number of jury verdicts, settlement recoveries and a civil rights precedent in New York City

which proved costly to the city.

Over the course of two decades, this author has become exposed to various overt and discreet

forms of retaliation by government officials. Most recently, in his role as a father’s rights

advocate, he lost contact with his children despite the lack of any finding or even accusation of

parental unfitness. This invidious separation between father and child is a growing trend and

exemplary of the worst kind of government oppression, indeed reminiscent of socialist,

communist and dictatorial regimes.

Other events are beyond the scope of this report. Their occurrences have been preserved and

retained for purposes unrelated to this product. These include court cases brought in the author’s

own capacity for remedial and precedent setting reasons. For the time being at least, Mr. Koziol

remains a resident of New Hartford, New York.

Civil Rights Report

page three

Introduction

This report has been prepared by civil rights advocate, Leon R. Koziol, in response to

longstanding abuses of power exerted upon traditionally recognized minorities in the City of

Utica. It is also focused upon a non-traditional minority comprised of male parents hauled into

New York’s domestic relations processes.

When combining the recognized practices associated with a traditionally prejudiced minority

and the suppressed prejudice inflicted upon fathers generally, a particularly insidious form of

discrimination emerges in Utica today. As part of the nationwide trend, an increasingly

fatherless society is traceable to widespread criminal activity which in turn produces an undue

public safety burden upon the common taxpayer.

We see this trend in crime statistics and even among public statements made by law

enforcement officials quoted in the local press. In a recent police shakedown focused upon

minority social establishments, a Utica police captain conceded that multiple arrests of a former

African – American city commissioner were “highly unusual”. At the same time, a wide range

of stabbings and shootings were attributed to the “kind of music” featured at these minority

businesses.

Other establishments with similar music were not similarly scrutinized. Non-minority

businesses making the news on such incidents as drunk driving and use of life threatening

weapons were not declared “at risk” objects for police focus. In one case, involving the son of a

former city court judge, a drunk driving arrest resulted in allegations of excessive force and

political retaliation. A resulting civil case in federal court ended with a hung jury, however, the

drunk driving source at a Varick Street establishment formed no part of the recent shakedown.

The goal of this report is not to single out any particular official or police officer. To the

contrary, the author has endeavored to work with city administrators to rectify civil rights abuses

when they occurred and to prevent repeat patterns of abuse. This much is reflected by a meeting

with the current mayor, public safety commissioner and two city attorneys in December, 2007.

A number of civil rights claims were discussed, along with minority employment practices,

resulting in no progress whatsoever over an ensuing three year period.

Civil Rights Report

page four

Civil Rights Forum

As a consequence of a continuing pattern of federal law violations, a civil rights forum was

publicly announced to occur on January 19, 2010. This forum was organized by the author to

give city officials an opportunity to hear and remedy widespread abuses of civil rights claimed

by diverse victims. There was no attendance by city administrators and no formal or informal

response from anyone upon its conclusion. Utica leaders apparently took the position that there

was simply no problem in the treatment of the public by any official employed by the city.

One week following the civil rights forum, a local newspaper, Observer Dispatch, published

a front page story entitled “Minority hiring progress elusive”. Opening with the statement

“numbers don’t lie: The faces of the city’s workforce are still mostly white”, investigative

reporter, Dan Miner, makes a convincing case that Utica leaders have failed their residents in

complying with a most basic right of liberty found under the United States Constitution, namely

the right to make a living in public employment.

On November 19, 2001, this author prepared and submitted a report to Utica city officials on

the subject of racial mistreatment in city employment practices. Two African – American

commissioners, Stephen Patterson and Cornell Maye, were a focus of the earlier report. Each

was discharged along with other minority employees after a transition in mayors to result in a

predominantly all white work force. The ensuing treatment of each former commissioner sheds

further light on the civil rights problems which persist in Utica.

Cornell Maye immediately left the city and the state after abuses in both public employment

and domestic relations court. Over the next decade, he became gainfully employed for the

Raleigh Police Department in North Carolina. In the meantime, he was able to recover the guns

seized from him in another local shakedown involving his public safety work in the summer of

2001. There have been no findings or accusations against Mr. Maye involving the misuse of

firearms since or prior to that time.

The firearm issue emerged at a time when racial tension was being alleged between a

predecessor police chief Al Pylman, District Attorney Michael Arcuri and Mr. Maye. An August

23, 2001 front page story in the Syracuse Post Standard described this tension in great detail.

