Behind Chamber Doors

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Speaker 4 We're talking about

Speaker 4 corruption in the court system

Speaker 4 and the pawns that are being played with your children.

Speaker 6 The very fabric of the legal system is at stake here.

Speaker 6 There is a question. If I walk into a courtroom, am I getting a fair shot? Am I getting a fair shake?

Speaker 6 I'm Michael Michael Vecchion, and I am the chief of the Rackets Division in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Speaker 6 And I was in charge of the investigation begun by Frida Hanimov, who started this by walking into our office and telling us that she was about to lose her children because a judge had been fixed.

Speaker 7 I felt something is wrong, but I couldn't prove it. I just couldn't prove it.
I said, what kind of America is this?

Speaker 7 I'm Frida Hanimov. I went undercover for the district attorney office

Speaker 7 to nail a corrupt judge. I'm not a police officer.
I'm not a detective.

Speaker 7 I'm a mother and a nurse. That's beautiful.
I'll do anything, anything in the world to keep my kids. Even if I have to fight with a tiger, I'll do it.

Speaker 6 A Supreme Court judge being paid off, being bribed. You can't get much more serious than that.

Speaker 6 So he decided to put a recording device on her.

Speaker 9 This is the neighborhood that we took Frida to.

Speaker 7 I'll meet them about five, six blocks away from the warehouse.

Speaker 5 We'd meet her, wire her up.

Speaker 9 Talk to her, prep her about what she's going to say when she goes in.

Speaker 7 When you get off from your car, you see this big, huge warehouse.

Speaker 6 I mean, not a place that we were very happy about sending her into, but it was necessary.

Speaker 6 She was not the type of individual who you would normally put a recording device on. She was pregnant, and to have a pregnant woman who had no experience doing this, it was harrowing on us as well.

Speaker 7 And this big steel gate will open up.

Speaker 7 My heart was really going fast.

Speaker 7 And then the boom, they closed it after me.

Speaker 7 I said, oh my God, I have no way out, even if I want to run away.

Speaker 6 She could have been harmed, she could have been hurt, she could have been killed.

Speaker 7 The truth is, when I went inside, I didn't care about myself. This is the last chance I have to keep my kids.

Speaker 5 Chamber of Secrets.

Speaker 7 And this is a big mahogany door that I bought.

Speaker 8 Welcome to Frida Hanamoff's American Dream.

Speaker 8 See when the skylight skylight we put in. This was once her big house in a swanky New York neighborhood.
It's all beautiful. It's a world away from the poverty where she grew up.

Speaker 8 Frida's parents fled Russia, emigrated to Israel, and at 19, Frida, a young nurse, made her way to America.

Speaker 8 Just a few weeks later, she met the man she would marry, Yuri Hamanov.

Speaker 8 His business was diamonds.

Speaker 8 They would have three children, Yanif, Sharon, and Nati.

Speaker 8 Life was good.

Speaker 7 I love this house very much.

Speaker 7 I worked all my life just to get to this house. And boom, one day,

Speaker 8 after 13 years of marriage Yuri announced to his wife that his business was failing the dream house had to be sold and they would move to a small apartment in Brooklyn

Speaker 8 Frida says her husband told her they had to pretend to divorce she claims it was part of a scheme to hide their assets then he even gave me

Speaker 7 diamonds that he told me that it's what over six million dollars.

Speaker 8 Oh look at that.

Speaker 3 They shine.

Speaker 8 Oh, they do. They're gorgeous.

Speaker 7 Yes.

Speaker 8 But one day,

Speaker 8 Yuri didn't come home.

Speaker 7 He just disappeared with his clothes.

Speaker 7 Could not reach him nothing.

Speaker 8 And those diamonds? Zirkon. Zirkon.

Speaker 7 Yes.

Speaker 8 The diamonds were fake, but the separation papers Frida signed were real. And she says she had unknowingly signed away her rights to any of her husband's assets.

Speaker 7 This is a crime. What he did to me is a crime.

Speaker 8 She hired a lawyer to try to stop the divorce and pinned her hopes on the wisdom of a New York State Supreme Court justice, Judge Gerald Garson.

Speaker 7 He will see that this is a setup.

