Will These 4 New Orange County Assistant District Attorneys Finally Help South Blooming Grove?
Orange County District Attorney, David Hoovler, is about to get some reinforcements, but will he use them to prosecute the numerous crimes of elected (and unelected) officials of South Blooming Grove?
Welcome back.
Let's take a look at this month's meeting of the Orange County Legislature, which took place last week on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024. You can watch the entire meeting, all thirty or so minutes of it, below:
For such a short meeting, there were a couple of items from it that we need to discuss.
As the headline says, we're getting four new assistant district attorneys. Will they assist our current District Attorney, David Hoovler, in finally prosecuting Mr. Joel Stern, Isaac Ekstein, and their friends?
But before we get into that, here's a quick FYI:
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler is on the ballot this November.
So if you're not satisfied with his lack of investigating into Town of Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone, Woodbury Police Chief Watson and his alleged contracts within the Village of Kiryas Joel, and South Blooming Grove's Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein, then you might want to voice your displeasure using Hoovler's campaign email: david@davidmhoovler.com
And if you don't know what to say, don't worry; I have an email at the bottom of this post that you can copy, paste, and send.
Now, let's get into this meeting.
A public hearing on the Orange County Sewer District 1 expansion and upgrade project will be held on Monday, July 22nd, at 3:15 p.m. in the Legislative Chamber. That's located at the Orange County Government Center on 255 Main Street in Goshen, on the 3rd Floor.
This specific public hearing only concerns equipment purchases related to upgrades to the current facility. However, it does involve the purchase of $800,000 worth of equipment to upgrade the SCADA (Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition system), among other items. According to the County, this will all be funded by Sewer District Surplus funds.
If you are interested in the future of Southern Orange County, or if you are concerned about climate change and the potential environmental impact of this project on the Ramapo River, then you have a vested interest in the upgrades and future expansion of Orange County Sewer District 1.
As a reminder, when completed, the new Orange County Sewer District 1 plant may be able to pump up to nearly 20 million gallons of treated sewage into the Ramapo River.
Every day.
Now, I'm no limnologist. But I know pumping nearly 20 million gallons of sewage into a healthy river during the best times is probably not a great idea.
But now imagine if the planet keeps warming and the Ramapo River dries up. Where's that sewage supposed to go?
Or, worse still, since New York State will experience both periods of extreme heat with drought AND extreme flooding from torrential downpours, guess where that sewage will soon find itself?
In your backyard? In the public parks? Are you starting to see the problem here?
So.
It's important to note that if you live within Orange County Sewer District 1 (which includes the Towns of Blooming Grove, Woodbury, Chester, Monroe, and Palm Tree, as well as their associated villages), you will eventually have to bear the financial burden and ecological burden of this project.
In other words, Unsustainable growth will create an ecological disaster in Southern Orange County. It's a matter of when not if.
Information concerning the current proposed upgrades and the future expansion of Orange County Sewer District 1 can be found here.
This Public hearing is an opportunity to get involved and help shape the future of your Town and villages.
Of course, if you don't go, the loudest and most corrupt among us will win.
Speaking of which ...
Is Orange County Experiencing Some Kind of Crime Wave Because of "Bail Reform"?
I need you all to take your thoughts on bail reform and momentarily put them aside. We will not discuss it beyond the context of what's happening here in Orange County.
Okay? Good. Let's move to the second item from this month's meeting.
Legislator Joseph J. Minuta of District 15 (the Town of New Windsor) twice cited "bail reform" during a discussion involving the creation of four assistant district attorney positions within the office of Mr. David Hoovler, the current Orange County DA.
Minuta said, "I wish bail reform had been done better so we didn't have to have these positions and spend this additional money to do what is necessary to cover the failures of bail reform."
Here's the thing though ...
According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, criminal charges in Orange County between 2019 and 2023 — when bail reform was implemented — "did not significantly change."
In addition, according to the resolution being voted on at this meeting ( located on page 39 in your PDF viewer), these four positions are funded by a grant and will be eliminated when the funding ceases.
So Legislator Minuta was disingenuous when he said the County was "spending this additional money" because it's not county money being spent; it's grant money being spent.
In a statement to The Photo-News, District Attorney Hoovler said, "Being a 21st-century prosecutor means anticipating changes in our criminal justice system and not being afraid to change the status quo so that we are prepared to meet head-on the challenges we face every day."
I contacted Legislator Minuta to ask if he could expand on his comments concerning bail reform and its alleged impact on Orange County crime statistics. At this time, Legislator Minuta has yet to respond to calls and emails sent to his office.
Since I doubt he will respond, here are the questions I sent to him:
-Can you identify any specific examples of how bail reform's failures, in your words, have impacted Orange County taxpayers?
-Can you elaborate on what could have been done better in the bail reform law that would have prevented these failures?
-Do you believe these additional assistant district attorneys can be an asset to Orange County in other ways besides addressing the "failures of bail reform"?
Your district, the Town of New Windsor, may soon experience what people in South Blooming Grove are experiencing regarding underhanded and potentially criminal activity by wealthy real estate developers. The same developers will then claim "anti-semitism" when they don't get what they want.
Do you believe these four assistant district attorney positions can benefit your constituents and help root out the extensive white-collar crime in the County?
But Legislator Minuta wasn't the only one to make an odd comment about adding these four assistant district attorneys to Mr. Hoovler's office.
Legislator James D. O'Donnell is the Representative for District 21, which covers Goshen, Wawayanda, the City of Middletown, and the Town of Blooming Grove.
Mr. O'Donnell voted no on this resolution to add four new assistant district attorneys to Mr. Hoovler's office.
