The Complaint
Shortly after the hearing in which Zaki Tamir threatened me, I put together a complaint and submitted it to the New York State bar. This was just around the time that Covid-19 was breaking out in New York. Everyone had better things to worry about and I didn’t hear back for a few months. When I did hear back I was emailed by someone with a nycourts.gov email address with the title Staff Investigator working for the Attorney Grievence Committee. This individual provided me with a docket number (2020.0608) and with Zaki’s rebuttal of my claims. When I had originally submitted my complaint I was slightly concerned that I didn’t have irrefutable proof of what happened. It turns out I had nothing to worry about since Zaki is more than willing to provably perjure himself.
Zaki’s Response
I did not represent that woman
Zaki opens his response by stating that he did not represent my ex-wife during our separation. Here’s his wording:
[Ex-wife] came to me to ask for help with the separation and divorce from her husband… My office reviewed the matter, I did not accept the case and I did not agree at that time to represent her.
This is a blatant lie as evidenced by numerous emails and even our separation agreement (of course I submitted those emails and the agreement to the investigator). Here’s a snippet from that scanned agreement
I wondered why Zaki would lie about something so easily proven. A lawyer friend suggested an answer; as Zaki lays out in his rebuttal the history leading up to the hearing, he mentions offering to mediate between us. Since Zaki was my ex-wife’s lawyer it would have been unethical for him to mediate. Perhaps this is why he chose to lie about having represented my ex-wife during our initial separation. Of course I submitted in response, among other things, this WhatsApp conversation from 1/23/20 which proves he had suggested mediating between us despite having represented my ex-wife in our initial separation.
Contradicting a recorded hearing
In his retelling of the hearing itself, Zaki claims that I “became particularly vindictive towards [him] and suggested different things [I] could do to ‘destroy [him]’. Luckily the hearing was recorded. Of course I submitted to the investigator the recordings provided to me from Beth Din of America and even suggested various markers that the investigator should listen to in order to hear Zaki being aggressive, making factually inaccurate statements, cutting me off during my turn to speak, and raising his voice. Is it possible Zaki didn’t realize the hearing was recorded? He was there after all when they stated clearly that the hearing was being recorded. Moreover, as an attorney isn’t he familiar with the hearing processes? Doesn’t he know these things are recorded?
Claims of contempt
Throughout his rebuttal, Zaki Tamir attempted to paint me as a bully. In fact, in order to bolster his rebuttal he claimed that I am 1) in contempt of the Beth Din of America and 2) that the Beth Din of America suggested that my ex-wife “seek an order of protection against [me].” Where on Earth did Zaki Tamir come up with this? Perhaps if these claims were true they would paint me in a negative light but unfortunately for him, neither of these claims was the least bit difficult to disprove. I reached out to the Beth Din of America requesting that they comment on Zaki’s assertions.
Affidavits
In his closing remarks Zaki states that “If the grievance committee believes it is necessary, I can request affidavits from the members of the Beth Din” I would like nothing more than to get affidavits from the members of the Beth Din because I am certain their representation of the events would support my version of the facts. Which is that during a break in the hearing Zaki Tamir threatened me. In fact, Zaki stated to the investigator that he can request affidavits whereas I actually already had asked everyone I could get a hold of (4 people in total) to provide an account of what happened. Unfortunately everyone wanted to stay out of it (I supplied a copy of each of these emails to the investigator). In his reply to my request, the Director of the Beth Din of America stated that “As a neutral arbitration organization, we do not typically provide testimony in ongoing adversarial matters. We will comply with the law if subpoenaed.”. I suggested to the investigator that given the blatant lies in Zaki’s response it should be quite clear which of us to believe regarding the events on February 27th but that should he still want confirmation, the investigator may want to subpoena the judges and Beth Din of America office staff.
Lies and damned lies
Perhaps given my experience with him I should not have been surprised at his willingness to lie. Even to an ethics investigarot. And even when easily proven. But somehow I was still quite shocked at his response to my ethics complaint. He took what really could have been dismissed by the ethics committee as an issue of he-said/she-said and dug a hole for himself. Instead of sticking to the facts and letting this issue die, Zaki showed his true colors by responding the the court’s investigator with dozens of easily provable lies.