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Let's stop the nomination of a viciously anti-gay judge. He should be investigated, not promoted.
Governor Corzine has nominated one of the most viciously anti-LGBT judges in New Jersey history, Steven Zaben, for a judicial promotion. Though our Governor is usually a great friend of the LGBT community, he's messed up this one big-time. In this action alert, we at Garden State Equality ask you to email members of the state Senate Judiciary Committee who have the power to block the Zaben nomination.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please vote NO on the outrageous judicial nomination of Steven Zaben. He needs to be investigated.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Joined by the thousands of other members of Garden State Equality, I ask you, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to oppose the outrageous nomination of Steven Zaben to a workers' compensation judgeship. In fact, I request that you ask the Corzine Administration to pull the nomination at once.
Since 2005, three different newspapers have reported that Zaben, the municipal judge for Palisades Interstate Park, has been under scruitiny for giving massively higher sentences to gay defendants than he has given to straight defendants for the same alleged offenses.
Instead of being nominated for a judicial promotion, Judge Zaben should be subject to a judicial inquiry - to determine whether he should be allowed to remain in his current judgeship.
As reported in the Gay City News, the Star-Ledger and the Bergen Record, Judge Zaben has treated gay and straight park visitors differently with regard to sting operations and charges involving public lewdness in the park.
For gay defendants, Judge Zaben's penalties have included jail sentences, court-supervised psychological counseling, bans from the park and steep fines. For straight defendants, Judge Zaben has refused to impose such penalties.
During a trial for one defendant, according to the Gay City News, Judge Zaben said his conclusion that the defendant was in the park for sex was supported "by virtue of the fact that he is gay."
No one condones lewd behavior in the park. Rather, the issue is Judge Zaben's alarmingly disparate treatment of LGBT defendants compared to his treatment of straight defendants for the same alleged offenses.
In one case involving an LGBT defendant, the Appellate Division overturned Judge Zaben's conviction in the most scathing terms: "An abiding sense of wrongness pervades this conviction. [T]he municipal court excused what was clearly false testimony from the police officer (about the LGBT defendant's alleged lewdness in the park.) Indeed, if the test adopted by the judge represented an adequate basis for weighing credibility, no person accused of a crime would ever be believed and no officer would ever be doubted. As a result, the conviction is not sustained." See State v. Mamone, No. A-0556-05T3 (App. Div. 2006).
Does New Jersey not have hundreds of other judges more worthy of a promotion than one whose judicial integrity and fairness to the LGBT community is in question?
I ask you to oppose the promotion of Judge Steven Zaben to the worker's compensation judgeship for which he has been nominated.
Please also ask the Corzine Administation to withdraw the nomination at once. The Senate Judiciary Committee should not have to rescue the Administration from a bad nomination it did not vet properly.
Finally, I call upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings into whether Judge Zaben should be allowed to continue on the bench at all.
New Jersey can do way better.
Sincerely,
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