Thereafter a criminal indictment sought against Mr. Maye resulted in a no-bill, nevertheless

leading to his discharge as public safety commissioner.

Civil Rights Report

page five

Years later, another costly conflict would emerge between the same district attorney, now a

United States Congressman, and Mr. Pylman that would lead to similar accusations of retaliation,

this time by a former city court judge. This came as a consequence of a city council

investigation of Mr. Pylman evidently designed to have him removed on charges that, like Mr.

Maye, never amounted to anything.

In stark contrast with Mr. Maye’s decision to leave Utica, Stephen Patterson elected to stay

in his native home community over the same ten year period. Mr. Patterson’s ability to maintain

employment was then marked by retaliatory property foreclosures, poor work references and,

among other abuses, a series of arrests in more recent months. On January 8, 2010, the Observer

Dispatch featured a front page story involving an incident in the Utica city lock-up where Mr.

Patterson endeavored to commit suicide with a belt which “the police had placed in his cell”.

A public response from Mr. Pylman’s replacement, then city police chief, Daniel LaBella,

accused Mr. Patterson of “reading too many police fiction novels while he was sitting in jail”.

Mr. LaBella became embroiled in a controversy only days later when state civil service

disqualified him from his seven month post because he had taken a test for New York Mills

Police Chief instead of the more demanding one applicable to Utica. Mr. LaBella is the current

and prior Public Safety Commissioner occupying the post formerly held by Cornell Maye.

Following the Patterson suicide attempt, another feature story in the press contained the

headline: “Patterson: No one will take his case”. The article described Mr. Patterson’s basic

efforts to secure legal representation to defend himself against a series of criminal and codes

prosecutions by the city. Between Syracuse and Utica, he remained unsuccessful over the next

three weeks until this author was compelled to step in. However, an unblemished 23 year law

license of the same author was suspended by notice first received through the media two days

later. As a result, Mr. Patterson is again without competent legal counsel.

This brings us to the second prong of the civil rights forum. The law license was suspended

as a result of an alleged non-payment of child support. The suspension comprised a component

part of a draconian system of laws that violates nearly every paragraph and clause of our Bill of

Rights. Most prevalent is the silent institutionalized prejudice visited upon a new age minority

known as non-custodial parents. Statistically dominated by fathers, this subclass of human

beings is marked by the exploitation of children for money-generating purposes of the state. In

the case of this author, the so-called child support and custody laws were abused for political

reasons far beyond the scope of this report.

Civil Rights Report

page six

Father discrimination is a civil rights abuse which has reared its impacts at the heart of the

Utica Police Department. On September 29, 2009, the Observer Dispatch featured a front page

story involving Utica police investigator Joseph Longo. After a domestic incident which remains

elusive as to cause, a father of four fatally stabbed his wife before taking his own life at the

couple’s marital home.

News reports before and after the Longo incident reveal a growing level of homicides,

suicides and attempted murder arising from domestic disputes. Women are featured as assailants

in as many reports as are men. However, no case demonstrates the grave nature of this trend

more than an incident involving Casey Stuckman, a decorated veteran of the United States Air

Force. A man who happened to be of African – American descent, he became the innocent

victim of a gang assault by Utica police converging upon the scene of a domestic incident one

month following the Longo event.

A merger of civil rights abuses involving Casey Stuckman and Stephen Patterson culminated

in the civil rights forum scheduled for January 19, 2010 at the Hotel Utica Ballroom. Both

testified about their respective cases and claims formerly instituted and represented by this

author. The Stuckman claim was particularly ominous because it featured a victim who was both

African – American and a male parent.

Police arriving at the scene of a shots fired incident on October 13, 2009, drew numerous

weapons upon the injured victim – Casey Stuckman. Although reports depicted a woman who

unloaded her firearm into Mr. Stuckman’s hand, police instead tackled and assaulted the victim,

despite pleas to cease the violence by the assailant herself. Ultimately the gang assault resulted

in medical reports that showed Mr. Stuckman to be seriously and permanently injured in the

spine.

In the process of injuring Air Force veteran Casey Stuckman, Utica police exposed the same

victim, neighbors and even themselves to potential gunfire from a scorned and deranged would-

be female killer. This would-be killer was later charged with attempted murder and is presently

incarcerated on a long term prison sentence. The details of this incident are contained in a claim

document filed with the city in October, 2009 and appended to this report under exhibit A.

