Wanna hear a story about a scumbag, who is also a New York state senator?

[No Passaran]

I apologize in advance for the Copy/Paste format. This needs to be heard, especially by New Yorkers... REMEMBER THE NAME Jim Alesi!

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Jim Alesi is a New York state senator. He’s been a politician of one stripe or another for most of his adult life. He is slippery and slimy.

This isn’t the garden-variety disgust, this is full-blown contempt. Jim Alesi has made himself the lightning rod for all the pent-up rage New York’s screw-you government has built up in its people.
Failed, immoral government has a face, and it’s Jim Alesi.
Here’s how.
Three years ago, he went nosing around in an under-construction subdivision. With a second person who hasn’t yet been publicly identified, Jim Alesi went into a half-built house – in the open back door, the front door being locked – and tried climbing a ladder from the basement to the first floor.
Make sure you have this straight in your head. A subdivision was being built. There was a completed model house and there were several other houses, in various stages of construction. On a Saturday afternoon late, Jim Alesi and his companion went into one of the incomplete houses. No sign invited them in. Nothing indicated it was a public-access property. The front door was locked.
In fact, it was private property.
A family had bought a lot from the developer and then hired the developer to build a home. The home was at the drywall stage, essentially a rough shell. The stairwell was not yet built.
And a sitting state senator on a weekend as dusk approached went onto private property without permission and came in an unlocked back basement door and climbed a ladder out of the basement into the shell of the first floor.
Halfway.
Because Jim Alesi fell.
He fell off the ladder.
An OSHA-approved heavy-duty construction ladder that is still in use.
But he fell off. And broke his leg. And the ambulance had to come get him.
And when the deputy called the developer he asked if he wanted Jim Alesi charged with trespassing.
Because he shouldn’t have been where he was.
It was private property. It was not open to the public. Alesi had no business being there. The front door was locked.
But the fat-cat politician and his mystery guest went in anyway.
The developer told the deputy that it wasn’t his decision whether or not to press charges. The lot had already been sold, and the contractor was there as hired help, and the new owners were the ones to ask.
And they said no.
A kindly middle-aged couple, building their dream home, they said no, there was no use adding insult to injury, the senator had no doubt learned his lesson, they didn’t want to burden him further by pressing charges.
They forgave Jim Alesi.
He trespassed on their property, came into their home, it seemed just a notch below breaking and entering. Had they been living in the home, they would have been legally justified in shooting him dead where he stood.
But they didn’t press charges.
That was three years ago.
And exactly three years later, on the day the statute of limitations freed Jim Alesi from liability for trespass, he returned the favor.
He filed suit against the property owners.
He sued them for his broken leg.
Them and the developer.
He said they failed to protect him from the hazard.
He went onto their property without permission, he went into a private building through an unsecured back door, he climbed a ladder in an obviously incomplete building on an active worksite, and they’re the ones at fault.
Jim Alesi is trying to cash in.
By crucifying people who showed him mercy. He is returning evil for good.
And he played a game of timing that let the whole thing lie fallow long enough for him to 1. avoid legal liability himself, and 2. sneak through a re-election last November.
So now that he can’t be sued, and that he’s got an entire term out of the reach of the people, he’s decided to cash in.
Which is exactly just the sort of immoral skullduggery that New Yorkers expect out of the political class. Jim Alesi has become the poster child for vapid politicians of both parties. He is the face of the scum that suck off the body politic.
As a Republican in the state Senate, his seat is the margin of control in that body for his party. As a Republican in the state Senate, he is proof positive that it’s not just downstate Democrats who shame that body.
As a Monroe County Republican, he is one more in a sadly long line of GOP snakes uncovered in recent years. As a Monroe County Republican, he is one more stone to throw at County Executive Maggie Brooks as she comes up for re-election this fall.
But there’s more.
As a Republican in the state Senate, Jim Alesi is a sponsor of legislation that would essentially forbid construction workers from suing in a circumstance like his. Under Alesi-backed legislation, a construction worker who fell off a ladder on a jobsite would have almost no opportunity to sue.
And yet Alesi, a trespasser who fell of a ladder on a construction site, is suing himself.
In large measure, he is doing what he would deny others the right to do. And those others were on the ladder legitimately while he was there seemingly illegally.
Somebody making a living falls off a ladder, and Jim Alesi keeps him from suing. Jim Alesi trespassing falls off a ladder, and he files a lawsuit.
How is that just?
How is that right?
And what sort of a piece-of-crap person would do something like this? How could such a heel hold a position of public trust?
Which gets us back to where we began.
Jim Alesi really has just two options.
Drop the suit or resign.
Because the tide has turned against him, and the people won’t tolerate this anymore.
Drop the suit or resign.


http://www.wham1180.com/pages/boblonsberry.html

Kick and Recommend and get this story out

[roguevalley]

1. please keep us up on this travesty. frankly, anyone who did that

to me would be jailed. that couple is sweet and deserves better. I imagine they have insurance but the company needs to counter sue him.

[brooklynite]

2. UPDATE Alesi dropped his suit...

...following unrelenting criticism by the media.

[Renew Deal]

3. The link doesn't match what you posted.

Is there a corrected link?

