Kingston barber who flouted Cuomo wins back license – Times Union
ALBANY — A Kingston barber who lost his haircutting license of nearly 60 years for violating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 guidelines may soon be able to reopen because of a ruling by the state’s second-highest court Thursday.
Joseph LaLima, 79, emerged victorious in a 4-1 decision by the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court’s Third Department in Albany. Justices reversed a May 2021 ruling by Aiesha L. Hudson, an administrative law judge, that upheld the state’s revocation of the license LaLima held since 1963.
“Considering (LaLima’s) otherwise unblemished record, revocation was too severe a penalty,” Justice John Egan wrote in Thursday’s decision.
The judge wrote that he was unclear how LaLima’s conduct during the COVID-19 emergency — which included working with symptoms of the coronavirus — “would pose an ongoing threat to the public that would warrant the maximum sanction of permanently barring him from performing the work he had otherwise done without incident for almost 60 years.”
Egan, supported by Justices Christine Clark, Andrew Ceresia and Lisa Fisher, sent the matter back to the Department of State to impose a less severe penalty, which could include suspension, reprimand or a fine of up to $500. Justice Michael Lynch dissented, calling it “particularly troubling” that LaLima continued to serve customers even after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
Reached Friday, LaLima declined to comment.
After getting his barber license on Dec. 20, 1963, LaLima served in the Vietnam War. After returning to Ulster County, he cut hair for nearly a half-century in a barbershop connected to his apartment at 578 Broadway.
During the early days of the pandemic, LaLima defied Cuomo’s March 19, 2020, executive order for all barbershops to close within two days. LaLima, however, believed he could stay open after he saw an article in the Daily Freeman headlined “Cuomo: Work at home, don’t gather,” according to court documents.
On March 27, 2020, LaLima reopened his barbershop, saying he was serving first responders for free. He said a police officer entered his shop one day and allowed LaLima to remain open after LaLima showed him he was working from home. LaLima said the officer told him to take down the barbershop’s “open” sign and the barbershop pole but did not ask him to close — and then got a haircut, court papers show.
On May 11, 2020, LaLima had to close again when he was hospitalized for breathing difficulties later revealed to be symptoms of COVID-19. He reopened the next month when the governor allowed it for barbershops, subject to state Department of Health guidelines. The Department of State’s Division of Licensing Services, following an investigation, sought to suspend or revoke LaLima’s license on various grounds, including his violation of COVID-19 guidelines, court documents show.
Hudson cleared LaLima on sanitary violations and found LaLima did not knowingly cut hair while afflicted with a communicable disease. But Hudson also determined the barber exhibited “untrustworthiness and incompetence” by operating in violation of Cuomo’s order, “recklessly continuing to do so with symptoms of what he later learned was COVID-19, and then reopening and operating the shop without complying with the COVID-19 guidelines.”
LaLima appealed to state Supreme Court, stating in an affidavit that he cut the hair of first responders on the front lines of the pandemic — as he was in Vietnam.
“I vowed to never let anyone answering a call of service to ever experience the painful disrespect fellow Americans heaped upon those of us who served our country during the Vietnam War,” he said. “That was my motivation for giving free haircuts. A gesture of respect and thanks.”
The case was transferred to the Third Department where, on Jan. 13, LaLima’s attorney, Megan Bassler, told justices she could not find another case of a barber incurring discipline similar to LaLima. She suggested he was singled out.
A May 15, 2020, article in The New York Times quoted Cuomo referring to LaLima’s situation but not by name.
“You know that is an occupation of close proximity, right? You can’t really socially distance and do a haircut,” Cuomo was quoted saying. “That is by definition an up close and personal occupation.”
Bassler told the Third Department that LaLima had never before been cited for violations in the history of his license. She said even if the justices found the charges against her client were legitimate, the punishment far exceeded any wrongdoing.
“The punishment of revoking his license borders on outright cruel,” Bassler said.
Justice Christine Clark asked Beezly J. Kiernan, an attorney representing the Department of State, if a suspension for LaLima might have been more fitting for someone who had never had a previous issue since 1963.
“In the department’s view this was really the worst thing that a barber could do at this time — put his own customers at risk at the height of the pandemic,” Kiernan replied.
Bassler declined to comment on the decision.