The Longo – Stuckman events present the dramatic case for reform in domestic relations and

law enforcement practices. In an effort to convey this message to then police chief, Daniel

LaBella, this author offered to provide some insights on the prejudice routinely practiced in

Civil Rights Report

page seven

domestic relations processes. Fathers remain the presumptive money givers and unfit caregivers

of their own children in these processes. It is an institutionalized prejudice which is leading to

escalating levels of crime in all areas of society today. There was never any follow up from

Chief LaBella in December, 2009 despite a cordial and sympathetic telephone exchange. A

subsequent guest column by this author explains the prejudice in concise fashion and is copied to

this report under exhibit B.

Included with the column under the same exhibit B is an unsolicited statement made public

by another one time client of this author, former Oneida County Legislator Lawrence Tanoury,

Jr. Published prior to the column, the statement presents a brief rendition of events surrounding

his retaliatory discharge from city employment as a marketing director and complex proceedings

which followed. These included a jury acquittal on harassment charges and subsequent dismissal

of a felony charge on a $16 gas card reimbursement. They led to a civil rights recovery of

$75,000 against the city in federal court.

Inclusion of this statement is intended to further corroborate the retaliation experienced by a

civil rights attorney in Utica. During this author’s representation of Mr. Tanoury in 2005,

scrutiny of the law office featured such events as a plastic bag containing white powder found

outside the driver’s side door of the attorney’s vehicle. Wisely left untouched, it was later

revealed as a set-up in the law office parking lot.

This report is not conducive to a synopsis of other cases and details behind race and

parenting prejudice in upstate New York. A December, 2009, submission to the Binghamton

office of the Justice Department provides additional case examples, some of a more egregious

nature. Beyond that, there remains a myriad of filed cases, official inquiries and confidential

material which cannot be disclosed . Instead, it remains the goal of this author to secure the

proper resources of the Justice Department for an intervention in the matters described here.

Appended to this report under exhibit C is a case not previously submitted involving Jamie

DeGristina, a working class parent who was taken into custody by Utica police in October, 2007

on a non-violent disorderly conduct incident. She went into the patrol car handcuffed without

injury or resistance. Only hours later, she was released to her father with full body injuries

ranging from a bloody swollen eye socket to a bruised and trampled foot. A federal agency

intervened to investigate, however, a fear of retaliation caused certain material witnesses to hold

back their cooperation. Retaliation is a separate and distinct civil rights abuse which runs the

gamut of this report.

Civil Rights Report

page eight

Additional cases may be accessed by a review of the public statements given at the forum.

These are preserved on a CD included on the back cover jacket of this report. Also available is

the federal docket pacer reporting system which includes a case involving a disabled party

assaulted by the Utica police at a hospital. This incident resulted in a punitive damage award in

United States District Court against the city in the amount of $300,000.

Other cases within this author’s knowledge will require arrangements with former clients.

These include an enlisted member of the U. S. military arrested by Utica police merely for his

effort to video record the scene of an assault involving an African – American victim. The white

military member was released the day of his own arraignment on resulting obstruction charges.

Finally, the two prong theme of this report can be further examined by a review of a domestic

relations case in 2002 featuring the city’s current corporation counsel and police officer husband.

Mr. Patterson continues to maintain that his race based involvement in that case forms a major

impetus behind present day criminal and codes charges described as “highly unusual”. This

arises not from a police novel but from a Utica police captain coupled with successful civil rights

litigation that has cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Civil Rights Report

page nine

Conclusion

The pursuit of civil rights remains, as it always has, an exercise of great risk to those who

would engage in it. The most common theme emerging from the Utica civil rights forum of

January 19, 2010, and so many cases on the subject over the years, is a fear of government

retaliation. It is a fear which enables the perpetrators to succeed with crimes against society and

humanity, a fear which also assists in the demise of any good community.

The work of our law enforcement community is beyond measure. We all commend the

tireless and life risking services performed on our behalf every day. Abuse of controlled

substances is one elusive crime that rightfully occupies a major part of that work because it

damages every aspect of our communities, our businesses and our families. Law enforcement is

most effective, however, when trust and cooperation among the good guys prevail over the

growing influence of the criminals in our society.

Utica, New York Respectfully submitted,

March 17, 2010

Leon R. Koziol, J. D.