Jonah Triebwasser candidate for Town Justice
Qualified, Professional and Experienced

Prior Public Service:
32 years of government service including Deputy Regional Attorney for the Hudson Valley, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Department of Labor, and police office/investigator for the New York State Department of Law, Special State Prosecutor.


What role should town justices play in their communities?
The Town Justice should be the impartial arbiter of criminal and civil cases on the local level, deciding cases without favoritism. The Town Justice should apply the law to the facts of the individual case without any pre-conceived notions based upon the litigants race, ethnic background or political party.

If you are not an attorney or have no legal training, how do you learn and understand how to administer justice?
I am an attorney and have been for 25 years. If elected, I would be the first attorney to serve Red Hook as Town Judge in decades. I was also a police officer for 5 years and a prosecutor of environmental crimes for 16 years. I have taught law at Marist and Vassar Colleges and have taught law to other lawyers for the New York State Bar Association. By having a legal professional as judge instead of a legal layman, the Town's liability for wrong decisions is greatly reduced. An expanding and changing Red Hook cannot afford to have a justice system where its judges learn on the job.

How would you decide controversial cases?
I would decide all cases, whether controversial or not, on the law and the facts presented. I am firmly committed to equal justice under law. All litigants, plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases, police officers and defendants in criminal cases, attorneys and lay people in all cases, will be treated with respect in my courtroom.

What should be the role of government in people's lives?
Government should provide that which is beyond the means of the private citizen to provide for himself or herself. This would include such services as national defense, highway maintenance, the postal system and, of course, the criminal justice system, including the Town Court.

Why should voters elect you?
A modern and expanding Red Hook needs a town justice court that can keep up with the times. With the influx of new residents to Red Hook who come from a wide variety of backgrounds, the number and complexity of cases that will confront our justice court will increase. We need a justice who has professional experience in law to serve the Red Hook of the 21st century.

I will give the voters and taxpayers of Red Hook the most judge for their hard-earned taxpayer dollar. For the same tax-supported salary that they now pay a legal layman, the Red Hook voter can have as their Town Justice an experienced attorney, prosecutor and law teacher. By electing me, the voters of Red Hook will expand the available pool of judges to serve our community by 25% without any additional expenditure of tax dollars since my opponent now occupies two judicial positions and collects two salaries (as Town and Village Judge.)

By electing me, Red Hook can have another judge to cover late night and weekend arraignments at no extra cost.
As town justice, I will seek to lift the burden of running the court system from the shoulders of the Red Hook taxpayers by applying for grants from the Office of Court Administration, the New York Bar Foundation, the Fund for Modern Courts and other sources.

I will seek to reduce the operating costs of the justice court in Red Hook, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, by implementing the E-Ticket system whereby ticket dispositions are reported electronically rather than by expensive and time-consuming paperwork. I will seek to shorten the long evenings of justice court for the public by separating the criminal and civil calendars so that litigants are not required to sit for hours in court waiting for their cases to be heard.

I will be your Justice of the 21st Century.

Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Jonah Triebwasser

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