James Burke

Judge Burke is an outstanding jurist who conducts his court in an extremely fair and respectful manner to all involved. I represented a non-citizen Spanish speaking immigrant who was wrongfully accused of two burglaries by an overzealous and unethical prosecutor who forced this horrible case to go to trial in the hopes of winning a wrongful conviction by knowingly misrepresenting facts to the jury. When we were sent out to Judge Burke’s part, I was initially worried because he was a former Manhattan ADA and I thought he may have a pro-prosecution bias and I had significant issues with the ADA assigned to my case. We were granted a Franks hearing because of multiple false facts contained in the search warrant. Judge Burke allowed me wide latitude in my questioning of this detective which revealed that despite his having the correct facts within his case folder the search warrant affidavit was drafted by the unethical ADA who presented it to the detective for his signature containing numerous false facts. This was a young officer and newly promoted detective, who was clearly taken advantage of by an unethical prosecutor, and compelled to sign a search warrant affidavit. While Judge Burke did not find that the numerous misstated facts would have negated the other facts in support of probable cause for the search warrant, he was beginning to see our defense to these charges and my ethical concerns with the ADA. Throughout the trial, Judge Burke was respectful to both sides but importantly allowed me latitude in exposing some of the unethical conduct of this ADA, including compelling a prosecution witness to turn over an email that we learned for the first time at trial, he sent to coworkers about the alleged burglaries. This email directly contradicted factual statements made by the prosecutor in his opening statement and I believe the prosecutor had this email all along. Some judges knowingly and unknowingly put their thumb on the scale during a trial in the wa

Judge Burke is an outstanding jurist who conducts his court in an extremely fair and respectful manner to all involved. I represented a non-citizen Spanish speaking immigrant who was wrongfully accused of two burglaries by an overzealous and unethical prosecutor who forced this horrible case to go to trial in the hopes of winning a wrongful conviction by knowingly misrepresenting facts to the jury. When we were sent out to Judge Burke’s part, I was initially worried because he was a former Manhattan ADA and I thought he may have a pro-prosecution bias and I had significant issues with the ADA assigned to my case. We were granted a Franks hearing because of multiple false facts contained in the search warrant. Judge Burke allowed me wide latitude in my questioning of this detective which revealed that despite his having the correct facts within his case folder the search warrant affidavit was drafted by the unethical ADA who presented it to the detective for his signature containing numerous false facts. This was a young officer and newly promoted detective, who was clearly taken advantage of by an unethical prosecutor, and compelled to sign a search warrant affidavit. While Judge Burke did not find that the numerous misstated facts would have negated the other facts in support of probable cause for the search warrant, he was beginning to see our defense to these charges and my ethical concerns with the ADA. Throughout the trial, Judge Burke was respectful to both sides but importantly allowed me latitude in exposing some of the unethical conduct of this ADA, including compelling a prosecution witness to turn over an email that we learned for the first time at trial, he sent to coworkers about the alleged burglaries. This email directly contradicted factual statements made by the prosecutor in his opening statement and I believe the prosecutor had this email all along. Some judges knowingly and unknowingly put their thumb on the scale during a trial in the wa