Speaker 7 A woman that married to a husband who's a wealthy husband, a mother of three kids will get her right but when she walked into his court her hopes were shattered he threatened

Speaker 8 judge garson is screaming at you yeah

Speaker 7 and the judge tells me that i better settle this case and i don't have any chances and he told me that if i'm not going to settle that

Speaker 8 i'm going to be end up in jail The judge chastised her for renting an apartment she co-owned with her husband without his permission. He said you'd end up in jail.

Speaker 7 I'm going to end up in jail.

Speaker 8 So stunned by the judge's behavior,

Speaker 8 Frida says she saw no choice but to agree to the divorce.

Speaker 7 Did you take your tablet this morning? Yeah. I said, the hell with money.
I'm a nurse. I'll make it.
How is school today?

Speaker 7 As long as I have my kids, I just continue with my life, you know, it's not the end.

Speaker 8 Sure enough, two years later, Frida fell in love. She got married and got pregnant.
She says her ex got jealous.

Speaker 7 He became very obsessed with me.

Speaker 8 Frida says her ex-husband Yuri began trying to convince the children they would have a better life with him. Her 13-year-old son Yanif liked the idea.

Speaker 7 Look, mommy, live in this small apartment and she doesn't have any money and this and that. You're going to live like a millionaire with me.

Speaker 8 One night when Frida had just come home from work, my ex-husband called the police on me.

Speaker 7 They knock on my door and he goes to me, your son said that you hit him with a belt.

Speaker 8 Yanif was standing outside with his father and told the police his mother had beaten him with a belt three days earlier.

Speaker 7 My son had a mark on his face. Here, a red mark.
So the husband pointed at my son and said, you see, you see the red line? This is mommy hidden with a belt.

Speaker 8 How did you think he got that red mark?

Speaker 7 The kids, they jump, they play basketball, they do things. I never hit my kids.
Never, ever. My kids are well, well dressed, well, very clean.
Honors in school.

Speaker 7 I'm proud to be their mother.

Speaker 8 Frida was arrested.

Speaker 7 They put cuffs on me.

Speaker 7 And my son saw that. And he went to the police and he said, no, no, let mommy go.
It was misunderstanding.

Speaker 7 Then he went to my ex-husband and started started hitting him and saying, Daddy, you lied to me, you lied to me.

Speaker 7 You said they're not gonna hurt mommy.

Speaker 7 They put me in a cell with, I will say, 30 to 50 people.

Speaker 7 Me shaking, pregnant. I'm scared.

Speaker 7 Sitting and crying, and I can't believe that my son did this to me

Speaker 7 for no reason. I never hate my son.

Speaker 8 Then the news got even worse for Frida. Her ex-husband filed for custody.
He wanted all the children.

Speaker 8 And the man deciding the fate of her family? None other than Judge Gerald Garson.

Speaker 11 When Judge Garson called me to his chamber room, he asked me who I would want to live with, my mother, my father. So I told him, my mother.
I told him my mom. He just said,

Speaker 11 you never know what's gonna happen. It's up to me.
He told me that he was an adult. He was the judge and he decides whether I like it or not.

Speaker 11 So I thought I was like, what's the point of me even coming to the chamber room to talk to the judge if he didn't even want to hear what I wanted to say?

Speaker 7 So I said, I'm not going to sit and wait. I'm not going to lose my kids.

Speaker 8 Frida was desperate and heard about a man who could help. A businessman who was boasting around town that he could influence the judge.
His name, Nisam Ellman.

Speaker 7 And I said, let me call him. And he tells me that this judge is in his pocket.

Speaker 8 In Ellman's pocket.

Speaker 7 In Ellman's packet.

Speaker 8 Frida says he told her he could prove it by dialing the judge himself while she listened in.

Speaker 8 Frida says she heard a man say that she was going to lose her children in 30 days.

Speaker 8 She hung up the phone, terrified.

Speaker 7 Oh my god, this judge is corrupted. I'm going to definitely lose my kids.

Speaker 7 I start crying and I'm trying to dial back to him and he's not picking up the phone.

Speaker 8 Frida began calling every law enforcement agency she could think of.

Speaker 7 I need action right now. I'm losing my kids.

Speaker 7 I called the district attorney office.

Speaker 12 She was in a pretty frantic state at the time.

Speaker 8 Kings County Assistant District Attorney Brian Wallace was the first investigator to take Frida Hanumoff seriously.

