Aide to Governor Patterson is Said to Ignore Subpoena

ALBANY — A senior aide to Gov. David A. Paterson failed to respond to a subpoena from a state ethics commission requiring him to testify about his role in obtaining World Series tickets last year from the Yankees for Mr. Paterson and others who attended a game with the governor, the commission’s chairman said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The aide, David W. Johnson, was ordered to testify before the Commission on Public Integrity in a subpoena given to a Paterson administration lawyer on Feb. 24, one week before the commission issued a report finding that Mr. Paterson had violated state ethics laws by accepting the tickets and had lied under oath when he told the commission that he had intended to pay for them.

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Council Seeks to Crack Down on Process Servers Who Lie

In a proposal aimed at unscrupulous debt collectors, the City Council is considering legislation that would require process servers to use global positioning systems to show that they have actually visited consumers’ homes or workplaces to deliver notices of collection proceedings.

Lawmakers hope the measure will help curb a long-running practice known in legal circles as “sewer service,” which occurs when process servers fail to serve court papers on defendants but file affidavits swearing that they did so — which allows the cases to proceed.

The victims are often debtors involved in collection suits. When they fail to show up in court they are hit with default judgments, often for thousands of dollars.

The bill would require process servers in New York City to electronically record every instance in which they serve or try to serve someone, using a global positioning system that would pinpoint their exact location.

Advocates for consumers say that sewer service has grown in recent years because of the recession and an increase in the number of collection firms that buy bad debts from credit card companies for pennies on the dollar and then seek to collect them.

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Senate Subpoenaed for Records on Espada

ALBANY — Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo subpoenaed the New York Senate on Wednesday for a broad range of e-mail messages and other records concerning Senator Pedro Espada Jr., the Bronx Democrat who led a monthlong coup that brought state government to a standstill this summer, Mr. Espada said.

Mr. Cuomo has been investigating Mr. Espada for months in cooperation with the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, over matters including political activity by employees of health clinics he founded and whether he resides in his Bronx Senate district.

The latest subpoena focuses on the health clinics, which are part of the Soundview HealthCare Network, and Mr. Espada’s efforts, since winning office two years ago, to obtain Senate earmarks and other state grants.

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Cuomo Launches Probe Into Process Servers

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched a wide-ranging investigation of possible fraud in the process-serving industry, in which thousands of people may have had their financial accounts frozen or wages garnished without any knowledge of court proceedings against them, according to officials.

A spokesman for Cuomo, Richard Bamberger, confirmed the existence of the probe and said it's an important issue in a time of increasing economic hardship. He declined to elaborate on the scope of the investigation or on firms under scrutiny.

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Grand Jury Indicts Man Shot Twice By Process Server

A Putnam County grand jury has indicted a man who was shot twice last year in his Putnam Valley driveway by a process server.

The grand jury, however, did not indict the process server, a former Kent town police officer and ex-Kent councilman.

The grand jury returned a four-count indictment against shooting victim Douglas Greenwich, 53, but did not indict Dennis Illuminate, 67.