Legal News

Not Everyone?s Happy About Pirro?s Turn as a TV Judge

By Dionne Searcey

UPDATE: We heard back from Pirro’s lawyer, William I. Aronwald. He dismissed the complaints about Pirro as “hullabaloo” and said, “From the standpoint of Warner Bros. . . . If the ratings are good I’m sure these complaints aren’t going to make a difference.”
_________________________________________________

Former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Pirro. The CW Network announced that Pirro, who has been doing legal commentary on television since the O.J. Simpson murder trial, will be the presiding jurist on “Judge Jeanine Pirro,” weekday afternoons beginning Sept. 22. (AP/Warner Bros Ent. Inc., Mark Harmel)

Jeanine F. Pirro, the salty former Republican district attorney who unsuccessfully challenged both Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, has taken up a new career as a TV judge. But she’s finding that Judge Judy is a tough act to follow.

Two dozen protesters showed up outside the Manhattan offices of Warner Brothers, the show’s distributor, last month when her program premiered, according to a NYT story. They took umbrage with the depiction of Pirro as a judicial paragon. The problem, they said, is Pirro’s past.

The article goes on to explain a handful of instances where criminals have gone free after her office, or in one instance the police, were accused of ignoring exculpatory evidence. ”The show portrays her as a crusader of justice,” said Jeffrey Deskovic, a leader of the pickets told the Times. ”In fact, she made a regular habit of prosecutorial misconduct and breaking rules.”

According to the Times story, “critics like Deskovic say that while watching Judge Pirro on her television show it is worth thinking about the fact that she or at least her office has been slapped on the wrist by two different judges for less-than-fair prosecutions. The issues in those cases were not those of low-rent television squabbles, but ended up costing two men, who may have been innocent, precious years of their lives.”

Pirro should bear in mind that even Judge Judy, another TV judge known for her blunt style, has endured critics. One of her biggest kerfuffles came on a speaking tour in Australia years ago when she reacted negatively to a proposal to limit the spread of AIDS by giving addicts clean needles. Reportedly Judge Judy said that the way to solve the drug problem was to, quote, “give them dirty needles and hope they die.” As of Sept. 30, Judge Judy was the No. 1 show in syndication for the 17th consecutive week among gross average audience ratings.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).