Stephen Richard Mahler

Stephen Mahler

The subject lawyer was reviewed disparagingly by [name removed], a disbarred lawyer who has reportedly been recently charged by the New York State Attorney General with selling sick dogs....[name removed] had been charged with forging a federal magistrate's order and other crimes and was convicted after a jury trial and sentenced to serve a prison term...He now claims that Mr. Mahler incompetently represented him during those proceedings and recently formalized that accusation in an application for a Writ of Habeas claiming ineffective assistance of counsel...In a lengthy decision beginning on the front page of the January 5, 2010 New York Law Journal,United States District Court Judge Nicholas Garafus,sitting in the Eastern District of New York, made short work of [name removed]'s claims in denying his application without even affording him a hearing and denied him a Certificate of Appealability ( see, United States v. [name removed])....Indeed, Judge Garafus essentially found [name removed]'s contentions to be totally frivolous and concluded that Mr. Mahler had handled [name removed]'s matter in a competent and appropriate manner...Mr. Mahler has had an exemplary career as an attorney and Avvo should not have allowed him to be unjustifyably maligned by [name removed] without checking the underlying facts.