Speaker 12 There was a businessman named Neesom Ellman who claimed that he had influence in Jones Garson's part. Of course, my antennas went up.

Speaker 4 We're not talking about a traffic ticket here or someone jumping a turnstile. We're talking about corruption in the court system

Speaker 4 and the pawns that are being played with your children.

Speaker 8 Prosecutor Noel Downing was working with Brian Wallace in the Rackets division.

Speaker 8 Michael Vecchion, their boss, knew that proving corruption in the courts would be difficult

Speaker 8 and explosive.

Speaker 6 We explained to her that we needed to, in essence, test her to see if what she was telling us was the truth.

Speaker 7 Put wires on me. I'll prove you that this judge is corrupted.

Speaker 6 We couldn't cover her inside the warehouse.

Speaker 6 It's a rather stark and daunting place. It's kind of brick and closed up.
So once Frida went into that location,

Speaker 6 she was on her own.

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Speaker 6 Her allegations were that a Supreme Court judge had been bribed.

Speaker 6 She was about to lose her children.

Speaker 7 I don't care about myself anymore. I just want my kids back.

Speaker 8 Frida Hanamoff, three months pregnant and on an undercover mission to expose corruption, headed to a warehouse in downtown Brooklyn to meet businessman Nisam Ellman.

Speaker 6 See, we didn't really know what Nisam Ellman was about. We didn't know what he was capable of.
How's her demeanor? she seem to be?

Speaker 8 ADA Michael Vecchion assigned detectives Jeanette Spordoni and George Terra to Frida.

Speaker 7 She was a tiger.

Speaker 7 She was protecting her cubs.

Speaker 9 This is a digital recording device. This is a device that we use to give to Frida to have recorded conversations with Nissan Ellman at his warehouse.

Speaker 8 As they wired her up, their nerves were wound tight too.

Speaker 7 It was bullsy of her to go in there.

Speaker 7 We pulled up and we watched her go in

Speaker 7 and we really didn't know what was going on inside that warehouse.

Speaker 7 You're walking, it's dark, you're listening to your step.

Speaker 7 Quiet, but you can hear echoes.

Speaker 7 I was scared. But I never show it.
Like, you know, my heart will go fast.

Speaker 8 Frida found Nisan Ellman right here in his office.

Speaker 7 He makes phone calls in front of my eyes to the court, asking how's the judge.

Speaker 8 Their conversation was mostly in Hebrew.

Speaker 5 You have a problem.

Speaker 17 The problem you have. The situation can be saved.

Speaker 3 It's possible.

Speaker 17 Your husband paid money, a lot of money, and he has the upper hand. Like what he wants, he'll get, okay?

Speaker 17 He also also doesn't care about wasting the money because he knows that you don't have the money.

Speaker 6 And Elman said, you're losing because your husband paid off the judge.

Speaker 17 He is going to build a case against you that is even worse than you think in order to take the children.

Speaker 8 Elman tells Frida the judge is looking at papers submitted by her ex-husband.

Speaker 17 If the judge signs that paper, your children forget about the children. They are taking your children away.

Speaker 8 Frida pleads with Elman.

Speaker 7 What do you you want me to do? I'm losing my children. Tommy, please.

Speaker 8 I'm begging you.

Speaker 8 Elman shows Frida his cell phone with Judge Garson's phone number on the screen.

Speaker 7 If you are saying that Garson is corrupt, will he reverse everything for me?

Speaker 17 He will do everything for me. He will do everything for me.
The problem is here, how much you can sacrifice.

Speaker 8 Elman, an electronics salesman, guarantees she'll win custody of her younger children, Sharon and Nadi, but it will cost her.

Speaker 4 Essentially, what he's doing is he's bringing in the clients.

Speaker 8 Prosecutor Noel Downey.

Speaker 4 And he's selling to them a product. And I'm not talking about a stereo here.
The product that he's selling them is that I have, that being Nisa Melman, I have Judge Garson in my pocket.

Speaker 4 And if you come on board with me, you give me a certain amount of cash, I'll get it done for you.

Speaker 8 Two weeks later, wearing a wire again,

Speaker 8 Frida visits Ellman to negotiate a price for her children.

Speaker 8 And the DA gave you the money to give, all marked money, all marked money to give Ellman.

