NBA legend Charles Oakley’s lawyer is urging a decide to disqualify new First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro from defending Madison Sq. Backyard in opposition to a lawsuit by the previous basketball star — a requirement that comes after Mastro’s choice to remain on the case sparked ethics issues.
The swimsuit was filed by Oakley in 2017 over accusations he was unlawfully ejected from Madison Sq. Backyard throughout a Knicks sport after getting right into a verbal spat with the world’s billionaire proprietor, James Dolan.
Former Knicks participant Charles Oakley being booted from Madison Sq. Backyard on Feb. 8, 2017. (AP Picture/Frank Franklin II, File)
In a Wednesday letter to Manhattan Federal Court docket Decide Richard Sullivan, Oakley’s lawyer, Valdi Licul, wrote that these issues are severe sufficient Sullivan ought to bar Mastro from persevering with on the case whereas first deputy mayor. Licul cited an advisory opinion from town Conflicts of Curiosity Board holding that “a public servant who is an attorney may not have a private law practice which conflicts with the proper discharge of his or her official duties.”
“Mastro cannot continue to represent MSG without violating this provision,” Licul wrote to Sullivan. “Courts have consistently doubted that any public servant — let alone a high-ranking official — can simultaneously serve the public while running a private law practice.”
The long-running MSG case may go to trial, and Licul additionally argued that letting Mastro keep on it may create the looks to jurors that Adams’ administration “has taken sides in this private litigation, severely prejudicing Oakley.”
In response, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak mentioned it’s kosher for Mastro to remain on the MSG case as a result of he’s doing so in a private, unpaid capability.
She additionally mentioned the Conflicts of Curiosity Board gave Mastro permission to take action so long as he recuses himself from engaged on another MSG issues as first deputy. “He has done that,” she added.
Mamelak mentioned the board gave Mastro the OK in a confidential recommendation letter, however Adams’ workplace has declined to share a replica.
Licul, although, argued Mastro would wish a proper waiver to work on the MSG matter, citing one other advisory opinion from the board saying metropolis workers aren’t allowed to symbolize “a client that has business dealings with the City, even where the matter does not involve the City.”
Conflicts of Curiosity Board Govt Director Carolyn Miller declined to remark.
Miller beforehand confirmed Mastro didn’t get a waiver. As a consequence of confidentiality protocols, Miller has mentioned she will’t even acknowledge the existence of any confidential recommendation the board gave Mastro.
Adams, who nonetheless faces severe political headwinds amid fallout from the Trump administration’s profitable effort to drop his corruption indictment, named Mastro as first deputy mayor after initially trying to make him his company counsel final 12 months.
The corp counsel appointment collapsed after Metropolis Council Democrats made it clear they’d block Mastro’s rent out of concern about his work for ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and document of championing conservative causes in court docket. In contrast to the corp counsel position, Mastro didn’t want Council approval to grow to be first deputy.
