Judge Sanctions Lawyer, Says He Hijacked Case to Criticize Church
A federal judge has refused to reconsider his decision to sanction a Manhattan lawyer and ordered him to pay more than $12,000 in attorney fees for trying to “hijack” the eviction case of his client to attack the Catholic Church.
U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe of Syracuse wrote in an Aug. 18 order (PDF) that lawyer John Aretakis had made “scurrilous” claims and “monstrous” allegations in the litigation, the New York Law Journal reports.
Aretakis, who has filed several clergy abuse lawsuits, contended Catholic Charities defrauded his client when it offered her housing after Hurricane Katrina and then sold the building where she lived and evicted her.
Sharpe had ordered Aretakis to pay the church’s legal fees in a hearing last September. In his new order Sharpe awarded the church $10,000 of $14,300 in requested legal fees but tacked on nearly $2,400 in fees for the federal government’s legal time. However, Sharpe said Aretakis had not been assessed a $10,000 fine in the September hearing despite the lawyer’s mistaken assertion to the contrary.
Sharpe said Aretakis made several inflammatory statements about the church, the story says. Aretakis had contended the church raised money by highlighting client Tina Zlotnik’s plight and may have used the cash to defend itself in sex abuse scandals. The lawyer also claimed the church made money with inflated housing subsidies collected from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It is absolutely improper for a trained lawyer to file a bogus federal law suit in an effort to vent about his personal dissatisfaction with government,” Sharpe said.
Aretakis told the New York Law Journal that the judge’s opinion was an attempt to chill his speech and he will appeal.
