Ex-Judge Handling Ethics Case Appeal Works For Lobby Firm That Donated Thousands To Assembly
KEN LOVETT
A former top judge who Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver picked to oversee an ethics case appeal brought by Assemblyman Micah Kellner works for a prominent Albany lobbying firm that has donated thousands of dollars to Silver and the Assembly Democrats.
Former state Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine, a senior counsel at the firm, was selected by Silver in January to handle the unprecedented appeal.
Kellner is fighting sanctions imposed by Silver late last year when the Assembly Ethics Committee found he created a hostile work environment and violated the Assembly's sexual harassment policy by making inappropriate comments to staff members in 2009 and 2011.
Kellner, a Manhattan Democrat, has already announced he will not seek reelection this year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2014/03/judge-overseeing-ethics-case-appeal-works-for-lobby-firm-that-donated-thousand
