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The Queens County Assistant District Attorney’s Association held its summer celebration at Austin’s Ale House in Kew Gardens Thursday, using the event as an opportunity to honor the-late Richard Brown, Queens County’s longest serving District Attorney and a former state Supreme Court justice. “You know you’re all Judge Richard A. Brown ADAs,” said Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan. “Whatever happens in the future, that doesn’t change. Be proud of that.” “I’ve been 47 years in this office. I won’t repeat what my first day was like, but I assure you, if you think things are unsettled now, they’re actually calm compared to 47 years ago,” Ryan added. “You will get through this because you are good. We hired you because you are good. You will remain good. You will do well regardless of what happens. I’m proud of you. God bless you.” The uncertain Democratic primary for district attorney has prompted concern about some Queens prosecutors. Public defender Tiffany Cabán currently leads Borough President Melinda Katz by about 1,100, though the final vote has not been certified. “People are worried,” said ADA Mani Singh. “We don’t know how the DA’s office staffing will fare.” Singh wondered how the next DA would prosecute certain offenses. “For example, say a suspect is charged in a non-violent burglary, and released on his own recognizance,” Singh said. “Later he flees the jurisdiction, then he’s caught and extradited back here, as non-violent offender he might still be eligible for release on his own recognizance.” ADA Association President Todd Greenberg downplayed concerns about radical change and job security. He said attorneys on both sides can unite outside the courtroom. “People always worry when a new administration takes over,” Greenberg said, “Because regardless of whether it’s Katz or Cabán, the new DA will often bring in their own people, their own staff.” “But we’re more like a family than just an organization,” he added. “The other day I was fighting Denise Tirino on a murder case. We went at each other tooth and nail. Yet now, here we are, celebrating Judge Brown’s legacy and all that we share.” Greenberg also recognized the new generation of prosecutors in Queens. “I see a lot of the youngest ADAs here, and that’s really inspiring,” he said. “Together we form some of the best trial lawyers in New York City.” Retired Justice Greg Lasak, a candidate for DA who finished third in the Democratic primary, said the future is bright, even if it seems uncertain now. “What will the next few years bring?” Lasak said. “We don’t know. I really feel for you guys. But things will work out. Never doubt that.”

Queens Attorney Todd Greenberg being sworn in as Honorary member of Richmond Hill / South Ozone Park Lions Club, a community service organization dedicated to helping others. I am honored and excited to be an active member of the Richmond Hill community where I was born and raised with my family on 109th street between Liberty and 103rd. Congratulations to my friend Romeo Hitlall on his Presidency and for being an integral part of the growth and success of the chapter. A true community advocate whose goal is to help others.

I am humbled and grateful to my brothers and sisters of the Richmond Hill – South Ozone Park Lions Club who bestowed on me the Distinguished Service Award at the Club’s “4th Year of Service” anniversary dinner. I am truly honored to be a member of the RHSOP Lions club and associated with such honorable, selfless and community minded people. With Romeo Hitlall, Judge Jacqueline D. Williams, Naidoo Veerapen, Indarjeet Paul; Receiving “Citation of Honor” From Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and New York City Councilman Eric Ulrich; With Edward Lieberman, Esq., Romeo Hitlall and Andrea Greenberg. At Villa Russo November 20th 2016.

Queens Attorney Todd Greenberg with Cricket great Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Dominic L. Addabbo, the lead attorney in our real estate department, represented clients on the sale of their Tribeca condo for $4.5 million and the subsequent purchase of their upper east-side co-op for $4.75 million. The sale and purchase was orchestrated so as to allow our clients to move out of their current residence and move directly into their new home. Despite the usual twists and turns, as well as some not-so-usual, the transactions were properly coordinated to precisely meet the needs of our clients.

A long-standing Queens restaurant was sold for $2.75 million dollars to a non-profit group. The negotiated sale was several years in the making and will now allow New York Families With Autistic Children to develop the site. Dominic L. Addabbo, the lead attorney in our real estate department, represented the seller throughout the transaction.