[Festivito]

4. Here's a NY Daily News . com. (I don't know the paper personally.)

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/01/24/2011-01-24_not_a_leg_to_stand_on.html

It was a boneheaded stunt that should have gotten him arrested for trespassing. Bueret the owners of the house - who happen to be Alesi's constituents - were kind enough not to press charges.

Now, three years later, Alesi repays the favor by suing his victims and the contractor, DiRisio Builders, for damages. He claims they were negligent in not doing more to secure the premises against idiot intruders, like him.

[Buddyblazon]

5. Lawsuit dropped...

http://www.mpnnow.com/perinton/x1651174415/Alesi-drops-lawsuit-against-couple

[Jokinomx]

6. Damn... what a lowlife. I hope the publicity puts an end to his scheme! n/t

peace

[dionysus]

7. oh god, someone brought bob lonsberry to DU

:puke:

[lib_wit_it]

8. Another scumbag Repuke hypocrite from the bottomless pit.

[struggle4progress]

9. I think the gentleman chose an uphill fight, but perhaps he's dropped the suit

He might have been able to recover some fraction of the damages for his injuries, but I would not expect 100% recovery, and in fact I might expect the courts would have found his own acts very largely the cause of his injuries, so his fraction of the damages recovered might be quite small. Now, it might be foreseeable that someone after hours might climb a ladder left at a construction site, then fall off and be injured, so failure to post a warning that the site was dangerous, or failure to secure the back door, might actually be negligent -- though one might expect the at-risk group to be highschoolers armed with a six-pack or a few doobies, looking for an out-of-the-way place to cop a buzz, rather than an adult elected official. And, of course, there was the question of whether the situation was actually hazardous in itself or became hazardous large through his stupidity

Update: Sen. Jim Alesi drops lawsuit against Perinton couple
Posted at: 01/25/2011 4:49 PM | Updated at: 01/25/2011 7:39 PM
By: Ray Levato | WHEC.com
... Monday night, Alesi bowed to pressure from leaders in his own republican party last night and said he would drop a lawsuit he filed against a local builder, and two of his constituents ... The Heckers said today they hadn’t received anything official from their attorney saying that Alesi's lawsuit was in fact withdrawn. They say they will speak on camera at that time. Their builder, Lou Dirisio, did speak about the lawsuit on Friday and said he was infuriated. But he also wants to wait before making further comment ...http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1941958.shtml?cat=565

Contributory Negligence vs. Comparative Negligence
... In a comparative negligence system, the injured party may still recover some of his or her damages even if he or she was partially to blame for causing the accident. Plaintiff’s financial recovery may be reduced, or even prohibited, depending how plaintiff’s actions caused or contributed to the accident ... Presently, thirteen (13) states follow a pure comparative negligence system: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Washington. In a pure comparative negligence system, a judge or jury assigns a percentage of fault to each responsible party and then apportions the damage award accordingly ...
http://www.the-injury-lawyer-directory.com/negligence.html

Proximate cause
... Harm Within the Risk (HWR) test determines whether the victim was among the class of persons who could foreseeably be harmed, and whether the harm was foreseeable within the class of risks ... The first element of the test is met if the injured person was a member of a class of people who could be expected to be put at risk of injury by the action ... The second prong of the test is whether the type of harm was in the class of expected harms ... The HWR test is no longer much used, outside of New York law ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximate_cause

THE OPEN AND OBVIOUS DOCTRINE AND PREMISES LIABILITY
Prior to 1976 the doctrine of “open and obvious” as applied to the defense of premise liability cases in New York State was oft used and typically successful. To obtain dismissal a defendant premises owner was required only to demonstrate that the complained of condition was not hidden or disguised, such that a trap like condition was created, but rather was visible to an ordinary individual reasonably employing his senses. The landmark decision of Basso v. Miller, 40 NY2d 233 (1976) however, effected a sea change in premises liability for New York defendants ... Basso held that a landowner is charged with maintaining his property in a reasonably safe condition in view of all circumstances, including the likelihood of injury to others, the seriousness of the injury, and the burden of avoiding the risk of harm. While the status of the plaintiff was an element to consider in assessing foreseeability, it was no longer relevant in defining the duty owed by the landowner. The Court in Basso went on to specifically hold that negligence principles such as comparative negligence and assumption of risk apply to premises cases ... As the Appellate Division in Cupo v. Karfunkel, 1 A.D.3d 48 (2d Dept 2003) observed, where it is demonstrated only that the complained of condition is open and obvious dismissal is inappropriate and such an argument is relevant only to the comparative negligence of the plaintiff. If however, it is demonstrated that the complained of condition is both open and obvious and, as a matter of law, not inherently dangerous a Court must dismiss the claim ...
http://www.gortonlaw.com/articles.html

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. To quote Mark Twain, you repeat yourself in the title of the post.

There's a redundancy there, just so you know. :)

I don't have a problem with "trespassing" on construction sites, I-er-people have been known to venture into construction sites and check out what's being built. If a property isn't in active use then it's like walking onto a farm field IMHO. Just so long as they aren't going there to steal. Which unfortunately is the problem. (Maybe that's why Alesi was there. He IS, after all, a New York State elected official. It's in his blood.) If it's a well-managed site there should be nothing to steal... But this Alesi character certainly has chutzpah, doesn't he? You've got to give him that.