In his no vote, Mr. O'Donnell cited a 30% reduction in the index crime rate in Orange County between 2017 and 2022, with crime reported down from over 7,000 instances to under 5,000 recorded cases across the County.
Legislator O'Donnell added that he doesn't believe these positions are needed because "crime rate is what counts."
So, I asked Legislator O'Donnell the following:
-While index crime may be down, there is no question of a sharp uptick in white-collar criminal activity within the Town and at least one of its villages, South Blooming Grove.
-Do you believe these four assistant district attorney positions would not benefit the office pursuing this rampant white-collar crime within the Town and Village?
-Can you explain to residents of South Blooming Grove why you think this?
What would you say to residents concerned about the unresponsive and verifiably criminal activity in the Village of South Blooming Grove, who have been begging the District Attorney's office to intervene since at least 2021?
-As you stated, "grant money is still taxpayer money." Does the taxpayer money of Blooming Grove residents not matter?
I didn't get an answer to these questions. But Legislator O'Donnell did reply with the following:
"Please send me the data on the sharp uptick in white-collar criminal activity within the Town of Blooming Grove and the Village of South Blooming Grove. You have my email if you want to share any correspondence requesting the District Attorney's office to intervene."
I have forwarded three emails demonstrating District Attorney Hoovler's lack of action concerning Mr. Joel Stern and Isaac Eckstein in South Blooming Grove. At the time of this writing, Legislator O'Donnell has yet to reply to the correspondences he forwarded requesting the District Attorney's office to intervene.
I'll let you know if he does.
What emails did I send him?
The first was about the 718 fake voters who registered to a property belonging to Moche Halpern and Lazer Schvimmer in the 2021 Village election, which Mr. Hoovler told the Times Herald-Record he would investigate. He didn't. He passed it on to the FBI.
The second concerned surveillance camera footage—that South Blooming Grove has refused to provide upon receipt of a FOIL request—showing Mr. Joel Stern removing documents from Village Hall, placing them in a box truck, and transporting them to the United Jewish Community headquarters. This happened the same week in March of 2024 when the New York State Comptroller's office began investigating the Village's finances. The New York State Comptorller's office was also alerted to this. Still, since they have refused to publicly acknowledge the ongoing audit of South Blooming Grove in their regular email newsletter, I'm guessing that alert found its way to the waste basket.
-The final email involved numerous violations of the South Blooming Grove Code of Ethics, which would warrant a Class A Misdemeanor according to the Village Code. While this does not sound like a heavy charge, if charged and convicted of a Class A Misdemeanor, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein would immediately lose their positions with the Village and be barred from doing any business with it for at least five years.
That's long enough to disrupt the plans of Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum (hanhallah) and/or the developer Avrum Ber Jacobowitz, allegedly funding Mr. Joel Stern's activities in South Blooming Grove.
Put another way, this would be a massive win for the people of South Blooming Grove.
What Can You Do?
If you live in the Town of Blooming Grove and its associate villages (SBG, Washingtonville), you can email Legislator O'Donnell at jodonnell@orangecountygov.com and tell him that he's wrong to suggest crime is down in Orange County and that these assistant district attorneys are not needed. They are needed more than ever, given the rampant corruption and fraud involving Mr. Joel Stern, Mr. Isaac Ekstein, Moche Halpern, and their associates.
Mr. Hoovler is the only one among us who can legally investigate the financial transactions between Stern, Ekstein, Halpen, Schvimmer, Kalaj, and other parties. He also legally has the power to subpoena and conduct a thorough investigation where these individuals would need to testify, under oath, about their actions.
Mr. Hoovler has repeatedly failed to act on this. Perhaps fearing political repercussions.
But let's give him the benefit of the doubt for a moment.
Wouldn't four new assistant district attorneys be just the thing needed for that White Collar Crime Task Force Mr. Hoovler formed to actually intervene on behalf of the residents of Southern Orange County?
One would think.
Of course, if you don't want to give Mr. Hoovler the benefit of the doubt, you can send his campaign the following email:
To: david@davidmhoovler.com
Subject: I Will Not Be Voting For You
Body:
Mr. Hoovler,
Since 2020, your office has been aware of numerous instances of criminal activity within the Village of South Blooming Grove.
This activity involves bribing elected officials, flouting FOIL laws, an instance of voter fraud you forwarded to the FBI, ignoring repeated directives from Orange County concerning the management of the Village's water supply, apparent conflicts of interest between developers and village officials, violation of both New York State and the Federal Establishment Clause, and willfully ignoring requests and orders by other state agencies such as the DEC.
Given the recent funding your office received to hire four assistant district attorneys, the lack of action by your office can no longer be truthfully attributed to a lack of resources and time.
If you plan on winning this election, it's time to use your resources to protect the residents of South Blooming Grove and Southern Orange County.
Your failure to act has emboldened other parties in Southern Orange County, such as Town of Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone, to lie to police, bully and harass the public and his fellow elected officials, actively violate the FOIL laws of NYS, improperly use Town funds to pay for travel expenses, and further use the Town's resources to enrich himself concerning property he owns around Lake Sapphire.
All of this is on you.
If the laws of New York State were vigorously and enthusiastically enforced by your office, no public official, whether in South Blooming Grove, Monroe, Woodbury, or elsewhere in the County, would think about putting their own financial gain above the people who elected them.
If you want to be elected to another term as our District Attorney, it's time for you to act.
Until you do, I will not be voting for you, and I will encourage all my friends and neighbors to avoid doing so as well.
(Put your name here)
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