Judge accused of playing games during trial
Witness in Gotti conspiracy trial says judge was playing solitaire from the bench, asks her to take herself off the case.
Apparently the testimony of Guardian Angels-founder and radio host Curtis Silwa in the trial of John "Junior" Gotti, the man accused of devising a 1992 attempt on Silwa's life, just wasn't interesting enough for Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin.
According to the New York Daily News, Silwa told the paper he spotted the judge playing a game of Solitaire while he was giving testimony at Gotti's trial last year. The article makes no mention of any other witnesses having seen the judge playing games, and Scheindlin herself didn't return the papers requests for comment.
Silwa has suggested the judge remove herself from the case as a result. In calling for the judge to step down, Silwa referenced a February incident in which New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a city employee after finding the man playing Solitaire on his computer at work.
"Should a federal judge be playing video solitaire when an employee of the New York City government gets fired for playing video solitaire?" Sliwa told the paper. "I don't think any of us are that good at multitasking. To me that's an abuse and an outrage."
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