ALBANY — An Albany County prosecutor who once ballyhooed herself on Court TV as the “Queen of Crime” was nearly crowned by Judge Andra Ackerman earlier this week in a royal reprimand that included a threat to hold her in contempt.
The judge scolded Assistant District Attorney Seema Iyer for her response to a May 14 bail application filed by Assistant Public Defender Rebekah Sokol on behalf of Harvey Forrest, 50, who is facing attempted murder and felony assault charges in the stabbing of his former roommate. The prosecutor, an attorney since 1998 who has provided legal analysis on CNN and MSNBC, including a stint on Court TV starting in 2019, began working for District Attorney David Soares last August.
Forrest’s trial had been scheduled to begin May 15. Ackerman adjourned it to June 20 after Sokol wrote in her bail application that the stabbing victim’s mental health-related hospital records, described as voluminous, had not been made available to the defense. Sokol asked the judge to lower Forrest’s bail from $100,000 bond to $40,000.
Iyer claimed that Sokol’s bail application and request to adjourn the trial was a strategic ploy that could result in Forrest not returning to court. In boldface type, Iyer boasted that prosecutors were “ready for trial” and the “defense is not” which, according to Iyer, gave Forrest more of an incentive to flee. Iyer said Sokol made an erroneous argument that the hospital records were not turned over to the defense.
And all of it rankled Ackerman, a former prosecutor, according to a transcript of the court proceeding obtained by Law Beat.
“Miss Iyer, you are an officer of the court. You are not on Court TV,” Ackerman said. “These are horrible things, some of them, that you have said.”
The judge reminded Iyer that Forrest had not had a conviction since 2004. And she…
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