Teh One Who Knocks
10-24-2011, 11:24 PM
BY Scott Shifrel - NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
http://i.imgur.com/j9X4d.jpg
A 60-year-old Manhattan musician at the center of an age discrimination lawsuit is trying to get the judge handling his case booted - because he's too old.
Violinist Martin Stoner admits he sounds like a big hypocrite for knocking 88-year-old Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Patterson as "slow-witted and unable to function."
But Stoner insists his fight against ageism is too important to allow the hard-of-hearing jurist to foul it up.
"Judge Patterson could barely see unless he put his face almost on top of a document," Stoner wrote in a judicial complaint.
The suit was filed in March after Stoner was rejected from a competition run by the not-for-profit Young Concert Artists and limited to musicians a third his age.
The case took its bizarre twist when it ended up in the hands ofPatterson, who graduated from Columbia Law School a year before Stoner was born.
Things between the aging judge and the plaintiff got off to a rocky start when Patterson tossed the case Oct. 7 after finding mistakes in Stoner's court briefs.
Stoner counters that the old-school judge is biased against him because he's representing himself, and he has asked for a new judge.
"Judge Patterson should be removed from the bench, both because of his mental and physical limitations," Stoner wrote in the judicial complaint, obtained by the Daily News. "With all due respect, he may have been a very learned jurist in his day."
Patterson, who earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College at the end of World War II, wears a hearing aid but still orders lawyers to speak up while cupping a hand to his ear.
"I know it sounds kind of like hypocrisy," said Stoner, who last year lost his gig with the New York City Ballet orchestra after 25 years. "I asked the judge to recuse himself on the grounds that he's too old. Isn't that ironic?"
Patterson refused to comment, but his defenders claim he's sharp as a tack. When another judge fellill two years ago, Patterson stepped in midtrial, ripped through a 2,282-page legal transcript in a single weekend and handled the case with aplomb, Manhattan Federal Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska told the New York Law Journal.
Despite the Young Concert Artists competition's focus on budding musicians, director Susan Wadsworth allowed Stoner to play in the first round, thinking she might recommend him to another agency. She said his performance was less than stellar.
"The whole thing is pretty comical," said Wadsworth, adding that Stoner's attempt to compete was like an adult repeating the first grade because "your handwriting isn't good enough."
As for Stoner's crusade against Patterson, Wadsworth laughed and said, "That's pretty funny."
http://i.imgur.com/j9X4d.jpg
A 60-year-old Manhattan musician at the center of an age discrimination lawsuit is trying to get the judge handling his case booted - because he's too old.
Violinist Martin Stoner admits he sounds like a big hypocrite for knocking 88-year-old Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Patterson as "slow-witted and unable to function."
But Stoner insists his fight against ageism is too important to allow the hard-of-hearing jurist to foul it up.
"Judge Patterson could barely see unless he put his face almost on top of a document," Stoner wrote in a judicial complaint.
The suit was filed in March after Stoner was rejected from a competition run by the not-for-profit Young Concert Artists and limited to musicians a third his age.
The case took its bizarre twist when it ended up in the hands ofPatterson, who graduated from Columbia Law School a year before Stoner was born.
Things between the aging judge and the plaintiff got off to a rocky start when Patterson tossed the case Oct. 7 after finding mistakes in Stoner's court briefs.
Stoner counters that the old-school judge is biased against him because he's representing himself, and he has asked for a new judge.
"Judge Patterson should be removed from the bench, both because of his mental and physical limitations," Stoner wrote in the judicial complaint, obtained by the Daily News. "With all due respect, he may have been a very learned jurist in his day."
Patterson, who earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College at the end of World War II, wears a hearing aid but still orders lawyers to speak up while cupping a hand to his ear.
"I know it sounds kind of like hypocrisy," said Stoner, who last year lost his gig with the New York City Ballet orchestra after 25 years. "I asked the judge to recuse himself on the grounds that he's too old. Isn't that ironic?"
Patterson refused to comment, but his defenders claim he's sharp as a tack. When another judge fellill two years ago, Patterson stepped in midtrial, ripped through a 2,282-page legal transcript in a single weekend and handled the case with aplomb, Manhattan Federal Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska told the New York Law Journal.
Despite the Young Concert Artists competition's focus on budding musicians, director Susan Wadsworth allowed Stoner to play in the first round, thinking she might recommend him to another agency. She said his performance was less than stellar.
"The whole thing is pretty comical," said Wadsworth, adding that Stoner's attempt to compete was like an adult repeating the first grade because "your handwriting isn't good enough."
As for Stoner's crusade against Patterson, Wadsworth laughed and said, "That's pretty funny."