Last week, convicted batterer Maximo Pena assaulted his ex-girlfriend, who he felt had “snubbed him” on Valentine’s Day. In July 1995, Pena had been freed by New York Judge Lorin Duckman in spite of prosecutors’ demands for a two-year jail term. Earlier last week a woman was killed by ex-boyfriend Benito Oliver, another convict set free by Duckman under similar circumstances. Oliver then turned the gun on himself.
These instances have inspired efforts to get Duckman removed from the bench. Mayor Rudolph Guiliani has called the judge’s record “bizarre” and “sick,” and Gov. George E. Pataki questioned the judge’s “fitness to continue to serve” out the 10-year term he was appointed to in 1993.
Special school investigator Edward Stancik also expressed concern, citing the case of the teacher who was acquitted of using a stolen school computer to produce child pornography after Duckman threw out key evidence.
