Judge faced surprising cases including mayor's decision

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 7/18/19

By JOHN HOWELL You couldn't make up what Joel Gerstenblatt was faced with. As the city municipal court judge since 1995, Gerstenblatt has dealt with some controversial issues such as the woman who insisted that the items she had rescued on refuse

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Judge faced surprising cases including mayor's decision

Posted

You couldn’t make up what Joel Gerstenblatt was faced with.

As the city municipal court judge since 1995, Gerstenblatt has dealt with some controversial issues such as the woman who insisted that the items she had rescued on refuse collection days from across the city and were now piled in her yard were, in fact, perfectly good, or the man who maintained that he was caring for his home when in reality clapboards were falling off and the roof had visible holes in it. The city ended up hauling away all the “stuff” in the yard, and after repeated warnings and fines the man served a few days behind bars.

As high profile as those cases were, they paled in comparison to “the bird.”

Gerstenblatt recalled the bird case, which went on to make national news, with a chuckle Tuesday morning after having watched the live stream of the council meeting the night before. The council committee on appointments endorsed Mayor Joseph Solomon’s nomination of Kelly McElroy and Kevin Murphy to replace Gerstenblatt, whose three-year term expired last October, as municipal court judges. With midnight fast approaching, Council President Steve Merolla adjourned the meeting before the full council had the opportunity to vote on the appointments. Gerstenblatt anticipates the council will ratify the appointments despite Merolla’s argument that Gerstenblatt has done an outstanding job and there’s no need “to fix something that isn’t broken.”

A lifelong Warwick resident, Gerstenblatt is disappointed not to have been reappointed. Knowing his term would be expiring, he emailed, called and sent the mayor a letter on different occasions dating back to last year with the hope of discussing the matter with him. He never had that meeting or received a reply to his inquiry. It wasn’t until he read the Beacon, the Providence Journal and the agenda for Monday’s meeting that he learned Solomon had other plans for the post.

Ironically, Gerstenblatt and Solomon held the judgeship post simultaneously. That goes back to 1994 when Mary McCaffrey, who held the position with Solomon, was named probate judge. Gerstenblatt filled in for McCaffrey and soon thereafter was appointed to the position. When Solomon’s term ended, he was not reappointed and Gerstenblatt became the sole municipal court judge.

Gerstenblatt does not dispute the mayor’s prerogative to name the judge.

“It is clearly his right,” he said.

The manner in which this seemingly determined outcome was handled disturbs him after having done a job for more than 24 years. He is also troubled by implications during Monday’s committee hearing that he got the job because of political pull.

“I’m grateful to have had all those years working for the city,” he said. “But not to be told I’m being replaced…that says a lot in itself.”

Told how Gerstenblatt learned he would not be reappointed, Mayor Solomon said Wednesday, “That's pretty similar to the way I learned about it when I was replaced, so there's nothing different there. That's the way I learned about it.”

Gerstenblatt said he first met former mayor Lincoln Chafee, who appointed him, concerning a historic cemetery adjacent to his Cowesett home. While he has voted in both Democratic and Republican primaries, Gerstenblatt said he is unaffiliated and, some time after meeting Chafee – and at no suggestion on his part – he was called and asked if he would be interested in the job. He has been successively reappointed every three years after that.

“I don’t own the job,” Gerstenblatt said, “but to make reference [to me] as a political appointee…I’ve never been politically active.”

Municipal Court meets Thursday evenings. This Thursday’s docket, with 140 traffic cases and another 20 cases involving minimum housing, noise, animal, open fire and other violations, is typical.

Gerstenblatt said he takes home less than $600 a month and up until April of 2016, when he aged out of his wife’s health insurance plan, did not take city health coverage. He estimates that saved the taxpayers about $200,000.

He doesn’t see his leaving saving the city, although if the council confirms their appointments, McElroy and Murphy will each receive $7,500 but won’t get health coverage. His retirement pay would wipe out any reduction in costs.

Solomon thinks not. On Wednesday he pointed out that his appointees would not receive pensions and hence, in addition to no health coverage, the city would not make pension contributions. He put the savings at about $20,000.

“[This] is not a lifetime appointment for Kevin Murphy or Kelly McElroy. This is a giving back to society. They're doing something that they're qualified to do, and they're doing it at a cost savings to the taxpayers. So, I see nothing adverse or negative about that scenario,” Solomon said.

Gerstenblatt praised the work of the city clerk staff, other municipal offices and police in managing municipal court cases. He takes pride in the recently implemented receivership program that has already resulted in the rehabilitation of three properties.

As for his tenure with the court, Gerstenblatt said, “I have tried to treat everyone with respect and fairness.” He said his efforts are directed at “trying to get them [those coming before his court] down the road and into compliance.” Citing one traffic violator who faced an $85 fine, Gerstenblatt learned they were strapped for cash and had failed to graduate from high school. Gerstenblatt said he advised the offender he would forego the fine if they got a GED.

And then there was “the bird” case of 2012 and the charge against a woman for violating the animal-noise ordinance because of her boisterous cockatoo. The woman was the ex-wife of her neighbor who, with his girlfriend, claimed she had trained the bird to direct obscene phrases at them. In addition, they claimed the ex-wife had thrown rocks at them and fired at their cars with a pellet gun.

The animal noise complaint filed by the ex-husband and his girlfriend ended up in front of Judge Gerstenblatt. The news media loved the story and it was given coverage by the national networks. Over two nights of hearings in the Council Chambers, Gerstenblatt listened to testimony and the assertions of the ex-wife that she had not trained the bird to utter such foul epithets at her ex and his girlfriend. Nonetheless, Gerstenblatt found the bird’s owner guilty of violating the noise ordinance and fined her $15. He also expressed his frustration that so much time was spent over such a “ridiculous” case.

“From my perspective, especially [last] week, and what’s happening in the world, there are more important things to focus on,” the judge said at the time.

On Tuesday, after watching the full council meeting, Gerstenblatt had a similar take. He put things in perspective.

“There are a lot of pressing issues,” he said.

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  • wwkvoter

    I see a pattern that Solomon hides from people where controversy - even of his own making - is involved, or even possible. That he did not even return calls to this dedicated public servant is troubling to me.

    Monday, July 22, 2019 Report this