New York State has settled a federal racial-discrimination lawsuit against Governor David Patterson for firing a white Senate photographer in order to replace him with an African-American when he was Senate minority leader in 2003.
The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial in federal court in Syracuse today with Paterson a key witness, but it was wisely and quietly settled last Thursday for $300,000.
"The settlement ends a civil-rights action first filed in 2005 by Joseph Maioriello, 56, of Schenectady, a 26-year Senate employee who originally sought $1.5 million. He was fired from his $34,000-a-year job as a photographer two years earlier and replaced by a black employee, El-Wise Noisette. The shakeup happened after Paterson ousted then-Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn) as the minority leader."
According to the New York Post.
"In the lawsuit, Maioriello claimed he was told by John McPadden, then Paterson's chief of staff, that he was being fired because a number of minority senators wanted to replace him with ‘a minority photographer, a black photographer.’ He said he was also told, ‘You got to remember who Sen. Paterson is. Sen. Paterson is black.’"
According to The Post.
In his deposition on the case, Patterson added to his growing list of disturbingly stupid and tone deaf comments when he said he didn't see well enough to have fired Maioriello because of his race (Patterson is legally blind).