Bethpage-Tribune_1975-11-27

              B F T H B ^
OLD BETHBM3E
also serving ISLAND TREES
PLAINVIEW PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 10 NO. 1 Thursday, November 27, 1975 10 cents per copy
THEY'RE HAVING A BALL: Members of the Board of Directors
of the American Heart Association, Nassau Chapter (left to right)
Daniel T. Sweeney, Esq. (Jericho), Chairman of the Heart Fund
Advisory Committee and General Counsel of Sterling Nassau Cable
Television; John E. McDermott (Glen Cove) of Hurdman & Cran-stoun;
and (right) Peter F. Pill (Glen Head), Heart Association
Board Chairman, and Senior Vice-President, European American
Bank, meet with 1»76 Heart Fund Ball Chairman, (3rd left) Abraham
Shames (Bethpage) one of Long Island's major builders and
developers, to discuss plans for the upcoming event. The Ball will be
held Saturday, April 10,1976 at the Colonie Hill, Hauppauge and over
1,000 guests are expected to attend. Proceeds from this gala event
will help provide the funds necessary to ensure continuity in the
search for the causes and controls of the cardiovascular diseases.
Dillon Warns Watch
For Holiday Con Artists
Denis Dillon, District Attorney
of Nassau County warns that, as
the holiday shopping season
approaches and holiday club
checks are cashed, con men will
be plying their trade in stores and
shopping centers.
The District Attorney said that
his Commercial Frauds Bureau
has reports of a scheme presently
operating in Nassau which has
victimized shoppers and small
store owners within the past
weeks.
Dillon said "It is a clever form
of the envelope switch. The con
man or woman will be seen at­tempting
to stuff a large sheaf of
one dollar bills into a small
greeting card envelop.
"As the victim begins to show
some interest or sympathy at the
impossibility of the task, the con
man will smile disarmingly and
explain that he is sending off a
Christmas gift to his favorite
nephew.
"The con artist then asks the
victim if he has $100 in large bills.
When the helpful victim offers
two fifty dollar bills or five
twenties, the con man slides the
large bills into the envelope and
gives the victim the pile of single
telling him to count them
carefully because there might not
be exactly one hundred.
"Invariably, the singles will
total ninety-seven or ninety-eight
dollars. The con man will im­mediately
return the greeting
card envelope to the victim,
retrieve his shorted stack of
singles and askthe victim to wait
while he goes off to ask his wife
for the missing two or three
dollars.
"Naturally, the con man never
returns and the victim soon
discovers that the envelope
contains nothing but cut
newspapers".
Dillon said "the scheme is very
simple and can be worked by one
man, which is the reason for its
popularity among con men.
A more complicated "money
switch" which usually revolves
around a "lucky find" of a large
sum of money, requires the joint
effort of two or more swindlers
generally of different racial or
ethnic backgrounds. In this
scheme the victim, usually an
elderly person, is approached by
one of his "own kind" and is
persuaded to trust one con man
and distrust his partner.
District Attorney Dillon ad­vises
that anyone who thinks he
has been, or is about to become
the victim of a switch should
immediately call the District
Attorney's Commercial Frauds
Bureau at 535-3340, or the nearest
police precinct.
HAPPY CHANUKAH
L.I. Support For Federal Court
The two largest legal
organizations on Long Island -
the Bar Association of Nassau
County and the Suffolk County
Bar Association - today called on
Congress and the federal court
system to establish a new federal
district court in Nassau or Suffolk
counties to serve the needs of
three million residents of
suburban Long Island.
At present, the United States
District Court for the Eastern
District has one location -- in
downtown Brooklyn - which
serves the areas of Brooklyn,
Queens, Staten Island, and
Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Both Bar associations have
passed resolutions calling on the
Long Island members of
Congress, as well as the U. S.
District Court and the Members
of the U.S. Court of Appeals (for
the Second Circuit) to begin
immediate action to legislatively
create a new division of the
Eastern District of New York for
the Nasau-Suffolk community.
This new division would include
not only adequate courthouse
facilities, which would be con­veniently
located and accessible
to residents of both counties, but
also the necessary permanent
assignment of judges, staffing,
and ancillary support facilities
lor the new division. Funding
would have to be authorized by
Congress.
