Extortion

On Judge Paul Czajka�s watch, two court appointed attorney�s, Ken Esrick and Ann Weaver, both allegedly solicited an indigent client for �extra� funds, on top of the money they were already billing the county, in order to help the client get her children back.
The litigant, Michelle Mayer, referring to a conversation with her court appointed attorney, Ken Esrick, said: �I was told I had to realize I was not gonna get a good attorney for free, that if I was paying him, he would go and he would talk to the school�sure that the Pediatrician, the teachers would back me up, but all that was expensive to do, and if I wasn�t paying him, there was no way he could do it. If I could subsidize, he would be able to.�
Of Ann Weaver, the other court appointed attorney, Mayer says; �She told me that Columbia County doesn�t pay as much as Dutchess County, and if I wanted her to be able to be effective, I would have to try to balance out the difference.�
Michelle Mayer claims she reported these incidents to the Honorable Judge Paul Czajka in open court, but was later unable to obtain transcripts of the proceedings, even after repeated requests to court stenographer Cynthia West.
Mayer states she has written to Eliot Spitzer�s office to complain about certain �improprieties,� in this particular court, but was unable to get a result.
Michelle Mayer is to be commended for her bravery and integrity in coming forward with this information.

The Columbia County Public Defender�s Office, which supplies court appointed attorneys to indigent clients, is headed by Mr. Charles Inman, who is reputed to have been Judge Paul Czajka�s former law partner when they were in private practice.
Apparently in Mayer�s case, Ann Weaver and Ken Esrick were �18b� attorneys, appointed by Judge Czajka for this particular case. According to one lawyer, 18b attorneys are used in place of the public defender�s office when there is a conflict of interest, and these 18b attorneys submit their legal bills directly to the judge presiding over the case, who then o.k.�s the bills for payment through the county.

Since Judge Czajka was apparently informed by Mayer of the alleged criminal solicitation of funds by the attorneys he appointed, and the judge apparently took no action against them, one might conclude that Judge Czajka and the attorneys he appoints are laundering county money through a simple billing scheme, and then splitting the spoils.

*The FBI arrested a court appointed attorney in Islip, Long Island for taking money from a client as well as the government. The attorney faces 5 years in Federal Prison if convicted of defrauding the government.