Speaker 8 The price to keep custody of Sharon and Nadi? $9,000.

Speaker 7 I want guarantee for the money.

Speaker 17 It is guaranteed by 1 million percent. It's not 99%,

Speaker 17 by a million percent.

Speaker 8 And Frida says it worked. Judge Garson had appointed this lawyer, Paul Semenofsky, to represent her children.
And suddenly, Semenovsky was treating Frida very differently.

Speaker 8 So you're giving Elman money and you're seeing the same results.

Speaker 7 Okay.

Speaker 7 Guys ready? I felt like they're not talking anymore about my little kids because it's so obvious they're going to be mine. In the beginning, I was so dangerous, remember? Now I'm a very good mother.

Speaker 7 Now you're a good mother. And I get visitation for my oldest son after six months.

Speaker 4 She saw such a difference of how people treated her from top down.

Speaker 8 So she gives Elmen the money and boom, everything changes.

Speaker 6 Simonovsky, particularly, became a lot less strident in terms of his feelings towards her.

Speaker 7 Seminovsky, good morning to me all of a sudden, and

Speaker 7 the judge is going easy on me. I felt very good.

Speaker 4 He's pouring over a lot of the transcripts.

Speaker 8 It was up to the DA now to figure out how an electronic salesman could possibly be influencing custody decisions.

Speaker 9 Okay.

Speaker 8 They put a tap on Ellman's phone.

Speaker 8 On tape, he assures lawyer Paul Seminofsky that he's working to get him money from various divorce litigants.

Speaker 3 I don't give a shit about them.

Speaker 18 It's all business and I want it to be as rich as I could. Sounds good.

Speaker 8 Simonovsky brags about boozing it up with Judge Garson.

Speaker 19 I was getting Garson drunk for two hours. He'll do what I want.

Speaker 8 Detectives begin tailing Simonovsky.

Speaker 8 This is surveillance tape of him hugging Elman.

Speaker 4 Simonowski and Elman have a very tight relationship. Simonowski also has a very tight relationship with the judge.

Speaker 8 Investigators believe they had figured out the food chain, literally.

Speaker 6 This is the infamous Archives Bar. That's where.
This is a bar.

Speaker 6 Bar restaurant where Simonovsky and the judge would meet often for drinks and dinner, and where much of the money was spent on the judge.

Speaker 7 They were very well known at the archives because they were there just about every afternoon.

Speaker 7 Very friendly, a lot of laughing.

Speaker 7 They were buddies.

Speaker 4 I'm talking about an attorney who would bring the judge out to lunch, to drinks, to dinners. Not once, but we're talking several hundred times.

Speaker 9 Paul Sabinowski would pick up the tip.

Speaker 9 It was a given.

Speaker 7 Always.

Speaker 4 He spent over 10 grand on Judge Garson's stomach.

Speaker 9 Everybody knew they were buddies. People know that this lawyer is before this judge on a case.

Speaker 3 It's wrong.

Speaker 9 It's inappropriate.

Speaker 15 It's unethical.

Speaker 8 If this was what was going on in public, authorities wanted to know what was happening behind closed doors. Were judicial decisions being bought?

Speaker 8 Officers from the district attorney's office worked in the middle of the night long after Judge Garson had left for the day.

Speaker 8 They searched his robing room looking for a place to hide a camera.

Speaker 8 They found this hole in the ceiling.

Speaker 8 On a cold December night, detectives from the district attorney's office made their way into this room, Judge Garson's chambers. A tiny camera placed in his ceiling.

Speaker 6 This actually is the camera that was planted.

Speaker 8 This is the camera? Yes. And it went through the ceiling, wires going down.

Speaker 6 Yes, we had a microwave dish that would read the signals being sent back to our office.

Speaker 13 This was our plant.

Speaker 6 And this is where we had the recording devices that recorded the judge's chambers, both video and audio.

Speaker 8 And you were watching this in real time? Yes.

Speaker 6 We had people who were monitoring it all day long and into the evening.

Speaker 8 Just weeks after Frida Hanimoff, terrified she was going to lose her children, started working undercover to try to prove whether Judge Garson was taking payoffs, the district attorney began surveillance of the judge and his meetings with lawyer Paul Simonovsky.

