By SALLY GOLDENBERG and KAVITA MOKHA
June 11, 2008
A kiss is just a kiss, but for one woman who was asked by a city employee to lock lips in a Bronx courtroom hallway, the request was too tasteless to let go.
Now an attorney with the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development faces 30 days' suspension without pay, a penalty he is fighting, for asking another lawyer for a smooch while the two were in Civil Court to settle a landlord-tenant dispute.
Maura McHugh Mills, an attorney with Legal Services NYC-Bronx, told a judge housing department lawyer Ralph Brannon asked her for a kiss outside the courtroom last September.
Mills reported the incident to her supervisor, who alerted the department.
Administrative Law Judge Kevin Casey recommended on May 23 that Brannon be suspended without pay for 30 days.
