Bernard Spitzer, Eliot Spitzer's dad, denies racial discrimination charges
BY MICHAEL SAUL, DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, Tuesday, November 25th 2008, 1:16 AM
LINK

Bernard Spitzer, the real estate developer father of disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, gingerly climbed into the witness stand Monday to deny allegations of racial discrimination at one of his Manhattan luxury apartment buildings.

Looking fragile at age 84 but still mentally sharp, Spitzer testified he had nothing to do with the firing of four African-American employees who filed a lawsuit in 1999 claiming they lost their jobs because of the color of their skin.

The four men, who worked as doormen or porters at the 34-story building located at 150 E. 57th St., are seeking $2 million each, their attorney said.

"As far as I know, the termination was in no way, in no way affected by the color of their skin," testified Spitzer, who has Parkinson's disease and walks with a cane.

In testimony in Bronx Supreme Court that lasted about an hour, Spitzer admitted he visited the building frequently but denied talking with the employees or paying attention to their skin color.

"I didn't see a white doorman or a black doorman," Spitzer said. "I saw a doorman."

When pressed if he could discern an employee's race, he reiterated, "I don't see the blackness or whiteness or pinkness or yellowness of a doorman."

His mind focuses, he testified, "on the fact that he is a doorman and functioning as a doorman."

Spitzer said he hired Gumley-Haft Inc. as the building's management company and that he personally approved the hiring of the superintendent, Peter Senna. He insisted he did not ax the employees or sign off on their firing. He said he learned of their termination when he was sued.

Gumley-Haft settled last week for a confidential sum, said Anthony Ofodile, who is representing the four men in the case.

During afternoon testimony, Edward Moffatt, a white former employee, said he heard the building's super use a racial epithet once.

Moffatt testified that Senna told him, "I'm getting rid of all the blacks, but he used the N-word."

"He said I'm getting rid of all the black n-------," he testified.

Outside the courtroom, Moffatt told the Daily News he thought Senna was guilty of racial discrimination. When asked if he thought Spitzer was guilty, too, he replied, "No."

Spitzer's testimony comes eight months after his son resigned his governorship when he became ensnared in a high-priced prostitution scandal. The elder Spitzer's fortune is estimated at more than $500 million

msaul@nydailynews.com

Eliot Spitzer's father 'not a pleasant guy,' jury told
BY MICHAEL SAUL, DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Tuesday, November 25th 2008, 10:59 PM
LINK

Eliot Spitzer's dad was so picky that he checked for dust and complained about a sitting doorman, a former superintendent at one of his buildings testified.

"He wasn't always the most pleasant guy," said Peter Senna, who was super at 150 E. 57th St., a luxury Manhattan apartment building owned by Bernard Spitzer.

"He was a very stern character," Senna told jurors in Bronx Supreme Court, and once snapped, "If you can't keep the building clean, I'll find somebody who can."

In a suit against the disgraced former governor's father, four men who worked as doormen or porters at the building claim they were fired for being black. Senna enforced his no-blacks policy, they allege.

Plaintiff Anthony Hayden said that after Senna found debris on the sidewalk, he said, "This is why Spitzer doesn't want n------ working at this building."

Senna denied the N-word slur and insisted race played no role in the employees' firing, but did say Spitzer complained they were lazy. Describing the kind of workers management sought, Senna said, "They wanted sharp people. They wanted the building to have a very upscale image."

That language is "code" for race, said Anthony Ofodile, the plaintiffs' lawyer.

msaul@nydailynews.com

Governor Spitzer's dad a political pawn?
BY JOE MAHONEY, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, Saturday, September 8th 2007, 4:00 AM
LINK

ALBANY - A powerful state Senate Republican said yesterday that if elderly real estate mogul Bernard Spitzer gets a subpoena, it's because his son - Gov. Spitzer - has pushed campaign finance reform.

"He is the advocate for this, and here are all these irregularities and questions in his own campaign fund-raising," said Senate Elections Committee Chairman Joseph Griffo (R-Utica).

But whether the governor's 83-year-old father will receive a subpoena to testify about questionable loans to his son's 1994 and 1998 campaigns for attorney general remains to be seen.

"No decisions have been made, and all options are open," Griffo told the Daily News.

Democrats say Republicans are heeding the counsel of controversial strategist Roger Stone, who was bounced from his job advising the Senate GOP after he allegedly made a threatening phone call to the governor's dad warning he'd be "hauled" to Albany. Stone denies making the call.

"I can't believe the Republicans would stoop this low," said Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan).

