Arthur Aidala | Defense Attorney | 05-01-26

The amazing defense attorney, Arthur Ida, is going to be here. So last night, Michael Scheinberg, the president. I guess the Kings County Criminal Bar Association. They threw this big dinner at Giando on the water. Great spot, Kent Avenue in Brooklyn. And they announced all these honorees, folks they honored last night. You had the Honorable Dina Douglas, you had Jeanette Cleason, all these folks. But the big one last night receiving the James L. Koenig Person of the Year Award. Ordi Idaala. So Arthur took my daughter, Ava, to this big shindig last night, celebrating Arthur being person of the year. She was excited to be there. Now, I was asleep when she got home. I have no idea how it went. But I know your mom and dad are listening and all your friends and family. So let me join all of them, Arthur Idaa, in congratulating you on this amazing honor you received last night. Sid, I love you. And you're a brilliant broadcaster. I mean, everyone knows you're the greatest on the planet. Don't say I took your daughter like she was on my arm. No, no, stop that now. Don't be silly. I haven't seen her yet today, but I imagine she had a great time last night. Set the scene for me. What was that like last night? So the Kings County Criminal Bar, it's most bar associations are like only for prosecutors or only for defense attorneys or only for judges. But this one is all of it. So here's the thing, Sid, is that it's people who are normally adversaries or people who are normally performing in front of a judge or whatever. Everyone, for two bald guys. kind of lets their hair down. And we just, we all just all hang out as friends. And that's kind of rare. And the bars will see this particular bar association has been around since 1934. And every year, we just, you have a dinner. Gondos, as you know, is a beautiful spot right under the Williamsburg Bridge. To your left, you see the Freedom Tower. To your right, you see the Empire State Building. Wow. And I will tell you that, Sid, with all humility, the venue holds 275 people. And there was a little bit of a mess up because 350 people RSVP. So what they did was the extended the cocktail hour for two hours. So that there were some people who could only stay for the cocktail hour. And it was a coming together of really the best and the brightest of New York, the New York legal community. And, you know, my dad was the oldest one there, almost 88. And I'm not exaggerating. Ava, your daughter, was the youngest one there. And I believe 21. 22. She just turned 22, April 7th. She did just turned 22, right.

All right. Well, she's been with me for like nine months. So in my mind, she's 21, okay? 21. By the way, by the way, in my mind, she's four, just so you know, okay? This is all weird for me to see my daughter all dressed up and working alongside, thanks to you, one of the great attorneys, not just in New York, but around the country. And, you know, you're involving her in some pretty big cases, which I don't share with people. Hold on your face. Yeah, well, you know, your buddy, Vince Vallelon, came on the air a couple of days ago, the great president of the SBA union. He kind of gave it away that, hey, congratulations, Ava, that she may be doing something on this Eric Duran case. He gave that away. I didn't say anything. I didn't even know about it. She never tells me anything she does in your office, just so you know. Never. You know what she does? You know what she tells me? Because I heard Vince the other day talking, and he named dropped her. And so your daughter, Ava, comes to the office, they go, I go, did you hear you? Did you hear you? I go, the head of the SBA dropped your name. She was, Arthur, how many times do I have to tell you? I don't listen to my father on the radio. She was forced to listen a couple of days ago because Danielle does listen. And Danielle and her went to work together in the city. She was forced to listen. And no complaints. I'm sure she complained to her mother. But, you know, talking about Eric Durand, it's interesting. Because I had Bruce Blakeman on this show. I don't know, about a month, now a couple of weeks ago. And he made the declaration here before he went public on Long Island that when he wins, when he beats Kathy Hochul, he's going to pardon Eric Duran. Now what I'm seeing, Arthur I dial, all over the internet. Every social media site is that I'm waiting for Bruce. There is a tremendous amount of pressure right now on Governor Kathy Hochul to pardon your guy, Eric Duran. Are you seeing that? Absolutely. A lot of news outlets, and just like people on the street, you know, it was interesting. The day that we got him out, which was two weeks ago today, right, I had to go to a wake all the way up in like northern Rockland County. And I was with people in the truck in my job, my car. And I'm driving up. And we were a little late. They're like, you know, you're going really fast. They go, what happens if you get pulled over? I go, I just told the cop, hey, we just got Sergeant Durant out in jail. What are you going to do? Give me a ticket. No, that doesn't work. No, no, no. Clearly, you don't listen to this program because, according to Emily Lipstein, who works at Streetblocks New York City, if you get pulled over and the officer hears my show on in the car, you can get away with murder. That's what she said. It's just like your best friend, President Trump. He says he can choose someone on Fifth Avenue and he can get away with it. Look, there is a sense of right and wrong still that remains in our society, which is a beautiful thing. And people now know about Eric Durant. Here's the weird part. When it happened, it got a little publicity. When he went to trial, it got very little publicity. When he got convicted, he got very little publicity. But when he got sentenced to three to nine, which people thought, he's got to do a minimum of three years in jail for a guy who basically saved two, three or four lives, we'll never know because unfortunately one life was lost.