By Wendy Lin An attorney for one of the youths charged in the Howard Beach racial attack asked yesterday that the case against his client be dismissed because the prosecution “can cause him very severe problems.” Todd Greenberg, attorney for 17-year-old , told State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Demakos that the youth is still recovering from a stroke he suffered two years ago. Greenberg said “is in a critical stage of his life and even if he is guilty, I don’t know if he deserves a life sentence, which is what would happen because of his emotional situation.” is one of 12 white youths charged in an attack on three black men Dec. 20 in Howard Beach, Queens. One of the men, Michael Griffith, was struck and killed by a car as he tried to flee. has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree riot and inciting to riot in the incident. If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of four years in jail. Demakos set an April 10 hearing date to decide the issue. Greenberg said he would call a doctor to testify on medical history. “The boy has emotional, psychological and neurological problems,” said Greenberg. Another defendant, appeared in court yesterday to challenge the admissibility of a statement he made to police. Det. Insp. Francis Paulson, who had questioned , testified that had admitted driving to the scene, but denied participating in the attack. also identified and as two youths who later bragged to others that they beat the black men, Paulson said. attorney, Augustus Agate, is challenging the admissibility of his client’s statement on the grounds that was not advised of his rights to contact an attorney before making statements to police.

After undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he was fit to testify, Howard Beach attack victim Timothy Grimes exploded on the witness stand yesterday at the first hint of hostile questioning from one of five defense attorneys in the trial. The tense and volatile Grimes held his temper through about 20 minutes of cross-examination by defense attorney Todd Greenberg in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, Queens. But when Greenberg suggested that Grimes had been harassing two women in a red sports car in Howard Beach that night, Grimes lost control. He stood up suddenly, knocked a court microphone away from his face, spat and, in front of a packed courtroom and stunned jurors, said, “Get the – – – out of here.” Justice Thomas Demakos immediately called for a recess as court officers and investigators from the state special prosecutor’s office rushed to the witness stand to restrain Grimes. Meanwhile, his mother, Martha Grimes, ran to a pay phone where she unsuccessfully tried to reach attorney C. Vernon Mason in an attempt to get Grimes off the stand. Mason had represented her son last year in early stages of the first Howard Beach trial. During the recess, attorneys from the state special prosecutor’s office also tried to have Grimes removed from the stand on the grounds that he was “mentally incapable of continuing,” said prosecutor James Kohler. Demakos denied the motion. Grimes was arrested Monday in Coney Island, Brooklyn, on a fugitive warrant from Virginia, where he is alleged to have shot his brother in the face. Prosecutors said they were reluctant to call him as a witness because of his unpredictable nature and because of his courtroom outbursts in the first trial. However, prosecutors knew that the defense attorneys would likely call Grimes if they did not. At the request of the prosecution, Grimes underwent a court-ordered psychiatric examination shortly before he took the stand. He spent 45 minutes with Dr. Richard Weidenbacher. Weidenbacher was retained by the Queens Legal Aid Society, which is representing Grimes at the trial. “Grimes said he wanted to testify and the doctor said it would be all right,” Kohler said. Prosecutors became concerned about Grimes’ mental condition after speaking with a psychiatrist Grimes had been seeing before he left the city last year for Virginia, said Pamela Hayes, a prosecutor with the state special prosecutor’s office. That psychiatrist said Grimes was suffering from “acute psychosis . . . that would not be healed spontaneously,” Hayes said. Grimes’ brother, Charles, insisted yesterday during an interview that testifying would hurt his brother. Charles Grimes said he believed the death of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach is behind his brother’s emotional problems. Griffith was struck and killed by a car on the Belt Parkway as he was fleeing a group of white teenagers chasing him and shouting racial epithets. All of the victims of the attack were black. Three of four white youths who stood trial last fall in the case were convicted of manslaughter and assault. On direct questioning from prosecutor Edward Boyar, Grimes told the jury that about six white youths ran at him and his two companions as they left the New Park Pizzeria on Dec. 20, 1986. 07-07-1988

