White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Bradley: Appellateers Denied Cross, Noted Technical Errors, Agreed on His Remedy

Adam Bradley, Glen Hockley’s attorney and orchestrator of the Hockley appeal, denied by the Appellate Court in Brooklyn Tuesday, contacted WPCNR Wednesday morning to provide insight into the murky depths of the Appellate Court decision.

Court Called for Special Election

Tuesday, the majority opinion of judges denied Glen Hockley’s appeal for the court to dismiss Judge Nicolai’s ordered District 18 election on petition and jurisdictional grounds

Bradley’s insight.

Mr. Bradley points out, that the majority of justices, in addition to the denial of Hockley’s contention of jurisdictional and petition irregularities, also dismissed Delgado’s Cross Appeal in which Mr. Delgado sought a judgment declaring him the winner of the election.

Key sentence in brief.

The Hockley advocate also pointed out to WPCNR that Mr. Delgado had wanted a District 18 only Special Election and that was denied by the court. Bradley advised WPCNR that the sentence at the conclusion of the majority opinion reading, “The remaining contentions raised on the appeal and cross appeal are without merit.” effectively referenced the dismissal of Delgado’s Cross Appeal asking him to be declared winner.

Bradley Backgrounder: Why Court Agreed with Hockley Ground Rules for Election.

Mr. Bradley advised WPCNR that, in his opinion, “the court agreed with Hockley’s contention of what the remedy should be: a citywide election.”

The court refers to the Buffalo case involving Doherty v. Mahoney, a case cited in Mr. Bradley’s brief as the basis for the court calling for a citywide election instead of Judge Nicolai’s District 18 only “continuation” with all six candidates contending.

Mr. Bradley described this race as being virtually a dead ringer for the White Plains situation that developed November 6, except that it was a council primary race. Bradley said there were six candidates involved, two won handily, the middle two were very close, the fifth and sixth vote getters way behind. There were 3 election districts with irregularities. The middle two candidates were very close in vote totals sued.

Bradley reports the appellate court ruled for an election in the disputed districts among all six candidates, but had that ruling (virtually identical to Judge Nicolai’s), reversed by the Court of Appeals which ruled for a citywide election between the middle two candidates contesting the third seat.

Bradley said the Court of Appeals decision in that Buffalo case was the basis for his argument that any special election should be citywide. Bradley said his arguments on the index number and petition irregularities were essentially acknowledged by the Appellate Court, though deemed by the court to be “correctible.”

Bradley commented that “This decision (the Appellate decision) is very unusual because it opens the floodgates that the Court of Appeals say should not exist.”

An appeal to Albany?

Mr. Bradley advised WPCNR that he was “entertaining it. The dissenting opinion is very persuasive.” He said the Democratic Party was holding a news conference at 9 AM Thursday morning at their 170 E. Post Road headquarters.

Courts lack precedents for New General Elections in Council races.

In a later telephone call Wednesday morning, Bradley said that “Case Law is very rare in new general elections. The statutes authorize new general elections in primaries, and only in 1992 did we have the first case in the state calling for a new general election in a council race. It’s why we don’t have many cases to guide us.”

Westchester Board of Elections awaits Nicolai Instructions.

Mr. Lafayette, one of the Board of Elections CO-Commissioners told WPCNR that the Board had to go back to court (before Judge Nicolai), to get instructions on who would be eligible to vote in the new citywide election. He said it was too early to speculate on how soon the new election could be held.

What would have happened if the Hockley Appeal had been granted?

The Westchester County Board of Elections would, had the appeal been granted, according to Reginald LaFayette, Commissioner, Westchester County Board of Elections, certify the canvass (including District 18 results), as it presently stands (Hockley ahead by 47 votes).

“It would be exactly like what happened in Florida,” LaFayette told WPCNR Wednesday morning.

For the record, the Delgado camp suggested in their arguments to Judge Nicolai in December that they were comfortable with a variety of election remedies. It was also argued by the Delgado camp before the Appellate Court that the Doherty case Bradley explained to WPCNR, was supportive of the Delgado position demanding a remedy.

WPCNR could not contact Bradley Tuesday evening because of our Planning Board coverage until 11:30 PM.


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