Opinion ID: 768200
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Civil Legal Defense Fund

Text: 17 When Reale campaigned to be TPBA's President in 1989, he promised to restore the Civil Legal Defense Fund (CLDF), a fund that previously existed to pay for the representation of officers sued civilly for work-related conduct. In the contract negotiations immediately preceding Reale's 1989 TPBA campaign, the TPBA sought other benefits in exchange for giving up NYCTA's financial support for a CLDF. The TPBA could safely do so because the NYCTA had apparently never declined to provide representation to officers sued in such circumstances, and the need for a fund to provide such representation was therefore minimal to non-existent. 18 As a result, the CLDF did not exist during the 1987-1990 contract period, but Reale, who saw a profitable use for it, promised to bring it back if elected. After Reale's election, Zichettello and Hartman signed a contract providing that if the NYCTA reestablished the CLDF, LL&K would receive a fee of $50 per officer annually for legal representation pursuant to the CLDF. Any CLDF amount in excess of $50 per member paid by the NYCTA to the CLDF would be retained by the TPBA. At approximately the same time, Reale authorized and made a $314,000 pre-payment to LL&K for CLDF-related services even though the NYCTA had not yet agreed to restore the CLDF. 19 In 1990, Lysaght and Kramer assigned an associate at their firm to monitor civil lawsuits against transit police officers for actions in the course of their employment. They did this presumably to create the appearance of valuable services being rendered in return for the $314,000. The monitoring consisted of obtaining documents filed in such lawsuits, filing them, and sending form letters to the officers involved in the cases advising them of the existence and nature of the lawsuit. There was no heavy legal lifting, however, and, from 1990 until November 1991, LL&K never actually represented any transit officer for the CLDF. Nevertheless, restoring the CLDF was a key provision of the contract that Lysaght and Hartman negotiated on behalf of the TPBA with New York City in late 1991 and early 1992. As a result of those negotiations, the TPBA allocated approximately $840,000 of credit to the CLDF, representing payments retroactive to 1987. Reale promised the TPBA membership to use this money as a reserve for the future. 20 Reale advised Montoro and Zichettello about the upcoming receipt of a large sum of money representing the retroactive CLDF payment. Reale and Hartman agreed that $750,000 of that payment was to be paid to LL&K and that Reale, Montoro, and Zichettello would receive $150,000 cash in return. The TPBA received $840,482.42 on March 11, 1992, and, shortly thereafter, Reale, Montoro, and Zichettello met with Kramer and gave him a $750,000 check. Kramer in turn gave them a large envelope stuffed with slightly under $150,000 in cash. Lysaght's and Kramer's bank records corroborated the testimony of Montoro and Zichettello regarding the $150,000 kickback. 21 Some time later, Hartman presented the TPBA Officers with a back-dated agreement between LL&K and the TPBA to portray the $750,000 payment as a legitimate fee. The new back-dated retainer agreement provided that LL&K would receive $75 per member -- an increase of $25 over the original agreement -- for CLDF services as of July 1990. 22 In August 1992, Hartman came to the TPBA offices and demanded that Montoro make an immediate payment to LL&K of an additional $150,000 -- money allegedly due under the terms of the back-dated agreement. Montoro issued two checks totaling $150,000 for CLDF-related services. Because the CLDF fund had been reduced to only $70,000, Montoro was forced to take money from the TPBA's general fund to make the payment.