{"id":338673,"date":"2026-09-05T07:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338673\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T07:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:24:29","slug":"lawsuit-over-brooklyn-dems-bylaw-changes-moved-to-sept-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338673\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit over Brooklyn Dems bylaw changes moved to Sept. 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN \u2014 The courtroom battle over Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s proposed bylaw changes remains unresolved as of Sept. 4, after Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jill Epstein adjourned the hearing until Sept. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Julio<\/a>Julio Pe\u00f1a III, Democratic district leader for the 51st Assembly District. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

On Sept. 3, lawyer Anthony Genovesi, who is representing Bichotte Hermelyn and the party, asked Epstein that three individuals named in the suit, Anthony Beckford, Arleny Alvarado-McCall and Heriberto Mateo, be granted additional time to obtain counsel. Epstein replied, \u201cI wish I could give you as much time as you need, but I do not have that luxury.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The parties were given one additional day. Beckford was the only unrepresented district leader who appeared on Sept. 3.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four reform-minded district leaders, including Pe\u00f1a, filed the lawsuit on Aug. 28. They are challenging the controversial bylaw amendments approved by the Brooklyn Democratic Party\u2019s Executive Committee in a closed-door meeting on Aug. 25. The plaintiffs are seeking to have the amended rules thrown out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons why we are suing is that it\u2019s just a dereliction of duty for the Democratic Party,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>From left: Attorneys for the plaintiffs Howard Graubard and lead counsel Mark Hanna. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Mark Hanna, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told the Brooklyn Eagle that the party bylaws say that \u201cthose who are not elected state committee members shouldn\u2019t be making rule changes and voting on things that are substantive that will change how the party governs after they\u2019ve been rejected by the people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hanna said the bylaws provide a safeguard, \u201cspecifically to prevent this kind of behavior, where losers of an election can reverse the effects of it and steal it back, because that\u2019s essentially what\u2019s going on here. This is designed to break the Democratic Party\u2019s ability to have their electorate govern themselves.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Julio<\/a>Julio Pe\u00f1a III, left, alongside Tony Melone, president of the New Kings Democrats. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

In the June Democratic primary, the Brooklyn Can\u2019t Wait coalition, a reform movement aligned with Pe\u00f1a, won 22 of the 42 district leader seats on the Kings County Democratic Party Executive Committee. This gave reformers a majority under the existing rules and put them in the position to elect Pe\u00f1a as the next county party chair in September. Bichotte Hermelyn responded with a package of 10 bylaw changes that would substantially alter who gets to vote.<\/p>\n

Bichotte Hermelyn said she \u201copened the process and the executive committee to include more people, including county committee members, bringing more diversity in thinking and ideology in different corners of Brooklyn.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a told the Brooklyn Eagle he\u2019d be open to a conversation about expanding the party. \u201cMy concern and the issue here is that these seats were essentially handpicked by one person choosing who these 48 people would be,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said. \u201cThat\u2019s not representation. I see it as a power grab.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN \u2014 The courtroom battle over Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s proposed bylaw changes remains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,18390,100,99,14768,113753,3100,9,24,63,17961,99174],"class_list":["post-338673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-democratic-party","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-courts-and-law","tag-julio-pena","tag-lawsuit","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rodneyse-bichotte-hermelyn","tag-vli-vertical-lede-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}