A veteran state court employee was fired from his high-ranking job on Thursday after accidentally butt-dialing a reporter and bragging on a voicemail message about working two days a week.
“This morning, David Bookstaver was terminated from his position at the Unified Court System,” Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman with the Office of Court Administration (OCA), said in a statement.
For 20 years, Bookstaver was the spokesman for OCA until his boss, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, retired at the end of 2015 and Janet DiFiore was sworn in the following year.
DiFiore brought in Chalfen — her top flak while she was Westchester County district attorney — to replace Bookstaver.
Although Bookstaver’s responsibilities were stripped, his title and $166,000 salary as communication director remained. His name also remained as a listed contact on OCA press releases.
Bookstaver, 57, was only six-weeks away from retirement, when he was canned for boasting about getting paid the large taxpayer-funded salary to do nothing, a source confirmed.
“New Yorkers look to their court system for excellence and accountability, and we will always act to apply those standards to all of our employees all across New York State,” Chalfen said.
“While there are occasional abuses of office, we take those abuses extremely seriously, and whenever we learn about them, we will always act to hold the offenders accountable.”
The job of an OCA spokesperson is to share information about the courts to the media and the public, under the direction of the chief administrative judge.
“We in the New York State Unified Court System cherish and appreciate the integrity of the many dedicated and hardworking judges and non-judicial personnel who serve New Yorkers every day,” Chalfen added.
Bookstaver did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment.
