Prophecy

LINKY

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By Associated Press, 5/21/2003 11:58
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) An Arab-American woman who was fighting a pair of parking tickets says she fainted in court after the judge asked if she was a terrorist.

The judge confirmed that he made the remark but said he was ''probably kidding with her.'' And he denied her claim that he also accused her of financially supporting terrorists.

There was no transcript of the proceedings. The woman, Anissa Khoder, has filed a complaint against the judge, Village Justice William Crosbie, with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Khoder told The Journal News that as she approached Crosbie's table in court on Thursday, the judge considered her name out loud and asked if she was a terrorist. She said she was stunned and offended but kept that to herself.

She claimed that after giving the judge her explanation for why the tickets should be dismissed, ''He said something like, 'You have money to support the terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket.' I could not believe I was hearing that.''

She collapsed to the floor. A court officer and two Tarrytown police officers helped her and called for an ambulance, but Khoder recovered and declined medical attention.

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano called for the immediate resignation of Crosbie.

''This kind of ethnic slur is unacceptable for anyone to make and particularly onerous when it comes from a judge on the bench who has an obligation to be sensitive and act with decorum,'' said Spano.

Spano said he's directed the county's Human Rights Commission to look into the incident.

Crosbie, 79, told the newspaper that he asked Khoder if she were a terrorist, and acknowledged that it ''may have been inappropriate.'' But he denied saying anything further regarding terrorism.

Khoder, 46, was born and raised in Lebanon and came to the United States 14 years ago. She became a U.S. citizen in 1993, has a 12-year-old son and is now studying at Westchester Community College to become a geriatric nurse. Her husband has lived in Tarrytown since 1962 and one of her stepsons, Hussein, is president of his neighborhood association in Armonk.
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I'm speechless.... If he did say it then the only word that comes to mind is "Dumbass."

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La Disciplina È La Mia Spada,
La Fede È Il Mio Schermo,
Non salti Ciecamente In Incertezza,
E Potete Raccogliere Le Ricompense.

Kadath

The only word that comes to my mind is "fired." Although since judges are elected, I guess you can't really fire them...perhaps suspended and then voted out of office, but that's more than one word.

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it's quiet in here

Azlana

That's just embarassing. It's incident's like this that give Americans such a bad name =/.

Prophecy

I know, but could have been worse

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La Disciplina È La Mia Spada,
La Fede È Il Mio Schermo,
Non salti Ciecamente In Incertezza,
E Potete Raccogliere Le Ricompense.

Simple_Min

Now if we could get these guys in the Supreme Court, all of America's problems would be solved.

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If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.