Speaker 8 Yeah,

Speaker 20 what are you doing now? Maybe get some work?

Speaker 6 Simonovsky kind of has the run of the room. And I mean, nobody else really has this kind of access.

Speaker 8 He's totally at home.

Speaker 6 Oh, absolutely. Without

Speaker 6 a sense. And he is not candid about reaching into the candy dish at any time.

Speaker 4 Here you have this attorney Simonovsky getting inappropriately cozy with the judge who he's appearing before that he has cases with.

Speaker 8 One of Simonovsky's clients was this man, Avraham Levy, estranged husband of this mother of five, Saga Levy.

Speaker 8 Detectives secretly listened in as Judge Garson tells Simonovsky that his client, Avraham, will win the family house. I'll win him as with

Speaker 8 Saga Levy. The bottom line is right here.

Speaker 8 She'll walk away.

Speaker 8 She's fine. You win.

Speaker 3 Look at the coachman. You'll win an easy way.

Speaker 20 And your s doesn't deserve it. You're right.

Speaker 8 At a later date, Judge Garson instructs Simonovsky how to write a memo on the issue.

Speaker 20 The only evidence of the case is

Speaker 6 during the course of the marriage party ten.

Speaker 8 The judge is telling him what to say in court and things like that.

Speaker 6 Yes, was on trial. On trial

Speaker 6 that very week, that very day.

Speaker 8 He says, When you go back into court, say this.

Speaker 13 Argue A, argue B. You're going to win.

Speaker 4 The wife's not going to get anything. Don't worry about her.
And says some pretty disturbing things about her on this videotape.

Speaker 8 According to investigators, the judge and the lawyer said things about other women, too.

Speaker 4 The way he spoke about women was really just

Speaker 4 beyond sexist.

Speaker 4 I think it borders on disturbing.

Speaker 8 Investigators say they heard Paul Simonovsky tell Alman what Judge Garson said about Frida.

Speaker 6 The judge was admiring her lips.

Speaker 8 In a sexual way. Yes.

Speaker 6 And what she could do to him with those lips.

Speaker 8 Here she is, pregnant, pleading for her children. And this judge is talking about her mouth

Speaker 8 in a sexual way.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 8 But the worst thing that was going on in Garson's chambers, according according to investigators, were the kickbacks in the form of lucrative work.

Speaker 4 You see, Simonowski's assignment numbers almost triple.

Speaker 8 All that whining and dining of the judge paid off for Simonovsky, according to investigators, in a big way.

Speaker 8 If a child needed representation in a custody case, Judge Garson would assign Simonovsky as the law guardian.

Speaker 8 And the divorcing parents or the taxpayers would foot the bill, often tens of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 4 So here you have the judge getting filled at lunch with booze and food. And hey, thanks, Simonowski.
Here's a guardianship for you.

Speaker 8 Judge Garson's behavior was especially appalling for Joe Hines, the district attorney in charge. For him, this investigation was personal.

Speaker 5 I saw the way the courts treated my mother when she was being beaten up by my father. I have a very, very special interest in making damn sure that that kind of stuff doesn't continue.

Speaker 5 Frankly, I was shocked that it was going on at all. I thought that there had been significant changes in the way the courts had acted towards women, litigants, and their kids.

Speaker 8 The district attorney thought he had the goods on Simonovsky, but he wanted Judge Garson. He told his staff to offer Simonovsky a deal and get him to flip.

Speaker 8 They would recommend Simonovsky serve no prison time. It was an offer he couldn't refuse.
Simonovsky took the deal. He would wear a wire and go see the judge.

Speaker 6 We said, well, will he take a gift for the advice? And Simonovsky told us, absolutely. And we knew that he was a cigar smoker.

Speaker 8 The DA bought a $275 box of cigars.

Speaker 6 One afternoon after Simonovsky went to lunch with the judge and after he paid for the lunch again, he came back to the roving room

Speaker 6 and gave him the box of cigars and said, this is thanks for your help in the Levy case.

Speaker 8 Next, Simonovsky brought cash, $1,000, a thank you for referring a case in another court to him.

Speaker 6 You'll see him reach into his pocket and he takes out $1,000

Speaker 6 and he hands it to the judge. The judge takes it and he puts it into his pants pocket.
Now Simonovsky leaves and the judge takes it out of his pocket and you see him counting it,

Speaker 6 takes a couple of bills and puts it into another pocket and puts some in an envelope.

