Tech Shout!

One could think about workers or student to resort to playing computer games out of boredom. However one cannot remotely think about the possibility of a judge playing games during a trial. Weird but true…in the testimony of Guardian Angels-founder and radio host Curtis Sliwa in the trial of John “Junior” Gotti, the man accused of devising a 1992 attempt on Sliwa’s life, saw Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin playing Solitaire.

According to the New York Daily News, Sliwa told the paper he spotted the judge playing a game of Solitaire while he was giving testimony at Gotti’s trial last year. The article makes no mention of any other witnesses having seen the judge playing games, and Scheindlin herself didn’t return the papers requests for comment.

Sliwa was almost killed at a 1992 shooting that Gotti is accused of planning. Sliwa said he has seen Scheindlin gaming during the last two trials, but did not speak up “until Scheindlin dumped cold water on the government’s third try” to convict the mobster.

Following which Sliwa suggested that the judge remove herself from the case. In calling for the judge to step down, Sliwa referenced a February incident in which New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a city employee after finding the man playing Solitaire on his computer at work.

“Should a federal judge be playing video solitaire when an employee of the New York City government gets fired for playing video solitaire?” Sliwa told the paper. “I don’t think any of us are that good at multitasking. To me that’s an abuse and an outrage.”