- HEMPSTEAD, NY (AP)
Did you hear the one about the two guys arrested for telling lawyer jokes?
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- But seriously folks, it happened earlier this week to
the founders of a group called ''Americans for Legal Reform,'' who were
waiting in line to get into the First District Courthouse.
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- ''How do you tell when a lawyer is lying?'' Harvey Kash
reportedly asked Carl Lanzisera.
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- ''His lips are moving,'' they said in unison.
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- While some waiting to get into the courthouse giggled
Monday at the old chestnut, an attorney further up the queue was not laughing.
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- He told them to pipe down and when they didn't, the attorney
reported the pair to court personnel, who charged them with disorderly
conduct, a misdemeanor.
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- ''A court officer accused us of disturbing the peace,''
Lanzisera said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
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- ''They just can't take it,'' Kash said of lawyers in
general. ''They're so used to control. We were outside on the street. This
violates our First Amendment rights.''
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- Americans for Legal Reform is a group that uses confrontational
tactics to push for greater access to courts for the public and to monitor
how well courts serve the public. The pair said that for years they have
stood outside courthouses on Long Island and mocked lawyers.
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- On Monday, however, Kash said he was due in the Hempstead
courthouse to answer a DWI charge from an arrest 20 months ago. He complained
that his case had been postponed many times and blamed lawyers.
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- ''I had the nerve to plead not guilty,'' he said.
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- Dan Bagnuola, a spokesman for the Nassau County courts,
said the men were ''being abusive and they were causing a disturbance.''
He said he did not have the name of the lawyer who complained to officers.
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- The men were given desk appearance tickets and are due
back in court as defendants next month.
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