Speaker 8 Judge Garson calls Simonovsky back to his office, tells him it's too much money, and tries to give it back.

Speaker 8 Simonovsky insists.

Speaker 8 In the end, Garson keeps the money.

Speaker 6 What we had all suspected he would do, he actually did.

Speaker 13 Joe Hines, the district attorney in this case, would like nothing better than to tag Jerry Garson with the fact that he accepted a bribe.

Speaker 8 Attorney Ron Fashetti represented Judge Garson and told us the judge's behavior may look bad, but there is nothing illegal about any of it.

Speaker 13 He never fixed a case. He never accepted any money on any cases whatsoever.
The $1,000 that you're talking about was a referral fee that Paul Semenowski said.

Speaker 13 You referred me a case, I received a fee, and here's the $1,000

Speaker 6 to give back.

Speaker 8 A judge is supposed to take referral fees?

Speaker 13 Absolutely not. And he tried to give it back three times.

Speaker 8 He didn't try to give all of it back.

Speaker 13 Yes, he did. The whole $1,000.
You see him counting it out. Put it in an envelope, open the drawer, gave it back to him.

Speaker 6 That's our position.

Speaker 8 He ended up taking it.

Speaker 13 Yes, he did.

Speaker 13 You've heard of the law of entrapment, I'm sure.

Speaker 8 Furthermore, Faschetti says Garson showed Simonovsky no special treatment in exchange for all those meals.

Speaker 13 The only bribe he's accused of taking is the fact that he had lunch and dinner with Paul Simonowski in order to have favorable treatment for Paul Simonowski and give him Lord Guardianships.

Speaker 13 Now, I tell you, I mean, that is so ridiculous on its face. A person like Jerry Garson, a Supreme Court judge, is not going to throw in his robes for a hamburger.

Speaker 8 The judge is on tape

Speaker 8 telling and coaching Simonovsky and how to win a case in front of him.

Speaker 8 He's giving him lessons. He's telling him how to write the memo.

Speaker 13 That's not correct. What happened was, I understand that.
He had made a decision regarding the property in that case.

Speaker 13 And what he was doing is telling Paul Simonovsky, in his own words, that he had ruled in his favor.

Speaker 13 You're going to win. He says,

Speaker 8 he says, your client's going to win, but he doesn't deserve it.

Speaker 8 It sounds as though he's saying, I shouldn't be doing this, but because of our relationship, I'm going to win. That's not correct.
But that's what say that. That's not correct.

Speaker 8 But 48 hours after Judge Garson took that money, detectives picked him up and brought him to a place they call the Gulag.

Speaker 6 It's a stark military area here in Brooklyn, and there's barbed wire around the place.

Speaker 8 He still had the $1,000 in his pocket.

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Speaker 19 this is 1010 wins sources revealed that a brooklyn state supreme court judge is under arrest on corruption charges he's identified as 71 year old gerald garson he was not a low-level judge

Speaker 8 When Judge Garson saw what investigators had on tape, they say he offered to cut a deal. But in the end, it fell apart.

Speaker 8 And nine months after Frida Hanamoff went undercover, it took a lot of guts for her to do what she did. The authorities arrested Judge Garson and charged him with receiving a bribe.

Speaker 8 Accepting all those free lunches could put the judge behind bars for up to seven years.

Speaker 8 And when investigators raided Nissam Ellman's warehouse, they found a treasure trove of documents.

Speaker 4 When we cracked open these file cabinets, now mind you, this is a electronic salesman in the middle of Brooklyn.

Speaker 4 When these drawers are opened, you feel like you're in a satellite file room for the matrimonial court.

Speaker 8 They arrested Nisam Ellman.

Speaker 8 and also retired court clerk Paul Sarnell

Speaker 8 and Judge Garson's court officer Louis Salerno. They were accused of taking bribes to steer cases to Garson's court.

Speaker 8 This surveillance tape shows Salerno accepting a bribe, a bag full of electronics, right on the courthouse steps.

Speaker 4 It's conspiracy first off and foremost.

Speaker 8 And it all starts with Frida.

Speaker 6 Certainly does.

Speaker 8 But it doesn't end with Frida.

