Judge Keefe of Albany City Court, New York, should consider washing his mouth when dealing with pro se parties

Some time in February of this year I appeared in front of Judge Thomas Keefe, of the Albany County City Court.


As far as I know, Judge Keefe was recently transferred to the Albany County City Court from the Albany County City Court, Criminal part, because of an ongoing investigation in Judge Keefe's alleged misconduct.


I do not know why anybody who transferred Judge Keefe to the civil court thought he is safe for civil litigants if he was unsafe for criminal litigants.


I learnt about Judge Keefe's misconduct first hand and the hard way.


Throughout the hearing Judge Keefe was disrespectful to me and another pro se litigant, yelled at us, told us not to teach him law when we were trying to make objections as to points of law, interrupted us at every point.


What absolutely floored me was that Judge Keefe used against me, a grandmother, four-letter language.


Specifically, he told me to "sit the f**k down" and used the same word in other situations.


The petitioner, an alleged limited liability company, did not exist.  I brought that to the judge's attention, and he did not care, even though the previous judge dismissed the previous petition on that ground and told the attorney not to come back until she fixes the problem.


I, as a pro se litigant, and the other party respondent, also a pro se litigant, obtained from the law library packages for pro se parties about laws of real property and procedure, and tried to use them.  Judge Keefe cut off our arguments before they even started, telling us not to attempt to teach him about the law, because he was practicing for 32 years and 12 years as a judge.


I thought that no matter what the judge's experience is, that has nothing to do with my ability to raise objections at a trial.


I am not sure whether Judge Keefe ever practiced civil law during his 32 years of career, but to me, granting a petition to a non-existing party, after that was established in court, was bad.


How can a pro se party win in court if a judge does not even allow her to speak, make objections or present her case?


I asked the court for a copy of the disc under Judiciary Law 255, because I have a right to a copy of my record, but the court denied it to me, instead telling me that the only thing I am entitled to is a transcript, and not the digital recording.


What I did want was the digital recording with the ravings of Judge Keefe and his use of the four-letter language against me, because I am not really sure whether the stenographer will be given a direction to take it out or not.


I am not aware of any law, nor did the clerk care to explain to me, why I cannot get the copy of the digital recording, but I put the investigators of Judge Keefe's behavior on the alert of what happened.


I think that Judge Keefe is a danger to the pro se litigants and should not be allowed around indigent people who cannot afford a lawyer.