Mishler v. Burlingame, Round 2! Pillow fight: BEGIN!

permissible or not, hearsay evidence (for example, Inspector Burlingame telling the Board what he says someone else says they heard or saw) is not deemed to be very reliable and is not considered to be the best way for a fact-finder to make factual determinations. Both Burlingame and Brennan basically told the Board - - ‘trust me’, ‘I’m an experienced police officer/ administrator’, essentially saying, ‘do what I tell you, because I’m very smart, I have reached a conclusion as to what happened on the bus - although I was not there - and you should accept what I tell you’. That is not really how the fact-finding process is supposed to work.

Mishler, Mark S. "Re: Appeal of Ariel C. Agudio." April 26, 2016. Letter. https://web.archive.org/web/20160504040418/http://www.caami.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Appeal-of-Ariel-Agudio-Mark-Mishler.pdf

Mishler had been up against Burlingame in Abdul-Wahhab v. State of New York, a case Mishler probably could not have lost more badly had he been paid to lose it. See older posts here, particularly "Albany attorney Mark S. Mishler's snow-job" and "'No Justice, No Peace' sums New York up pretty well".

It probably wouldn't have hurt to cite an authority when stating, "That is not really how the fact-finding process is supposed to work"?

Or, how about another student, who in a videographed interview with UPD, in response to a question about whether there were racial slurs used on the bus, acknowledged that some people said they had heard this, and added that the “n” word can be said in a “non-racist” way.

Mishler, Mark S. "Re: Appeal of Ariel C. Agudio." April 26, 2016. Letter. https://web.archive.org/web/20160504040418/http://www.caami.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Appeal-of-Ariel-Agudio-Mark-Mishler.pdf

Above, at least, Mishler comes closer to making a good point - though he elsewhere criticized hearsay, and a witness agreeing with the interviewer that some people said they heard racial slurs certainly sounds like hearsay as opposed to a witness statement volunteering the clear information "I heard racial slurs. What I heard was: [x]."

Can "the 'n' word can be said in a 'non-racist' way"? I think Larry Wilmore, who said it to the President of the United States, would say yes, it can be, though in many (most?) contexts it has been said in a racist way. Was the witness stating that word had actually been used, though? From Mark Mishler's description of the statement, it would seem not.

Mishler also dropped the ball in contrasting that particular video with a statement by UPD's "Chief":

“We took this incident very seriously and did a thorough and careful investigation,” said UPD Chief J. Frank Wiley. “The evidence shows that, contrary to how the defendants originally portrayed things, these three individuals were not the victims of a crime. Rather, we allege that they are the perpetrators.”

“I especially want to point out that what happened on the bus was not a ‘hate crime.’ We spent a great deal of time carefully reviewing the audio recordings to determine whether any racial slurs were used. The only person we heard uttering racial epithets was one of the defendants. And it is important to note that no witness reported hearing any racial slurs directed at the defendants. And those witnesses were people from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds” (emphasis added).

http://www.albany.edu/news/images/University-at-Albany-Police-Department-Incident-02770-16.pdf

While J. Frank Wiley is both incompetent and corrupt, if he was lying about ALL witness statements denying that ANY racial slurs were directed at the three women, one would hope one of the witnesses would have come forward to contradict him by now. If he was lying, one would hope that the defense attorneys in the case would call him out for lying and present their proof.

From: [Me]

Subject: UPD Officer Nagy, named as arresting officer of Alexis Briggs

Date: February 25, 2016 at 11:07:48 AM EST

To: Masai Andrews [...]

If Mark Mishler becomes the lawyer for the three women, I’ll be disturbed by that. Mishler’s lost at least three cases for UAlbany women against UPD; for the last one of which I’m aware see ABDUL-WAHHAB v. THE STATE OF NEW YORK, # 2012-032-004, Claim No. 116205 http://vertumnus.courts.state.ny.us/claims/html/2012-032-004.html

So, Masai, why haven't you taken issue with Mark Mishler handling the UAlbany bus incident case, given his record and the fact that he's employed by UAlbany, etc.?