www.preserve-ramapo.com
“Carole Anderson, a longtime public education advocate in East Ramapo, has been appointed an interim member of the school board.
Anderson fills the seat of Bernard Charles, who resigned his position as part of a plea deal with the Rockland District Attorney’s Office. Charles pleaded guilty in February to misdemeanor petty larceny; he was accused of renting out town property to pocket the fee. [Read more…]
Front Page of the Journal News March 17, 2018
“Disgraced former Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence is due to be released from the federal prison system on Friday.
St. Lawrence, a Democrat who served as Ramapo’s supervisor from 2000 to May 2016, was convicted by a federal jury in May 2017 of 20 counts of securities and wire fraud, and conspiracy, in a scheme to finance the town baseball stadium. [Read more…]
Ramapo Supervisor Michael Specht Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News
“Ramapo Town Supervisor Michael Specht is recovering from a two-week bout with the coronavirus that drove his temperature up to 102 degrees and left him fatigued and nauseous.
“I had what was probably in the moderate side of the disease but it was very debilitating and painful,” he said Friday morning in a phone interview.
“I urge everyone to stay home. … It’s not fun,” Specht said between lingering coughs. “I was very lucky. For people who are not so lucky, it can be very serious.” [Read more…]
“Black members of the East Ramapo school board were effectively shut out of settlement talks that could have headed off a month-long trial over a voting rights challenge by the NAACP and saved the cash-strapped district millions of dollars in legal fees, the New York Civil Liberties Union says.
NYCLU attorney Perry Grossman, in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel, says the district turned down a settlement that would have waived the fees incurred by lawyers representing the NAACP during the two and a half years leading up to the trial.
The offer was rejected despite Seibel’s eleventh-hour attempt to get both sides to come to an agreement by inviting all the board’s members to a settlement conference on Feb. 10, the day the trial started in White Plains federal court. [Read more…]
Melissa Reimer Photo: Joe Larese/ The Journal News
“Former town finance official Melissa Reimer — credited as a whistleblower in a federal investigation that brought down former Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence — and Ramapo have settled her lawsuit for retaliatory dismissal for more than $2.4 million.
The Town Board approved the agreement on Wednesday night, more than two years after three board members voted to fire Reimer on disciplinary charges after she had been suspended with pay from her $170,000 job in June 2013. [Read more…]
Rabbi Oshry runs from reporters after leaving US District Court in Whirte Plains Photo: Tania Savayan LoHud
East Ramapo School District in Federal Court UPDATE. The Journal News February 29
“An Orthodox Jewish rabbi facing arrest for ignoring a judge’s order emerged from the shadows on Thursday to defend his behind-the-scenes role in choosing candidates for the East Ramapo school board.
And when Rabbi Yehuda Oshry’s testimony was over he sprinted from photographers waiting to take his picture outside the federal courthouse in White Plains.
That was after East Ramapo Central School District Superintendent Deborah Wortham tried to lead court spectators in a round of applause for coworkers but was shot down by the judge. [Read more…]
East Ramapo School District in Federal Court UPDATE. The Journal News February 24
“The federal judge presiding over a voting rights case involving the East Ramapo school board on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi who has so far resisted efforts to get him to testify.
U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel gave Rabbi Yehuda Oshry until Thursday morning to appear in White Plains or face arrest.
“I don’t think he can hide in his house forever,” Seibel said Tuesday. “He’s just inviting incarceration if he doesn’t come today or tomorrow.” [Read more…]
East Ramapo School District in Federal Court UPDATE The Journal News February 21
Harry Grossman School Board President Photo: Yated.com
“East Ramapo school board president Harry Grossman faced mounting questions on Friday about his behind-the-scenes communications with Orthodox Jewish religious leaders and other members of the board.
In 2016, Grossman told fellow board member Sabrina Charles-Pierre, a black public school parent, to remember that she could be voted out at any time.
He repeated the message at least six times between April and August of that year, according to Facebook messages entered into evidence by lawyers for the NAACP.
“If there really was any desire by anybody to remove you from the board, all that would need to be done was to run a candidate against you,” said Grossman in message from July of 2016. “Orthodox community could have just voted you out in May.” [Read more…]
East Ramapo School District in Federal Court UPDATE The Journal News Feb. 20
Harry Grossman School Board President Photo: Yated.com
“The federal judge deciding a voting rights challenge by the NAACP attacked the testimony of the president of the East Ramapo school board Thursday, suggesting he crafted his testimony to avoid telling all he knew about the role Orthodox Jewish leaders play in board elections.
U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel, responding to an objection by a lawyer for the East Ramapo Central School District, offered her take on the testimony of board president Harry Grossman.
“I’m offended by what I’ve seen here today,” Seibel said. “And I think anybody who reads plain English would feel the same way.
“I cannot tell a lie,” Seibel added. “I do think this witness is not credible.” [Read more…]
East Ramapo School District Board in Federal Court UPDATE
“Lawyers for the NAACP on Tuesday used private conversations from the WhatsApp messaging platform to bolster their claims that Orthodox Jewish leaders led a behind-the-scenes effort to dominate seats on the East Ramapo Central School District board.
Excerpts of conversations between Harry Grossman, the district’s school board president, and others were introduced as evidence in a federal voting rights trial that will decide whether the district’s system for electing its school board members limits the participation of blacks and Latinos.
Among the conversations was a 2017 exchange between Grossman and Rabbi Hersh Horowitz, the executive director of the Monsey-based Community Outreach Center. [Read more…]