In the Friday, Sept. 25, online Commentary and Monday, Sept. 28th hard copy Perspective piece, "Debevoise Associate: NYC Should Dismiss Curfew Charges Against Peaceful Protesters Like Me," Justin Maffett relates that, after an "initial rebuff," the Office of Court Administration quietly started dismissing his and others' protest-related summonses.

Mr. Maffett and Helen Cantwell, a partner at Mr. Maffett's law firm, demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of OCA and the adjudicative process. The Office of Court Administration is the administrative arm of the New York courts. Judicial administrators have no authority to intervene in individual cases or classes of cases pending in trial courts. Once a matter has been filed with a trial court, the procedural laws of the state dictate how a matter must be adjudicated by the judge assigned to the case, not through an extraordinary intervention of an administrator before whom the case is not, nor could be, pending.

In an August 10, 2020 letter to Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, Ms. Cantwell wrote to demand that the Chief Judge and Chief Administrative Judge intervene in their administrative capacity to dismiss protest-related summons matters pending before judges in the New York City Criminal Court.