New York Court spokesman loses job after butt dialling reporter

'The story's true. I'm not doing anything. I barely show up to work and I've been caught.'

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Of all the people to pocket dial.

As a longtime spokesman for the New York state court system, David Bookstaver has made many, many calls through the years. None, undoubtedly, was as personally ruinous as the one he accidentally placed to a New York Post reporter this week.

The unintentional call, in which Bookstaver was recorded flippantly admitting he barely showed up for work and that he had finally been caught, according to The Post, resulted in his firing Thursday.

The strange and swift downfall of Bookstaver began with a phone call this week from The Post, which was working on an article suggesting that Bookstaver was benefiting from a so-called no-show job. Sources had told The Post that Bookstaver, who was paid about $166,000 a year according to public records, was barely showing up at work.

Bookstaver began his employment by the courts in 1996, and, under Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, became communications director for the New York State Unified Court System. During his tenure, he became known for digging in on behalf of journalists reporting on court matters, and for being accessible at any hour of the day.

When Janet DiFiore replaced Lippman as chief judge in January 2016, she named Lucian Chalfen, her spokesman when she

was the Westchester County district attorney, as her communications director. Bookstaver stayed on, but his job shifted to more of an advisory role.

But in the accidental phone call, Bookstaver admitted that he had lately been dialing it in. In the four-minute conversation, which was captured on the Post reporter's voicemail, Bookstaver tells an unnamed person with amusement that he had just lied to the Post reporter about his work schedule.

"I said, 'I'm in a much less visible position; that doesn't mean I'm not doing anything,'" Bookstaver says on the recording, according to The Post. "But, frankly, look, the bottom line: The story's true. I'm not doing anything. I barely show up to work and I've been caught."

Bookstaver had planned to retire in October; in the recording, he shrugs off the issue, saying any scandal will hardly affect his ability to collect his pension.

Shortly after the publication of the article in The Post, Bookstaver was fired, according to Chalfen, for failing to do his job. "The bottom line is that as a result of the story, he has been terminated effective today," Chalfen said Thursday.

When reached for comment after his firing, Bookstaver declined to answer questions about whether the claims about his work habits were true. "I'm deeply saddened at the end of a long and successful career," he said. "And I regret deeply how my career at the courts came to an end."

There was no call back, accidental or otherwise.

New York Times