Heather Toole, Gary Horton, Stephen Pittari, and Norman Shapiro Receive Awards at NYSDA Conference in Saratoga

SARATOGA, NY (07/26/2011)(readMedia)-- For their efforts to ensure justice for clients unable to afford counsel in criminal or family court, four attorneys received awards on July 25 during the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) Annual Meeting and Conference held in Saratoga Springs.

Norman Shapiro, a private attorney practicing in Orange County and a NYSDA founding member, and Stephen J. Pittari, recently retired Chief Counsel and Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County, were both given the Service of Justice Award.

Gary Horton, Genesee County Public Defender, received the Wilfred R. O'Connor Award, which honors a public defense attorney in practice fifteen or more years who exemplifies the client-centered sense of justice, persistence, and compassion that characterized the late Bill O'Connor's life.

And Heather Toole, Ulster County Assistant Public Defender, was presented with an award created by the Genesee County Public Defender Office in memory of a young staff lawyer whose hallmarks were a sense of justice, determination, and compassion.

"Never before have I received as many complimentary comments about one of my attorneys..." wrote Ulster County Public Defender Andrew Kossover in nominating Toole for the Kevin M. Andersen Award. Judges, court clerks, and even opposing counsel "consistently praise her preparation, attorney-client relations, and trial skills," Kossover added. Toole represents people in family court matters such as custody/visitation, guardianship, family offense, paternity, neglect, and support violation cases. This years' Kevin M. Andersen Award thus pays tribute both to Toole as an exceptional attorney and to the type of work that she does, which often goes unheralded. In addition, the award, which goes to lawyers in practice less than 15 years, recognizes the contributions of newer lawyers in the public defense arena; Toole began practicing in 2004.

In that year, Gary Horton had already been a respected chief public defender long enough to act as a faculty member at NYSDA's Management and Leadership Workshop for New Chief Defenders. He became the full time head of his office in 1998, after serving in the role part-time for seven years and as an assistant public defender for two years before that. The breadth of Horton's commitment to justice, persistence, and compassion is reflected by many things. These include his receipt, in 2002, of the Genesee County Mental Health Association's Constance E. Miller Award for demonstrated commitment to excellence pertinent to the delivery and/or advocacy of quality community-based mental health services in Genesee County and his pro bono representation of "the Forgotten Victims of Attica," corrections officers who survived and the families of those who died in the Attica prison uprising of 1971, who obtained a state settlement in 2005. Another example is his determined efforts from the beginning, a decade ago, to make his county's drug court work for clients; among the fruits of those efforts was the establishment in 2009 of the drug court's Veterans Service Coordination and Mentoring program. Horton's many contributions to NYSDA's work, as a board member, chief defender, and friend, were also honored, including his help in holding hearings in 2003 on the "Adequacy of Defense Services Available to Farm Workers in Genesee, Orleans and Monroe Counties."

Norman Shapiro was elected a NYSDA Vice-President in 1980, a position he held until stepping down from the board at this year's conference. But Shapiro did not receive NYSDA's Service of Justice Award on the basis of longevity or even just for loyalty to the Association but for his continued efforts to improve the quality of public defense representation statewide, his determined efforts to give his own clients the best possible representation, and his dedication to the idea that mastering forensic evidence and other skills was necessary to prevent injustice in criminal matters. Shapiro was a member of the Technical Working Group on Crime Scene Investigation that produced Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for Law Enforcement in 2000, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs; an Assistant Professor of Police Science at Orange County Community College; and a member of the active class of the International Association of Arson Investigators. He assisted other attorneys with arson cases, and set an example of the work defense lawyers need to do on behalf of clients.

Leading others by example, though in a quite different style, was also a major basis for awarding Stephen Pittari the Service of Justice Award. Beginning as Trial Counsel at the Westchester County Legal Aid Society, he developed a reputation as a formidable advocate, and went on to lead the office. As a Chief Defender, NYSDA member – having joined the Association in 1983 – and member of the NYSDA Board, Pittari looked beyond Westchester County and participated in NYSDA endeavors designed to improve public defense services in New York State, including efforts to secure needed state public defense funding. Past recognition of Pittari's accomplishments include awards from the Columbian Lawyers Association of Westchester County (1994), the Westchester Civil Liberties Union (1993), the New York State Bar Association Criminal Justice Section (1999), the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County (2011) and NYSDA (Special Recognition Award [1999] and Wilfred R. O'Connor Award [2006]). Pittari has spoken powerfully about threats to "our clients" from criminal justice planning and partnerships that exclude defenders and the defense point of view.

NYSDA, a not-for-profit, membership organization, has been providing support to New York's criminal defense community since 1967. Its mission is to improve the quality and scope of publicly supported legal representation to low income people.