City Court Judge candidate Nick Sperenza, outside Warburton Ave. buildin
By Dan Murphy
The Yonkers Voice posted a video from a resident of 1020 Warburton Avenue, complaining about the campaigning tactics of Nick Sperenza, republican candidate for Yonkers City Court Judge. First, we encourage you to watch the video at Yonkers Voice, https://www.facebook.com/YonkersVoiceNews/videos/367767372246588
Here is what the person who made the video wrote about the incident. “My partner was walking the dogs and this man (Nick Speranza) hid close to the entrance and waited for her to come into the building to run pass two locked doors and the door lady who screamed at him to stop while he snuck into the stairwell running up and down to each floor throwing his pamphlets on each door and slamming the emergency fire doors.
“We don’t even allow deliveries outside of the lobby so the fact that he totally disregarded two women screaming at him to stop stop.
“If he wanted to leave his flyers downstairs, that would’ve been totally fine but the fact that this was such an aggressive behavior against two women is completely unacceptable while trespassing on privacy property.”
There are several reasons why we believe this incident is relevant.
1-The two women, who are residents of the building, were concerned about who this individual was. It could have gone worse for Sperenza if the women called the police. To say that the two women were concerned for their safety may be overstating it, but they are residents; he is an uninvited visitor. We understand that it is very hard to get into most of the apartments-coops in Yonkers, and everywhere. Residents don’t want uninvited visitors in their buildings. The best way to handle this is to have a resident of the building walk you around. Yeah, it’s a hassle but it is what it is.
2-Sperenza’s personal appearance didn’t help things. We understand that Sperenza did not think that he was going to have any interactions that evening. It was a dump and run plan, drop his palm card and get out. But there is a bare minimum standard of dress that Sperenza easily could have worn, jeans and a golf shirt, just in case he did meet someone who wanted to talk to him about his race.
3-Sperenza is running for Yonkers City Court Judge. This is different than running for political office, and it should be treated as such. Judges need to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
We listened to Sperenza’s attempted explanation, to Ru Ros at Yonkers Voice. (Note: Hats off to Ru Ros for getting both ends of this story—what happened and the post interview)
Link-https://www.facebook.com/ru.ros.14/videos/1006003857333004?idorvanity=517208621663478
“I walked into the building it wasn’t locked and I wasn’t told that I couldn’t enter. The building is technically considered public property because there are more than six families living in it.
“As I was leaving, that women tried to touch me -I said I’m sorry and that I’m leaving. I was meeting the people who can vote for me”.
After talking about the incident for a minute, Sperenza said, “I don’t want to get into what happened because the person who posted that video is not on my side.”
”I’m not ashamed about what happened today. It’s Sunday I’m not at church with my family. First time running for office, and I campaign personally.”
”The outpouring of people in this community that have been kind to me and positive outweighs what that woman did to me today”
Will this have an impact on the outcome? Probably not, but the behavior is not befitting of a person wanting to wear a robe and sit as the judge for the people of Yonkers,
Next week, we hope to interview Sperenza and the other two candidates for Yonkers City Court Judge, Judge Arthur Doran III and Judge Karen Beltran.
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