Diocese's attorney supplied copies of articles only after Court's request

The attorney representing the Diocese of Albany in lawsuits against it has denied any improper communication with the judge who was hearing the cases.

Michael L. Costello, an attorney with the firm of Tobin & Dempf in Albany, filed a sworn affidavit last week with the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.

John Aretakis, the attorney representing plaintiffs in the three cases involving how the Diocese dealt with clergy sexual abuse, had charged that Mr. Costello engaged in improper communication with Judge Joseph Teresi by sending him copies of articles from daily newspapers. Judge Teresi has since asked to be removed from the cases.

Court's request

Mr. Costello revealed in his affidavit that he had sent the copies only after being contacted by the Court "for copies of news articles...that had been published. There was no discussion by the Court or [by me] regarding the purpose of the request or the intended use of the articles."

He also said that he did not know if the Court had asked for copies of articles from Mr. Aretakis or other sources, although some of the articles had previously been submitted to the Court by Mr. Costello (as part of dismissal motions he had filed with the Court) and had been previously provided to Mr. Aretakis.

Complying with the Court's request, Mr. Costello forwarded news articles that had been published and appeared on websites. The material, he noted in his affidavit, "involved information in the public domain that is available to more than 100,000 readers of the daily newspapers in the Capital District and accessible on the worldwide web and in public libraries."

After Judge Teresi collected articles from what he called "various sources," he sent them to both lawyers.

Nothing improper

Mr. Costello noted that the delivery of the articles "did not affect a substantial right of either party," nor "provide a procedural or tactical advantage to either party" in the lawsuits, and therefore did not constitute "improper communication by or with the Court under the Code of Judicial Conduct or the Code of Professional Responsibility."

In his sworn affidavit, Mr. Costello also responded to a claim by Mr. Aretakis that current disciplinary actions against him (Mr. Aretakis) by the Disciplinary Committee of the New York Court System were based on complaints by the Diocese's lawyer.

Mr. Costello "categorically and specifically" denied those allegations.

(3/27/2003) [[In-content Ad]]