In a cringeworthy twist on “the dog ate my homework,” a Brooklyn lawyer who was unprepared to go to trial convinced a federal judge that he needed more time — because his mother had died.
Trouble was, the mother of lawyer John Nonnenmacher was very much alive, The Post has learned.
Nonnenmacher had sent his co-counsel, Jason Leventhal, to court on March 21 just an hour before opening statements to tell Brooklyn federal Judge Allyne Ross the sad news.
Ross believed it, granting a one-week delay in the police brutality case and telling Leventhal, “The court is sorry for Mr. Nonnenmacher’s loss,” according to court papers.
But the suspicious co-counsel hired a private investigator, who learned three days later that Nonnenmacher’s mother, Carol, although recovering from a fall, was still among the living, the papers state.
The judge was livid — especially since Nonnenmacher had claimed in February that he couldn’t meet another deadline because his uncle had died.
It’s unclear whether that, too, was a fabrication.
“The court has been unfairly inconvenienced by the conduct of plaintiff’s counsel over the past several weeks,” Ross railed upon hearing the news from the co-counsel, slamming Nonnenmacher in his absence “for his blatant disregard and repeated violation of court-ordered deadlines.”
Ross vowed to “deal with Mr. Nonnenmacher, his disqualification as counsel and appropriate discipline and sanctions at another time” — and lashed out at how “the schedules of defendants, their lawyers and their witnesses — including numerous medical professionals — have been disrupted by this conduct.”
“I never imagined for a second that Mr. Nonnenmacher would lie to me about his mother passing,” Leventhal replied, according to a transcript.
Angry city lawyers are now lobbying for cash sanctions against Nonnenmacher, Leventhal and plaintiff Isa Martin, 34, whose case wound up being dismissed.
“As soon as I confirmed that Mr. Nonnenmacher’s representations were untrue, I told the court and the city’s lawyers,” Leventhal told The Post. Nonnenmacher could not be reached for comment.