It got a ton of publicity. And we got out on bail pending appeal. He got a ton of publicity. Look, we need people, we need law enforcement. to obviously do the best they can to be smart. There's always going to be a bad apple in the cart. But right around the corner from where your daughter and I work, when I see right around the corner, I mean, as close as you want to Smith Wollenski, like 40 yards, there's that vans sneaker store. And the day before yesterday, there was some big, it was an explosion of people to get these new sneakers. And it got out of control. They were trying to break windows. And seriously, there's your beautiful 22-year-old daughter trying to get to the office with a cup of coffee in their hand. And there's like 40 guys going, and they're all men, going crazy. And God bless the men and women at the NYPD. You have to make these split-second decisions over and over and over. You know, you host a radio show. You have to make a split-second decision. Do I see this? Do I see that? If you say the wrong thing. Margo Casamettees comes inside. Sid, you should have said that. Forget about Margo Katz and Matidis. How about the mayor and the attorney general? If a cop, if a cop does the wrong thing in their job, you know, you and I do the wrong thing in our job, we get in trouble. If a cop does the wrong thing in their job, they go to jail. Or they could end up dead. One of those two things. Right, right, right. That's a nice option. Yeah, I know. And I have to mention the jerky... Judge, I always do that now. His name is Guy Mitchell. Guy Mitchell, that's the jerk. I hope this gets back to you, Guy. Take a page out of Michael Aloys' book who did the right thing when it came to hammering Guy Rivera who murdered Jonathan Diller. Hey, Guy Mitchell, take a page out of Michael Alois' book. Be a man. Be a man for good. That was a jerky, stupid, biased horrible decision. As far as I'm concerned, you're a louse. Let me move on. Supreme Court. You had a big, big day a couple days ago. Barack Obama went nuts. He went nuts. Six-three decision talking about redistricting, gerrymandering. But you were right there, authorite dollar, right there, weren't you? It was, Sid, it was amazing. And let me tell you something that when you go to Washington, D.C. I know I'm a lawyer, so I'm a little biased. But anyone can walk just stroll into the Supreme Court. You've got to go through a metal detector, but you can stroll in. And you see those nine justices up there, and you're in that story courtroom. There's just a feeling that comes over you like, wow, this is America. And this is the day after. Right, but I'm curious, before you get to the day after, because back in 2016.

Danielle had the opportunity to go, and she actually now is allowed, permitted to try cases in front of the court. So she actually met all nine judges. You have the same ability, I imagine, yes? Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. You know, what I was going to say was it was the day after the state dinner with the king of England, right, with Charles III. When you're in the Supreme Court and you think, you just start thinking, you take a deep breath. You know, we're at the 250th anniversary of this beautiful country. And you think about England. You think about what goes on. You look at those judges and the checks and balances and how smart. Those, dare I say, white men were in 1774 and 1775 and 76, and they came up with the Declaration of Independence and they came up with the Constitution. And you're in the middle of it and you're like, wow, like this is cool. And I walk in and here's the beauty of it all. After they go, hear you, hear you, all those who want to bring before this court, please rise. And everyone stands up and the nine justices come out. And the courtroom is packed. And here's the beauty of America. The chief judge, Judge John Roberts, says, Samuel Alito will read the decision of the court. And he comes out and he does this whole like, it's like eight minutes. And he reads about the Voting Rights Act and how you can. draw these lines of the gerrymandering, and he starts talking about the dissents, the other justices who wrote about why they shouldn't have this decision. It gets pretty a little bit nasty. And then the woman right next to him, Elena Kagan, appointed by Barack Obama. She's sitting like three feet away from and she's basically ragged them. Congratulations. The Civil Rights Act has been stripped and gutted by the justices on this court and then basically like giving the F word to each other and they're like a foot apart from each other. And then Elena Kagan starts choking. I don't know. She loses. her composure and she can't even breathe. And who do you think is in the glass of water? Just as Samuel Alito hands him in his own water and she grabs it and drinks it. But that's the beauty of America. Even though there are other sides of the spectrum, other sides of the issue, they're like almost cursing at each other, a foot away from each other when one actually needs the other for a glass of water, they help each other. And I mean, Sid, it was just so awe. It was awe-inspiring. The courtroom was packed. The media was there. And I got to hang out with Samuel Alito a little bit afterwards. And I said, Justice, you were at the take away, you were at the state dinner Monday night with, you know, with French Charles, Charles III and the Queen and all these fancy people, et cetera, how was it? He's such a great guy. He doesn't hesitate. He goes.

The Dover soul was a little dry. That's a great answer. That is a great answer. It was absolutely wonderful being in the presence of everyone. I got to say a little to the Chief Justice real quick. And, you know, America, the fact that even though we all hate each other, sometimes black and white and red and purple and green and all these colors. At the end of the day, the United States Supreme Court, before they come out, every time before they come out, every nine of them, all nine of them have to shake each other's hands. and just say, you know, we're doing this for the country. And it was just, it was absolutely amazing, and it was such an honor to be there. What a great couple of days for you, Marty. Supreme Court, you described that beautifully. Your big honor last night, again, congratulations, Arthur Idao, winning the James El Coneck person of the year, according to the Kings County Criminal Bar Association, and a big to do on the water last night on Kent Avenue in Brooklyn. As always, Arthur Ida, amazing appearance. Thank you for all you do for this city. My daughter, obviously, and congrats on a great couple of days. Thank you so much. The highlight of the day was I got to speak to your wife yesterday, your daughter yesterday, you yesterday. And I just love, I love how my mother always closed me off her, never close me already, how your gorgeous wife. Only calls you Sidney. You spoke to Cindy? Sidney says they were to talk to me. Can Cindy tell you? I go, yes, Sidde. Sid Rosenberg means nothing. It's all about Sydney. God bless you, brother. Have a great, great weekend. I love you. I love you. I love you, I love you. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you too. I love you did mention my wife and daughter. Thanks for listening to Sit and Friends in the Morning. You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning, weekday mornings at six. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends, and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the Wabc Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode, so you never have to wonder. What the... What the heck is going on here?