The alcoholic court stenographer who wreaked havoc in Manhattan Supreme Court by botching official transcripts got his job despite having previously been fired over allegations that he stole money from a co-worker in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, The Post has learned.
Daniel Kochanski, who was caught typing gibberish — and, in at least one instance, repeatedly entering “I hate my job” — on his steno machine — was immediately suspected when a wallet containing $500 in cash disappeared in the spring of 2000 from the purse of a female colleague at the DA’s office, a courthouse source said Thursday.
At the time, Kochanski, now 43, and the woman, were both city employees working as “grand-jury reporters” in Brooklyn, transcribing witness interviews and presentations by prosecutors, the source said.
The co-worker — who had the cash with her to pay for her bridal headpiece — later got the wallet back from a good Samaritan who found it dumped near an apartment building where Kochanski was living, the source said.
The victim declined to press charges, but Kochanski was fired. He then passed a state exam and was hired as a court stenographer in Manhattan two years later, the source said.
A former law-enforcement official confirmed the investigation of Kochanski and also said that then-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes sought the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the case before it was dropped. The source said that request went to the Office of Court Administration (OCA), which later hired Kochanski as a court reporter. Kochanski didn’t return a call seeking comment for this article.
Meanwhile, courthouse sources on Thursday blasted OCA for its handling of the fiasco involving Kochanski’s fouled-up transcripts have forced judges to hold an ongoing series of “reconstruction hearings” to recreate the minutes he failed to produce in some 30 proceedings.
OCA spokesman David Bookstaver said the agency was unaware of the prior allegations against Kochanski when he was hired because no charges were pressed and the incident wouldn’t have shown up on a background check.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton