EMERGENCY MEETING TO DISCUSS KINGS COUNTY LEADERSHIP
Maurice Gumbs. FOOTNOTES, October 26, 2004

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Just about a month after Assemblyman Clarence Norman was re-elected as Kings County Democratic Leader by a 39/2/ vote(1 abstension), Footnotes has learned that all District Leaders have been invited to an emergency meeting within the next few days.

According to sources, an initial meeting of a smaller group of District Leaders has already taken place. It was at this meeting that the decision was made to call for a meeting of the entire group. There is reason to believe that the intention of the conveners of this meeting is to suggest that Clarence Norman and Jeff Feldman resign either immediately or within the near future, and to make plans for election of new leadership. Of course we may be wrong as to this agenda.

In an earlier column( SONNY RED, BIG PAULY AND BROOKLYN'S DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP) we predicted that it would only be a matter of time before Federal Agents begin digging into the secret affairs of the Kings County Leadership and the 42 District Leaders. We now believe that some of these District Leaders have become concerned that Clarence's court trials will lead to wide-ranging probes into Court-connected jobs, and sources of income that many district leaders, their friends and their relatives may have.

Although Clarence has consistently dismissed the charges against him as frivolous, most legal experts have always been convinced that he would be convicted of at least one felony count and several misdemeanors. When State Supreme Court Judge Marcus dismissed Clarence's Motion To Dismiss on the "travel voucher" indictment, he accompanied it with a 50 page decision. In that decision Judge Marcus virtually tried the case in advance. There is little "wiggle-room" for a successful defense.

In the "Diane Gordon $5,000 check" grand larceny indictment, Roger Adler, Clarence's lawyer seemed just about ready to concede to a misdemeanor. And in addition there are gaping holes in Clarence's alibi. Holes large enough to suggest tunnels to other felonies which have not been addressed. Beyond this, there is the $245,000 Mark Green matter which we believe will ultimately result in yet more indictments.

And then, there is the financial burden. Jeff Feldman, Clarence's assistant, is charged jointly with Clarence on a single indictment. According to information, Jeff's legal fees with attorney Ben Branfman could be in excess of $200,000. Clarence faces at least 4 indictments, and there may be more. The legal defense for these trials could be over $2,000,000 before it is all over. And it should be no surprise if Clarence has already paid out $300,000 in legal fees. Remember, this is an attempt to escape a jail sentence of possibly as much as a decade.

The fact that Clarence has started a Legal Defense Fund indicates that he will be running into a serious problem paying his legal bills. Moreover he is likely to find that not many people of substance will be lining up to write checks for an elected official facing several indictments which include bribery, fraud, and extortion. And lawyers have a way of declining IOU's on cases which are likely to end up in convictions

A year ago, as a single man, Clarence might have been expected to hang tough. With a brand new wife, and a baby expected in December, Clarence now has hostages which make him vulnerable. This is not like a baseball game where the Assemblyman will be in jail and kids in school or on the block will be asking his child: "Who's your Daddy?" or "Where's Your Daddy?"

So here's the question. Does Clarence take the gamble and use up all his assets and resources on the shaky proposition that he will win on all these felony counts? And if he loses what happens to his wife and child when he goes to jail?

Or does he play it safe, hold on to his money, and plea bargain on the charges?

Of course, there is one little hitch. Charles Hynes cannot permit Clarence to plea-bargain 4 felony indictments down to misdemeanors. He has to convict Clarence on at least one or two felonies. And Clarence cannot get away with just Community Service. Hynes has to make an example out of him. Clarence has to be removed from office and spend at least a year in jail. Anything less, and the newspapers as well as the public will accuse Hynes, just like Roger Adler does, of engaging in a ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money.

And finally, there may be a very critical question for the 42 District Leaders who will be at the Emergency Meeting. The proposition probably won't come up because Hynes needs the support of some of these District Leaders if he is to be re-elected next year. But it certainly could! Hynes could lose it, get real honest, and go for a home run, rather than just a bunt.

So suppose the DA decides to sweeten the pot for Clarence if the County Leader gives him some names of crooked judges and lawyers, District leaders, elected officials or other individuals involved in wrong doing of some kind.

Let's say Hynes offers to reduce the jail term from 2 years all the way down to 6 months. What would Clarence do? His career will be over. But he's had a good run. He'll relocate to Buffalo or Atlanta. He's in his 50's. He will have enough assets to live comfortably, and a pension coming up later.. He can stay home, be a good daddy, and take care of his child or children? And people will forget eventually. He can even turn to religion seriously and start a church like his father. Would Clarence really care or be concerned if a few District Leaders, elected officials and their friends get hurt so he could be reunited with his wife and baby. Would you? Our bet here, judging from past performance is that Clarence Norman will take care of himself as he always has.

As they say in baseball, and in the skin flicks. This one's going deep folks!!




THE NOOSE TIGHTENS FOR CLARENCE NORMAN AND MARK GREEN
By Maurice Gumbs. FOOTNOTES, June 28

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The fact that Clarence Norman's political club paid (with a check) for the racist hatchet job on Freddie Ferrer and Al Sharpton will not go away quickly. And the fact that Clarence Norman's political club took a quarter of a million dollars from Mark Green to prevent the first Latino from becoming Mayor will also not be easily forgotten..

This disgusting treachery buried Mark Green in the 2001 Mayoral election. Footnotes predicted long ago that Green's political career would be permanently terminated, and that has now occurred. We have only recently learned of the involvement of Clarence Norman, and we believe his days are numbered. The loud, clear message must be sent that there will be the harshest punishment for elected officials who engage in anonymous racial smears.

Any day now, Councilman Charles Barron is likely to walk up to Clarence Norman and slap him upside the head for what he and his club did.. Just on principle. And look for Reverend Al Sharpton to denounce Clarence as a Kneegrow for provoking racial hostility against Blacks and Latinos. Also expect the decent members of the Kings County Democratic Committee to issue a statement denouncing the County Leader, and demanding his resignation for promoting racial hostility against Blacks and Latinos.

Charles Barron is not afraid of anyone. The Councilman has made it clear that he will never remain silent when Blacks and Latinos are insulted, smeared, or treated unjustly. And it's not likely that Clarence's will be protected by his pigmentation. On the contrary, the fact that a Black organization has done this to Blacks and Latinos could drive Charles to violence. Al Sharpton who is very sensitive about his appearance will definitely respond to the fact that the Thurgood Marshall political club paid for a flier which made him look like a horrible perverted beast. Besides, if the recent presidential candidate does not go after Clarence, he will be charged with having a double standard for racist conduct.

Sharpton probably knows where to find the family of the deceased Thurgood Marshall. By now he has probably contacted them about this slur on the name of one of America's great heroes. And there should be no surprise if Sharpton and Barron hold a press conference in front of Clarence's office demanding that he take down the sign with Thurgood Marshall's name on it.

It won't be long (as they used to say at House of the Lord) before the entire sordid story is told to a Brooklyn Grand Jury. But before that, Barron and Sharpton will demand that both Mark Green and Clarence Norman tell the entire story to the public themselves. As it is, additional bits of the story are leaking out every day.

What the public has heard so far from the Daily News and the New York Sun is that the $6,500 for printing the racist fliers was paid with a check from Clarence's political club. Footnotes also believes that $3,000 given in cash to the club by Mark Green was for distribution of the fliers. Clarence admits that it was his club's check, but denies knowing what it was used for. The Assemblyman is doing the usual Norman shuffle and key members of the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club like Carmen Martinez, Jackie Ward, and William Boone from Medgar Evers are bound to suspect that the blame is being placed on them. The old Fire Wall game.

This may be why stories are leaking out from sources close to the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club. These sources predict that a Grand Jury will discover that County Leader Norman not only knew about the payment for the fliers but that he made arrangements for several boxes to be picked up from a warehouse in Bedford Stuyvesant and delivered into his custody.

Apparently, after the CBID club president expressed her horror at seeing the racist material at Green campaign headquarters, Green's managers got concerned that their smear strategy was about to be exposed. Clarence's club had been paid a quarter of a million bucks to stop Ferrer, and they were expected to be part of any Green operation. Between the Green campaign and Clarence's club, plans were made to have the entire 60 boxes of fliers delivered to the Bed/Stuy warehouse. Word has spread through Brooklyn that someone named Paratha, was scheduled to organize the distribution. Paratha is said to have a reputation for "night-work" during election campaigns.

However, as the matter became sticky, Green managers reportedly ordered the shredding of about 50 boxes that remained in the Bed/Stuy warehouse. These Green managers have now leaked statements claiming that their people were there to supervise and witness the shredding which went on for hours. Footnotes has been told that among the witnesses was a member of Mark Green's security detail... making it difficult for Green to deny knowledge of this entire event. They also claim that they can prove that the only boxes which were not shredded were the ones delivered into the custody of Assemblyman Clarence Norman.

If this report is accurate, then it means that Clarence's club did not just pay for the fliers, but was the sole distributor for the racist fliers which were distributed.

By John Rizzio Hamilton
As printed in the Courier Life Newspapers
April 1, 2002

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Norman Weathering The Storm It's been a tough week for Assemblymember Clarence Norman, Jr., the county Democratic leader, who has come under intense scrutiny for $115,00 in no-interest loans his campaign committee took from the county Democratic party and $245,00 Norman's political club received from Mark Green's mayoral campaign. The initial front page story in the Daily News revealed that although the county committee had reported the loans, Norman's state campaign committee had not. Norman was unable to offer a detailed accounting of how the funds were spent, saying only that they went to campaign operations around the borough, and that his committee accountants had forgot to report them.

Additionally, a close Norman ally, Jackie Ward, was paid more than $95,000 for work on Green's campaign from the money Green had given Norman's Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club. Ward, who is employed to the tune of $80,000 per year by Comptroller William Thompson, Jr. (another Norman ally), was also paid $38,000 for work on Jeannette Gadson's (another Norman ally) losing borough presidential bid.

A subsequent piece by the Village Voice made "the case for criminal charges" while simultaneously questioning the political independence of District Attorney Charles Hynes' (again, a Norman ally). The Voice argued that if the loans from the county committee were spent in primary campaigns, each expenditure would be a misdemeanor violation of the state election law, which prohibits a party organization from spending on primaries.

Both the state board of elections and the city campaign finance board are looking into the revelations, which may in fact turn out to be less-than-earth-shattering reporting violations. Norman has maintained that there was nothing improper about the transactions. The stories come at a difficult time for Norman, who is caught up in a swirl of controversy regarding the county party's influence on the scandal-tarred Brooklyn judiciary, and a string of disappointing local and citywide election defeats, with only the most recent being Councilmember Angel Rodriguez' failed bid for speaker.

Either Norman's enemies smell blood, or they just enjoy piling on. "My phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting me to run against him for assembly," said Councilmember James E. Davis, who is also a district leader. District leaders vote to elect the county leader.

District Leader Elizabeth Daly of the 52nd Assembly District said that there is growing discontent with Norman in Brooklyn's more liberal circles. "People are very concerned," she said. "You have these headlines and it looks like the Democrats are engaging in all these shenanigans. People look and wonder why they should get involved in politics. It's beyond discouraging, because one of the things that I've been trying to do is get people involved." Sources said that apart from the off-putting appearance of back room dealing, the large amount of money pouring into Norman's club and committee is enough in and of itself to ruffle feathers among district leaders. "The damaging thing was the $245,000 from Green going to [Norman's] club, because now you have 38 other district leaders asking, hey, where's mine," said one source.

But Norman still commands significant support among the political establishment, and this latest controversy does not seem to have truly threatened his standing. District Leader Bernie Catcher blasted the News for its story. "The Daily News is just looking to become muckrakers and they've decided to start in Brooklyn," he said. "As a district leader, I'm concerned that Clarence treats my community, my club and my members fairly, and I've always found that to be the case."

District Leader Ralph Perfetto also expressed support for Norman. "I've told my people not to rush to judgment," he said. "If anything, I think it's carelessness. I don't think it's a deliberate attempt to deceive anyone. He's also a gentleman, and a class act." Even Davis, who is constantly searching for chinks in Norman's armor, said that Norman is insulated by too many high-powered allies to be seriously wounded.

"Weakened? Weakened is a joke," he said. "Who's going to investigate him?" he asked, noting Norman's close ties to Hynes and to state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. "There's only one way for Clarence Norman, Jr. to be taken out and that is for someone to run against him for the assembly and defeat him. Maybe this will reach some of his constituents, who will say enough is enough. Other than that, this is just a few extra lines in the paper."