[While all three candidates are worthy],The Reporter supports Alan Roscetti

 Alan Roscetti has our support.

The general position of the Niagara Falls Reporter is that we rarely, if ever, make endorsements for political candidates.  One of the main reasons is that, we believe people should think for themselves and make up their own minds.

So, rather than endorse a candidate for Niagara Falls City Court Judge, the Reporter will merely tell our readers who we support and why. Before we do that, let us just tell voters that we think all three candidates appear to be good men with good records and decent motives.

James Faso has been around a long time and has run into a lot of people; virtually everybody knows him or has heard of him. His father is a well respected judge in the Town of Niagara. Nick Pelosino is also a good lawyer and has made a name for himself for his legal work.

But for our part, we are supporting Alan Roscetti.

That probably already seems fairly clear, based on the stories we have written about him. It is fair to say, we know him and have seen his work.

We also know his father, James Roscetti, who is one of the finest, most dignified and honest men we have come across in Niagara Falls. His son is just like him.

We support Alan Roscetti because we know him, we like him, and we judge him as competent. In fact, as a lawyer we have every reason to know he is not only extraordinarily competent, but we have rarely witnessed anyone who goes the extra miles like he does – even on cases where he represents the poorest clients.

He is resourceful and energetic and in trial he is damn good on his feet. He has won some cases for poor people, the kind of people who normally don’t get much service or justice from a public defender, that seemed remarkable to us. He brought out the truth- the real evidence – not lawyers tricks – but the facts that proved that an innocent client was in fact provably innocent.

Testimonial letters the Reporter received confirmed what we already believed: Alan Roscetti has had considerable trial experience and went beyond the role normally undertaken by a public defender. It seems like he honestly cares that his clients get justice.

So many public defenders just ‘meet em and plead em’, that is, they rush to get a plea bargain without ascertaining if the client might be innocent and should get justice at trial.

He is a thoughtful candidate as well. He is given to great thinking on alternative forms of resolutions to cases, like drug court and mental health court.

While he is no slouch when it comes to protecting victims, and punishing the guilty, he is practical enough to know that some people deserve a second chance: if they can be rehabilitated, it is a far better thing to do so, rather than punish them to the point that when they get out of prison they are only fit for more crime or a life of permanent dependency on welfare.

Alan is also an energetic candidate. He seems to have appeared on more radio talk shows and podcasts and answered more questions from voters. It seems that anyone who wants to know where he stands has plenty of chances to find out. We like the way he answers questions: they come from his mind and heart. He does not have preplanned statements, but talks straight, like one of the people.

That may be in part because he is one of the people of Niagara Falls. He went to Duke University then the University of Buffalo Law School. And he came home: he chose to live in this city. Right off the bat, right after law school he moved to the city and bought his first house on Seneca Avenue in 2003. He lived there until he purchased his grandfather’s house in 2009. He is sending his own son to the city’s public school system so he has faith in the future of this city.

His family is in a sense Niagara Falls; what it was and what it could be. He owns and lives in his grandfather’s old house, built by his grandfather over 60 years ago. His grandmother (Peunic/Klaja) lives in the same home she was born in over 90 years ago. His law firm has been in the same office on Main Street since 1948.

While we do not believe length of time lived in a city should be the determinant of who is best qualified to serve as a judge for a city, it does indicate a sense of dedication to and a likely knowledge of its people, and its standards and its challenges. His opponents came to live here more recently. Mr. Faso bought his house in Niagara Falls in 2013. Mr. Pelosino purchased his home in 2016. Maybe that is not important.

The Niagara Falls Reporter believes that all three candidates are sincere and worthy. We urge voters to think for themselves. For our part, we support Alan Roscetti. We think he will make a superior judge, one that may be long remembered for his regard for truth, and dedication to not only the letter but the spirit of the law. A judge in the sense from the past, who uses common sense and considerable humanity to dispense justice.