The interest in old loans has emerged as Republicans look for new ways to weaken an administration already reeling from Troopergate - the scandal involving high-ranking Spitzer aides misusing state police to discredit Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno.

Spitzer communications chief Darren Dopp, who fed specially created police records on Bruno's use of state aircraft to a newspaper, was reinterviewed for three hours by Albany prosecutors looking into Troopergate.

"I have nothing to hide," Dopp said at the courthouse. "I look forward to the time when I can tell my side of the story."

jmahoney@nydailynews.com

With Celeste Katz

BERNARD SPITZER - DO THE RIGHT THING
SETTLE THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SUIT AGAINST YOU
LINK

We understand that Bernard Spitzer, father of former Governor Spitzer is gravely ill and for that we are very sorry. But we appeal to Mr. Spitzer now... before God... to do the right thing and settle the racial discrimination lawsuit pending against him.

Instead Bernard Spitzer's high-priced lawyers have been fighting four African Americans since 1999 to deny us simple justice.

We are four men of African American descent who were employed in a high-end luxury residential building owned by Bernard Spitzer and managed for him by Gumly Haft. We were initially hired as doormen and maintenance workers by the management company. After Bernard Spitzer became aware of our employment, each of us was terminated within two weeks of each other, for no apparent reason. In each case termination was preceded by an orchestrated campaign of harassment that was designed to induce the four of us to quit.

This campaign of harassment included the assignment for doormen to clean the building toilets with a toothbrush, in once case being told "your kind should be use to it by now," and "clean it good, boy" by his supervisor.

One of us who was fired was told by his supervisor when he protested, "you don't get it - Mr. Spitzer told us to get rid of all the niggers." All statements have been sworn to in a lawsuit which Mr. Spitzer is trying to get dismissed.

Not coincidentally, we were terminated just prior to our qualification for union membership and union protection. We were each terminated just before becoming eligible to become members of local 32 BJ, which would have given us protection from being fired without probable cause.

All of this came after direct confrontation with Bernard Spitzer himself on the building property. He refused to respond to any of us - even to a simple "good morning Mr. Spitzer." On one occasion when he saw one of my African American co-workers at the front desk filling in for a concierge who was in the restroom, he went out of his mind yelling, turned real red and stomped off.

Nonetheless, we wrote to Mr. Spitzer to appeal to him about our jobs and he never responded. We called his office and we were told, "There is nothing he can do." Mr. Spitzer's lawyers now claim falsely he knew nothing about the situation - a blatant lie.

We decided to pursue it legally. Management did not anticipate that the four of us would maintain communication with each other after being terminated.

The terminations took place in 1999 and we filed suit against Bernard Spitzer and his management company Gumly Haft.

Our first attorney was very aggressive, at first, but seemed to lose interest after he said he was contacted by the New York Attorney General's office. He subsequently failed to make a number of court filings on time and the lawsuit came close to being dismissed due to a statute of limitations. Our attorney just stopped returning our calls.

We fired that attorney and retained new one, Mr. Anthony Ofodil, Esq., who was able to keep the suit alive. In a hearing on February 26th, 2008, Mr. Spitzer's lawyers moved to dismiss the suit.

Bernard Spitzer's lawyers have used a series of delays to keep this matter from going to trial for almost 10 years. Each of us was offered $25,000, less legal fees, to settle. Frankly, after the first lawyer, none of us would have gotten more than $1,500. Settlement would have required a strict confidentiality agreement.

Because I guess they think I am the ringleader, one lawyer for Mr. Spitzer asked Anthony Haydenn if he would take $5,000 cash personally to convince the others to end the lawsuit. He promised not to tell the others I got money. Haydenn refused.

Bernard Spitzer was on the premises of each of these buildings on a daily basis, was fully aware of the harassment and racial slurs outlined in our lawsuit and it is clear that although we were harassed and terminated by Gumly Haft management, it was at the direction of Bernard Spitzer.

Mr. Ed Moffat, who just happens to be Caucasian and a former employee of Gumly Haft, is willing to testify on our behalf that he heard the superintendent, Peter Senna of the building located at 150 E. 57th Street, that the men (we) were fired as Mr. Spitzer told them to get rid of all the niggers."

I wrote to the American Civil Liberty Union and unfortunately they cannot help us. I also wrote to the NAACP and Rev. Al Sharpton but did not hear back from them.

We have started an online petition to former Governor Eliot Spitzer who has full authority over his ailing father's business and affairs. It's time to do the right thing. It's time for a fair settlement. Sign the petition to urge Eliot Spitzer to redeem himself by convincing his father to settle this suit with dignity so that we do not have to sue his estate for justice.

The 57th Street Four

Anthony Haydenn ~ Akim Rodriguez ~ Mr. Leonard Boyce ~ Mr. Trevor Morris

for more information contact: haydenn7@gmail.com, 718-435-5812

NYCLU response letter
Complaint

From E-Law:
11/25/2008 SUPREME - TRIAL IA16 CASE ON TRIAL
Judge: LUCY A. BILLINGS 2

By MOTION, originally made returnable on February 22, 2008, A PARTY FOR DEFENDANT MOVED THIS COURT, in SUBMISSION MOTIONS-ROOM 217, seeking the following relief: SUMMARY JUDGEMENT DEFENDANT. This motion was decided on September 24, 2008 by Judge WILMA GUZMAN.

The Judge's decision is set forth in A MEMORANDUM. This decision was presented to the County Clerk for entry and filing on September 30, 2008. Please note that this presentation date is NOT THE DATE OF ENTRY. The Date of Entry, or filing date, by the County Clerk appears on an actual stamped copy of the decision/order. Click here to ORDER a copy.

According to court records, the motion was decided as follows:
As to the relief described as: SUMMARY JUDGEMENT DEFENDANT; the motion is MOTION DENIED.

Governor Spitzer's father a member of all-white club
BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER,
Saturday, October 27th 2007, 4:00 AM
LINK

Gov. Spitzer's well-off dad belongs to an all-white social club that the governor's top pick to head the MTA was forced to quit last week.

Bernard Spitzer, a self-made developer turned philanthropist, is one of about 1,100 members of The Harmonie Club on the upper East Side. He joined the private club about 30 years ago.

The club started exclusively for white, Jewish males who were shut out of other clubs. While it now accepts all races, all members are believed to be white.

The posh club came under scrutiny recently when it was revealed that the newly installed MTA chairman, Dale Hemmerdinger, also was a longtime member.

Several Albany lawmakers said it was inappropriate for a high-ranking public official to belong to an all-white club. Hemmerdinger quit last week, as did Mayor Bloomberg in 2001 before running for mayor, to quell criticism.

This summer, Sen. Barack Obama, a black presidential candidate, pulled out of a fund-raiser at The Harmonie because it had no minority members.

A spokeswoman for the governor, Christine Anderson, said Bernard Spitzer "is a member" of Harmonie. The governor is not and never has been a member, she said.

Asked why Gov. Spitzer didn't disclose his father's membership in the controversial club when the issue arose last week, Anderson said, "If the club discriminated, membership would be an issue, but it does not."

The story was first reported in The New York Sun.

klucadamo@nydailynews.com

Dumb as a rock
Saturday, August 25th 2007, 4:00 AM
Editorial

When Majority Leader Joe Bruno hired Roger Stone, he was looking for a political strategist who could help Republicans maintain their slim hold on the state Senate. What he got instead was a $20,000-a-month crank caller.

Stone stands credibly accused of leaving a foul-mouthed, threatening tirade on the answering machine of Gov. Spitzer's father. The wacko stunt cost Stone a lucrative gig and exposed Bruno's entire "investigation" of the Spitzer administration as an overhyped hit job.

We are delighted to present Stone with this New York Knucklehead Award for being more juvenile than a 3-year-old.

With Stone whispering instructions in his ear, Bruno managed to blow the Eliot Mess out of all proportion. Stupidity by a few gubernatorial aides who bent the Freedom of Information rules to dish dirt on Bruno was masterfully inflated into a scandal tantamount to Watergate, conveniently distracting attention from Bruno's abuse of state police helicopters to attend political fund-raisers.

But then, clumsily losing self-control, Stone pulled back the curtain on Oz and got caught on tape bullying Spitzer's 83-year-old father and calling the governor himself a "phony, psycho piece of s---."

Then came Stone's hilariously nutty denials. Asked to explain how his voice and caller ID found their way onto Bernard Spitzer's machine, Stone suggested darkly that his landlord, Dale Hemmerdinger, Spitzer's pick for MTA chairman, is the governor's pal with "access" to Stone's apartment and telephone. Will someone give the man a tinfoil cap?

Then Stone offered an alibi. He couldn't have made the phone call because he was at a play. Oops, there was no show that evening.

Bruno has no one but himself to blame for the egg on his face. The Senate GOP was looking for a bareknuckle, underhanded brawler to keep its shrunken majority alive through the 2008 elections, and they hired a doozy.