Sharp verbal clashes between Magistrate Frank Giorgio, presiding in the Fifth District Court, Queens, and David Schriftman, attorney for two of three men arrested following disturbances during the Ridgewood Grove Nazi meeting last Sunday night, culminating in charges of prejudice being lodged against the court by the lawyer, enlivened proceedings in the courtroom Friday morning.
The climax of the proceedings occurred after Magistrate Giorgio had declined to suspend the $500 bail of Aaron Schlossberg, 32, of 555 Powell street, Brooklyn, and ordered his case to be sent up to Special Sessions.
The case of Abraham Bloom, 42, of 2173 Pacific street, Brooklyn, was called next, and Schriftman immediately leveled charges of prejudice against Magistrate Giorgio, declaring that the magistrate’s actions in the preceding case made it necessary for him to request transfer of Bloom’s hearing to an other court.
Magistrate Giorgio indignantly denied Schriftman’s request and ordered the hearing to continue.
“I am not prejudiced,” he said heatedly. “I don’t care whether the defendant is a Negro, a Jew or anything else. I am a first class American citizen.” The magistrate glared at Schriftman. “You have a colossal nerve, counselor.”
Bloom’s case was dismissed later in the morning after Magistrate Giorgio had heard testimony by the complainant, Anton Sandlers, 1878 Himrod street, Brooklyn, who alleged that Bloom assaulted him on Sunday night outside Ridgewood Grove. Sandlers’ testimony that Bloom had struck him from behind after sneaking up on him was refuted by Patrolman Fuchs, of the 110th Precinet, who arrested Bloom on Sunday. Fuchs testified that Bloom hit Sandlers in the face.
ADMITS CURSING JEWS
Paul Scheutte, 684 Central avenue, was the complainant against Schlossberg. Patrolman Olsley, of the 114th Precinct, who made the arrest, also testified. Cross-examined by Schriftman, Scheutte admitted that at the time of assault he was in the street, with a group of Germans, shouting curses against the Jews, whereupon Schlossberg struck him. Scheutte, in reply to the counsel’s question, said that he knew the tune but not the words of the Horst Wessel, the Nazi song.
At one stage of the hearing when Schriftman called attention to the fact that the few anti-Nazis were in the vicinity of Ridgewood Grove to protest against the established misdeeds of the Hitler regime, Magistrate Giorgio suggested it was necessary to make assumptions about conditions in Germany.
Assistant District Attorney M. B. Brownstein prosecuted the cases.
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