Speaker 8 There are many women who say that because of Judge Garson, they lost custody of their children.

Speaker 7 Okay

Speaker 8 Remember Segal Levy, the woman whose divorce Judge Garson was discussing in that undercover tape?

Speaker 8 Segal had always suspected corruption. In fact, she's the one whose tip to Frida about Nisam Ellman started Frida on her crusade.

Speaker 8 Judge Garson was arrested before he ruled on Seagal's case, but her estranged husband has pled guilty to conspiring to bribe the judge.

Speaker 8 My ex-husband told me numerous times how he went to the right people

Speaker 8 to take care of me.

Speaker 8 He paid Ellman $10,000.

Speaker 8 But ironically, he says he's the victim and that he only did it because Ellman threatened him that he would lose everything if he didn't pay up.

Speaker 23 I knew about Seagal's divorce probably before she did. I knew her name that it was going on.

Speaker 24 Yes.

Speaker 8 Lisa Cohen knew because she and her husband were friendly with Neesom Ellman. You socialized with Neesom and his wife? Yes.

Speaker 23 I knew that he had the judge in his pocket. I knew that he was very friendly with the judge as well as he had a very intimate rapport with Paul Simonovsky.

Speaker 8 How did you know?

Speaker 23 From the horse's mouth, he told me.

Speaker 8 What did he tell you?

Speaker 23 Any favor you need, the judge is my friend.

Speaker 7 In my pocket.

Speaker 8 He said that too. Latent.

Speaker 8 And so when Lisa and her husband went through their own divorce later that year, she was terrified.

Speaker 23 I received the notice in the mail to appear in Supreme Court, and sure enough, Judge Garson's name was right there.

Speaker 7 And what did you think? Said, that's it.

Speaker 23 I'm doomed, I'm fixed, and it's all over.

Speaker 8 Lisa's ex-husband hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing, but Lisa still believes his friendship with Ellman hurt her. She believes that Judge Garson shorted her on child support.

Speaker 8 Judge Garson has not been charged with fixing any decisions, but an administrative judge was appointed to review his divorce divorce and custody rulings.

Speaker 20 Let me tell you something about this job.

Speaker 3 I have tomorrow until I get him.

Speaker 3 I don't give a easily care.

Speaker 8 The man alleged to be the gatekeeper of Judge Garson's corrupt court, Nisam Ellman, sat down with us for his first interview, his lawyer Gerald McMahon by his side. Do you think in your heart

Speaker 8 that you did anything wrong?

Speaker 18 No.

Speaker 8 You didn't do anything wrong? No.

Speaker 18 No. I tried to help these people.

Speaker 8 Did you ever bribe Judge Garson?

Speaker 18 Absolutely not.

Speaker 8 Were you bribing Paul Seminofsky?

Speaker 18 I was not

Speaker 18 under impression that I was bribing him.

Speaker 8 In fact, Ellman has been charged with conspiracy to bribe practically everyone in Judge Garson's court, from employees Salerno and Sarnell, to lawyer Simonofsky, to Judge Garson himself.

Speaker 8 But Ellman says he never really knew the judge.

Speaker 18 I was really

Speaker 17 showing off like I'm a big shot.

Speaker 18 And that was my biggest mistake.

Speaker 8 When you told Frida that if she didn't pay, she was going to lose her kids in 30 days. What are you saying you meant?

Speaker 25 Leslie, one of the things that when

Speaker 25 Frida goes to Mr. Ellman and she's asking him these things, there's no question that his responses, his comments to her on many occasions, if they were true, would be criminal.
But they weren't true.

Speaker 25 None of those things were true. Not a single one.

Speaker 8 Did you say I'm calling the judge?

Speaker 8 Did you mislead her?

Speaker 18 I might

Speaker 18 done that just to calm her down. Hi, how are you?

Speaker 8 Ellman says he lied to Frida when he told her her ex-husband was bribing the judge. And in fact, there is no evidence her ex slipped anyone any money.
And he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Speaker 8 Still, Ellman convinced Frida her ex was up to no good and took $9,000 from her. Every penny, he says, he gave to lawyer Simonovsky.
Didn't you keep some of the money yourself? Absolutely not.

Speaker 18 Not even one cent.

Speaker 23 He destroyed children's lives, and I don't have answers for my children.

