Judge: Lawyer John Aretakis won’t get to speak at Silver sentencing

By Casey Seiler
Times Union
May 02, 2016

http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/248749/judge-lawyer-john-aretakis-wont-get-to-speak-at-silver-sentencing/

John Aretakis speaks to the media during a press conference where Michael Cioppa, 39 of Latham alleged that he was sexually abused by a Catholic school teacher at La Salle Institute when he was 16 and 17 years-old Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, during a press conference outside the Pastoral Center in Albany, N.Y.

Attorney John Aretakis won’t get to make a victim impact statement at Tuesday’s sentencing of former Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The controversial attorney, who has represented several Capital Region residents who brought suit against the Catholic Church for clergy sexual abuse claims, sent a Dec. 15 letter to the court charging Silver with yanking back his support for a bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for victims of such abuse.

Aretakis suggested Silver’s change of heart was a factor of the state Catholic Conference retaining the services of Patricia Lynch Associates, the firm run by Silver’s former top aide. (The letter was sent months before it was revealed that federal prosecutors had what they described as credible evidence that Silver had two extramarital affairs; Lynch was subsequently identified in numerous reports as being one of the women whose names were redacted in the unsealed court document, though she has remained silent on the matter.)

“Send him away for 20 years,” Aretakis wrote. “Victims of sexual abuse as children want Mr. Silver to have sufficient time away to think about how he abandoned victims, to line his own pockets and the pockets of Ms. Lynch, and other lobbyists that fed off Mr. Silver for decades.”

Silver’s defense team objected to Aretakis’ request to address the court, and the prosecution acknowledged that he didn’t fit the definition of a victim.

Judge Valerie Caproni agreed. “Mr. Aretakis does not satisfy the definition of ‘crime victim’ under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act,” she said in a letter dated Friday.

In 2008, Aretakis had his law license suspended for a year after a string of incidents that the Appellate Division said “crossed the line separating zealous advocacy from professional misconduct.”

Silver’s sentencing is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Manhattan.