Knicks legend Charles Oakley needs First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro bounced from his authorized spat over his notorious 2017 ejection from Madison Sq. Backyard – claiming the lawyer’s bid to remain on the case is a “battle of curiosity.”
The veteran litigator could be breaching Large Apple ethics guidelines by persevering with to rep the sector, which receives profitable metropolis tax breaks, whereas serving as a prime honcho within the mayor’s workplace, Oakley’s lawyer alleges.
“Courts have constantly doubted that any public servant – not to mention a high-ranking official – can concurrently serve the general public whereas operating a non-public regulation follow,” reads a letter filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court docket.
Mastro has withdrawn in current days from issues related to the town, like his work on New Jersey’s bid to kill New York’s congestion pricing plan, court docket data present.
However the lawyer, who has represented the sector and its billionaire chairman James Dolan in varied issues for 20 years, continues to be serving to his long-time purchasers defend Oakley’s swimsuit.
Mastro has agreed to rep the Midtown enviornment at no cost, will seem in court docket in his private capability and never as a consultant of the town, and has vowed to recuse himself from MSG-related issues whereas serving as first deputy mayor, a Metropolis Corridor spokesperson mentioned.
Town’s unbiased ethics board authorized the bizarre setup, in keeping with the mayor’s workplace, after Mastro mentioned that he has little or no work left on the case – a declare that Oakley’s lawyer contests – and that he’d request additional recommendation if that state of affairs modified.
However Mastro has not been granted a “waiver” that metropolis workers are required to acquire earlier than moonlighting in non-public jobs, Oakley lawyer Valdi Licul wrote to the court docket on Wednesday.
The mayor’s workplace maintains that the board discovered that, for now, no waiver was wanted.
“New York Metropolis’s unbiased Conflicts of Curiosity Board evaluated the circumstances of First Deputy Mayor Mastro’s restricted continued involvement within the Oakley litigation and suggested he may keep on the case throughout this dispositive part as long as he recuses himself from any subject involving his shopper throughout his metropolis authorities tenure,” spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus instructed The Submit.
“He has performed that, so there is no such thing as a battle right here to be waived,” Mamelak Altus added. “Finish of story.”
The mayor’s workplace mentioned COIB’s enter got here within the type of a secret “recommendation letter” during which the anti-corruption panel authorized Mastro’s continued work on the case.
Metropolis Corridor officers didn’t present a duplicate of the letter.
The letter says that Mastro’s work on the case could be restricted to just a few hours repping his long-time purchasers at a pre-trial convention and reviewing drafts of briefs, Mamelak Atlus mentioned.
Conflicts of Curiosity Board Govt Director Carolyn Miller declined to remark however referred a reporter to a bit of the Metropolis Constitution that she mentioned barred the board from discussing recommendation given to metropolis officers.
Mayor Eric Adams introduced plans to faucet Mastro, previously first deputy mayor underneath Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to the lofty publish in his administration final month.
An earlier bid to nominate him as the town’s Company Counsel, or prime lawyer, failed after Metropolis Counsel members blasted his work representing landlords, anti-congestion pricing teams and different events throughout his decades-long authorized profession.
Oakley filed his lawsuit towards MSG and Dolan in September 2017 over the ejection, claiming safety “used extreme drive in engaging in the removing.”
The years-long feud between the lads was revived in Might, when New York Courtroom of Appeals reinstated the twice-dismissed lawsuit. All claims towards Dolan himself have been tossed from the case.
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