Mascia Will Get His Day in Court Next Week

Joe Mascia ....hearing next week

Joe Mascia, the 70-year-old elected tenant commissioner at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, will get his day in court, so to speak, next Wednesday (Nov. 18), when he will challenge his suspension from his post by Mayor Byron Brown and the BMHA board for his racist remarks recorded by Paul Christopher during a four-hour car ride to Albany earlier this year.

 “I’m not a racist, and if I was it would have shown up a long time ago,” Mascia said in an interview this week during which he was accompanied by a long-time friend, Terry Robinson, who is black.

Mascia said the recording of his racial remarks was made without his knowledge by Christopher and will be challenged in next week’s suspension hearing in front of an attorney from Hurwitz & Fine, a law firm with strong City Hall connections as a major contributor to Mayor Brown.

A spokesman for Mayor Brown could not be reached for comment on the hearing, and the exact time and place of the event is still not clear even though it is supposed to be public.

According to Mascia, the recording by Christopher was made last February and was known to exist in City Hall for some time before it was made public in July by the Buffalo News.  At the time, Mascia was a candidate for the Fillmore District council seat but his candidacy went up in smoke after the recording became public.

Christopher was regional manager for a local veteran and minority-owned business, according to the Buffalo Chronicle website and Mascia, and was traveling to Albany last February to lobby the State Senate for government contracts.  According to Mascia, he went along with his friend to provide any political help he could, given his long history as a political activist.

Mascia claims the political establishment, including the BMHA, has targeted him for some time “and somebody” must have paid off Christopher to make that tape public, even though it was nothing but street talk and much of it was recorded while he was on a cell phone conversation.

Mascia will be represented at next week’s hearing by prominent Buffalo civil rights attorney Steven Cohen.