Among the reasons cited by the
two Bar associations for a new
federal court facility on Long
Island:
• the residents of Nassau and
Suffolk are now being denied
easy access to the federal court
jurisdiction, by reason of the
tremendous travel times to and
lrom the present facility in
Brooklyn. For example, the trip
from Mineola to Brooklyn takes
at least one hour; from Hun­tington,
one and a hlaf hours;
lrom Kiverhead, two and a half
hours or more.
• the distance and time factor
places great hardship on litigants
and lawyers, as well as jurors
and witnesses. The cost of legal
services necessarily reflects the
time spent by attorneys in
traveling to the court, and
sometimes makes it
economically unfeasible to use
the federal jurisdiction.
• Many Long island residents
who are prospective jurors are
automatically deferred from
lederal jury duty if they live 25
miles or more from the Brooklyn
Courthouse (on the basis of
personal hardship). This means
that often a cross-section of the
Nassau Suffolk community may
be missing lrom a jury which is
hearing a case involving a
Nassau Sullolk resident.
• the present itemporary*
court facility, located in West-bury,
has proved to be totally
inadequate, and has been
operated without lull support
lrom the lederal district couri.
The absence ol a clerk, marshall,
detention lacilities, jury selection
lacililies, and lull lime judges,
has doomed (Ins lacility to failure
lrom the start. Earlier this year,
the court was abandoned (except
for the bankruptcy part), leaving
Island residents completely
without federal court facilities in
the local region.
Noting that Long Island suffers
by comparison with other
jurisdictions of the federal
district court, the Bar
Associations pointed out the
following inequities:
• At present, the heavily
populated Eastern District has
one lacility to serve its territory -
located in the Borough Hail
section of Brooklyn.
• lederal regulations provide
authority for the holding of
District Courts around the
nation - at present, there are 422
dillerent locations. The average
population served by each
location is 503,700.
• in the six most populous
states (California, Illinois, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Texas), there are 80 locations
which serve 84,520,000 persons ~
an average of 1,000,000 persons
per court location. The Eastern
District Court serves an area
with a population of over 8 million
persons.
• in the 25 states whose
population exceeds that of the
Nassau-Suffolk region, the fewest
court locations is four...to the
North, our Connecticut neighbors
enjoy five separate court
locations, in a district with a
population of three million
t directly comparable to Nassau
and Suffolk county total
population).
The Board of Directors of each
Bar Association have sent letters
to the members of Congress who
represent districts in Nassau and
Suffolk counties, and to the
various federal judicial bodies
having jurisdiction, calling for
immediate establishment of a
new division for Long Island,
with adequate physical facilities
in the Eastern Nassau Western
Suffolk area.
Commenting on the proposal,
John J. Hart, Jr., President of the
Suffolk Bar Association stated:
"It is a matter of great concern to
us that the residents of Suffolk
County, New York's fastest
growing county, do not have
adequate access to the federal
court system, Some must travel
two, three and even four hours
one way during rush hours to
reach the Brooklyn Courthouse,
and this is a plainly inequitable
situation. With the increasing
role that the federal govenment
and federal laws are playing in
all of our lives, we must have
better access to the federal court
facilities than we now have."
The President of the Bar
Association of Nassau County,
James A. Miner, commented,
"When the present Eastern
Distirct of New York was
established, in 19(H), the true
center of population was in the
City of Brooklyn. However, the
lederal government must now
lace the facts of life - the post
war boom has swelled Long
Island s population by millions of
new residents, and has produced
a very dramatic shift in the way-of-
lile for all of our residents. An
expansion of the lederal court
system and lacilities is obviously
needed to serve the Nassau-
Suffolk region, which now has
more population than fully half of
the States in the Union."
Mr. Hart and Mr. Miner in­dicated
that their respective
organizations have placed a
very high proprity on the need to
establish a new division for the
Eastern District Court, and that
both organizations would commit
their full resources to the effort
that is needed to win support at
all levels of government for the
new Court facility.
- \
CONGRESSIONAL FOKIJM Harry Smith of Bethpage
congratulated t ougrcssman Norman F. Lent (at podium) on his
efforts Ui get the 200 mile fishing limit through the House ol
Representatives. Lent was u cosponsor of the recently passed bill.
Tin- fishing limit hill, energy policy, and New York City's money
problems were among the things on the minds of the people who
turned oui lor the fourth in a series of Commuiiity Congressional
lorums held l>> Rep. Lent throughout the llh Congressional District.