By DENISE BUFFA March 12, 2004 Cops were sloppy in investigating an allegedly drunken colleague whose car collided with a motorcycle in Bay Ridge in 2002, leaving the biker dead, prosecutors implied at trial yesterday. A captain called by prosecutors testified that he had to tell a sergeant three times to take the arrested office, Victor Wilson, to a station house for an alcohol test. Capt. Brian White said he finally had to escort Sgt. Bruno Boluci to his marked car to ensure Wilson was taken for the test. “I actually put him in the vehicle,” White testified during the second day of Wilson’s trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Wilson, who has nearly 14 years on the job, has pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the June 19, 2002, crash at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 88th Street that claimed the life of 21-year-old Stefanos Kiladitis. If convicted, Wilson faces up to seven years behind bars.

By Reuven Fenton New York Post A brother-and-sister team that pleaded guilty to peddling millions in counterfeit brand-name clothing and other merchandise got a virtual slap on the wrist yesterday, when a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that they were “sucked” into a life of crime. “I am convinced that these are good people who were engaged in bad conduct,” Judge Brian Cogan said after hearing Jian and Lin Hu’s teary statements. The two pleaded guilty to charges that they worked for ZX Trading, a counterfeit-smuggling ring that sold cheap goods — including knockoff Trojan condoms that had failed leakage tests — between 2002 and ’08 and transferred more than $12 million in profits to China. But Cogan found that the Hus were not among the defendants who sold the faulty condoms. Those ex-ZX employees are to be sentenced next month. The siblings said they were lured into the business by their brother and felt pressured to support struggling relatives overseas. Attorney Todd Greenberg represented Lin Hu.

Our client, a 74 year old female, was working in New York City at the time of her accident when, prior to work, she purchased coffee and was exiting a coffee shop. Upon exiting the coffee shop, she took three steps, turned to her left and tripped and fell on an obviously defective sidewalk, fracturing her shoulder necessitating surgery. Upon being retained, Attorney Todd Greenberg immediately sent an investigator to talk to the superintendent of the building who showed him a video tape of the accident occurring and our client’s fall. The investigator recorded the video on his cell phone which turned out to be very significant in that the Defendant ultimately couldn’t locate the video tape! The Defendant argued that they should not be liable because the defect was “open and obvious”. However, the video tape that Mr. Greenberg recovered did show a normal crowded sidewalk on a workday. During a pretrial mediation, Mr. Greenberg argued that as every New Yorker knows, when you exit an establishment onto the street, you look to both sides first for people coming in either direction. Since this defect existed in an area immediately outside the exit of the store, a customer would not have the opportunity to look down on the ground prior to walking! Case settled for $450,000.00, without our client assuming any liability for the accident! Call Addabbo and Greenberg if you are seriously injured in an accident at 718-268-0400 or visit us at www.www.addabboandgreenberg.com.

Addabbo and Greenberg takes great pride in announcing that by Order of the Honorable Alan D. Scheinkman, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, partner Dominic L. Addabbo has been reappointed as Chairperson of the Character and Fitness Committee, for the Second, Tenth, Eleventh and Thirteenth Judicial Districts, to investigate the character and fitness of applicants for admission to practice as attorneys in New York State. Presiding Justice Scheinkman complimented Mr. Addabbo on his past contribution to the Committee and expressed his confidence that Mr. Addabbo will continue to be a valuable asset to the Committee. Justice Scheinkman wrote: “The Justices of the Court have asked me to express their appreciation for your contribution to this Committee and its important work. Your efforts continue to benefit all of the citizens of your community by assisting the Bar in maintaining its high standards”. His selection to this Honored position reflects on Mr. Addabbo’s character and the high esteem he holds within the New York legal community. Our firm is extremely proud of Mr. Addabbo’s accomplishments and wish him continued success with the Committee on his reappointment as Chairperson for his second four year term.