Speaker 23 I just don't.

Speaker 8 You think he did it purely, simply for the money?

Speaker 23 Greed.

Speaker 8 But Ellman and his attorney believe that if anyone's motive should be in question, it should be Frida's.

Speaker 25 Frida Hanamoff is not a crusader trying to clean up corruption in Brooklyn, nor is Joe Hines. Frida Hanamoff is a useful tool to Joe Hines so that he can get publicity for this case.

Speaker 8 You are suggesting that she is not a very truthful person.

Speaker 25 I'm not suggesting it. I'm stating it categorically.
She's a liar.

Speaker 8 I've just did that, brother. He calls her a child abuser who found a way to get the charges dropped.

Speaker 3 Did she hit her child?

Speaker 6 Well, no, none of us believe she did. She felt that the husband had been manipulating her child, which is what happened.

Speaker 3 See,

Speaker 8 Nearly two years after Judge Garson's arrest, she's still fighting for custody.

Speaker 7 We'll see, I just want to get over it already.

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Speaker 8 For almost two years, Frida Hanamoff has been fighting to get custody of her eldest son, and today could be the day.

Speaker 8 Finally, Yanif, who still says his mother hit him, agrees to live with her because he wants to be near his school. So after a very long wait and a very short hearing...
I got my son back!

Speaker 7 My heart is like

Speaker 7 jumping up and down.

Speaker 7 This is every mother's dream, you know, to have her kid back.

Speaker 7 This is a big win for me, a big win. I'm glad.

Speaker 11 You got it.

Speaker 8 It seems that women all over the country have heard about what she's done.

Speaker 7 People start calling me. Oh, I had the same story as you.
I lost two kids. Another woman calls me.
I had one kid. They thought I'm a DA.
I can help them.

Speaker 7 But I'm just a mother who fight the system and I won.

Speaker 8 And you've been likened to Erin Brakovich.

Speaker 7 That's what they're saying.

Speaker 7 And who was the low guardian?

Speaker 8 Every month, Frida meets with other women. If she hears what she thinks is evidence of corruption, she calls her new friends in law enforcement.

Speaker 7 Well, I was there once. If I can help those women,

Speaker 7 why not?

Speaker 8 In the wake of Judge Garson's arrest, court administrators formed a new commission to reform New York's divorce court. And Frida was right there.

Speaker 8 In this part of New York, at least, things are changing.

Speaker 8 The district attorney credits Frida with forcing the leadership of the court to re-examine how they pick judges and how they handle custody cases.

Speaker 5 Has Frida done that? You bet she did. Here we go.

Speaker 8 Now, Hollywood has come calling. A movie company bought the rights to Frida's story.

Speaker 6 How did it feel for you to be...

Speaker 8 The script line is simple. A Russian immigrant, for whom English is a third language, exposed a potential sewer of corruption in an American court.

Speaker 8 And now the women who thought they had no voice at all will get to be heard. Do you know the word tenacious?

Speaker 23 No, it's this.

Speaker 8 It's a person who grabs hold when they want something and doesn't let go.

Speaker 7 So call me that there. So call me this name.

Speaker 8 Tenacious.

Speaker 8 However tenacious Frida was, it would take nearly five years before the case against Judge Gerald Garson would go to trial.

Speaker 8 A jury found the judge, who handled more than a thousand matrimonial cases while on the bench, guilty of receiving bribes. Garson stood before the court, ashamed.

Speaker 24 I am profoundly sorry, obviously,

Speaker 3 for the public scrutiny

Speaker 24 visited upon the judiciary as a whole. What I have to say now

Speaker 24 is for my family,

Speaker 3 my wife, my children, and grandchildren and friends.

Speaker 24 And I know that my own acts and shortcomings have changed their lives forever.

Speaker 3 I apologize for all of you.

Speaker 3 Of course, you.

Speaker 8 But the former judge refused to apologize to all the women who say they and their children were his victims.

Speaker 27 Gerald Garson served 30 months in prison. He later died in 2016 at age 83.
Paul Simonovsky pled guilty to a misdemeanor.

Speaker 6 Nisa Melman pled guilty to all the charges against him.

Speaker 27 Luis Salerno was convicted of receiving a bribe, and Paul Sarnell was found not guilty of all charges.

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