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Hudson Falls Village Justice Michael Feeder is no stranger to controversy.
He's been voted out of office by town of Kingsbury residents and with the sentence that he handed Banana Boy and his bunch this week, it's not hard to understand why.
It's definitely time for Feeder to split.
Feeder fined the yellow-suited crime fighter and two others $100 each and sentenced them each to perform 40 hours of community service.
They committed no crime. They shouldn't even have been arrested.
Individuals like Feeder who use the black robe to abuse the powers of the office and bully the public cause excessive harm to the judiciary and create a black eye for the court system, eliminating any perception of fairness and impartiality.
And then the black robed bullies sit and around and say-why's everyone picking on me? Why is the judiciary getting such a bad name?
It's because of judges like Feeder.
Feeder was the hand picked judge of many police agencies who wanted their suspects in jail so they herded their arrestees in front of Feeder who usually assessed such high bails---often without cause---that the defendant couldn't post the bail and therefore was remanded to jail. So what the Feeder didn't have jurisdiction to do the arraignment---how many judges do you know that follow the law?
And then there was the situation of Feeder playing cop himself last year, chasing down a motorist with his vehicle, pulling out a badge and then bringing charges against the motorist, claiming that he had failed to yield to a pedestrian in a village crosswalk. It's a wonder he didn't adjudicate the case too.
Feeder continued his tyrannical behavior in the case of the giant banana.
He's the one who exercised poor judge-ment in the case, right along with the cop.
Chris Phelps, his brother, Jonathan and friend, Luke VanScoy, were filming a scene for a public access TV show, with superhero Banana Boy fighting off a phony knife attack from a pretend robber---protecting the public although in a unique manner.
It was obviously a staged scene as Phelps was dressed in a 9-foot bright yellow banana costume.
A crowd had gathered to watch the enactment and Jonathan's camera was taping. No one called the police. Everyone present knew it was just a show.
But along comes Shawn Lovelace of the Washington County Sheriff's Department, screeching to a halt, pulling his gun and ordering the trio to the ground at gunpoint as 10 police cruisers surround them. Talk about overreacting.
Lovelace charged the trio with disorderly conduct, claiming that they had caused a public disturbance and had failed to advise police that they would be filming.
The fruited wonder and his bunch said it was Lovelace and the police who caused the disturbance, not them.
And then there's the question if they could have been charged at all. In order for there to be a charge of disorderly conduct, the act complained of has to be on public property. From all reports, the trio was enacting their charade in a private parking lot. Once the officer realized that he'd made a big mistake and what the situation was, he should have said a few stern words and gone about his way. But no, in order to redeem himself for his overreaction, he hauled the young men off to the police station and arrested them. The charges should have been immediately dismissed by the officer's superior for being legally insufficient.
Everyone expected the charges would be dropped. District attorney Robert Winn reportedly told The Post-Star that his office would not be prosecuting the charges. The police officer reportedly told the trio their penalty would be the same as a traffic ticket.
Well, the police officer lied as well as made an invalid arrest.
No one told them they could be sentenced to 15 days in jail.
None of the three had ever been arrested before.
Because they were told the charges would probably be dropped, they didn't spend unnecessary money to hire an attorney. They shouldn't have had to do so.
No representative of the district attorney's office was present and it appears that Feeder took advantage of that, took advantage of the fact that the three were not represented by counsel and had no legal advice. All he wanted was a conviction on the books.
Feeder used his black robe to intimidate the young men and cover the butt of the cop.
Feeder led them to enter a guilty plea and then he slammed it to them. He could have adjourned the case in contemplation of dismissal, he could have adjourned it sua sponte in order to obtain the recommendation of the district attorney's office. He could have dismissed it in the interest of justice. He could have suspended the sentence.
But no, ever tyrannical to the end in his black dress, Feeder whammed the trio with the $100 fine/surcharge and 40 hours of community service. Why should these hard working individuals have to give up 5-eight hour work days because a police officer was overzealous and arrested them in order to save face? They already have a history of community service, all Boy Scouts and VanScoy being an Eagle Scout.
We think the trio should be allowed to withdraw their plea as it's obvious there's been some wrongdoing and poor judgment exercised--but not on the part of Banana Boy and company---on the part of the court system and the police.
Truth, Justice and the American Way?
While Banana Boy was fighting evil, serving and protecting the public, Judge Feeder and the police gave the public and the young men a real rotten view of the criminal justice system.
There's only two weeks left in Feeder's term and that's a good thing. We applaud the town of Kingsbury residents for forcing this judicial tyrant to hang up his black robe. It's long overdue.
Maybe if Feeder talks nice to Banana Boy, he'll let him play a judge in one of his episodes.
12-16-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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