Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Arthur Aidala | Defense Attorney Recaps His Attendance for Sid's Induction Into the NYSBA Hall of Fame
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I do want to talk to this guy. You know,
- 0:01Speaker 1: there was one table in particular last Thursday at the
- 0:05Speaker 1: New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame luncheon. It was
- 0:08Speaker 1: an all-star table. Pete Morgan, his beautiful wife Maureen, Bo Dietl,
- 0:12Speaker 1: his beautiful wife Margot, Corey Zelnick, Rich Lowry, Joseph Takapina,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and this guy, the amazing attorney, dear friend of mine
- 0:21Speaker 1: for a million years, the great Arthur Aydala. Artie, good morning, buddy.
- 0:24Speaker 2: How are you? So when we're sitting at that table, right,
- 0:27Speaker 2: and I don't know exactly at what point it was.
- 0:31Speaker 2: It was either when Trump was on the screen or
- 0:33Speaker 2: when you were speaking. I look over to Takapina, who's
- 0:37Speaker 2: sitting right next to me. And those of you who
- 0:39Speaker 2: don't know, the headmaster, which is what you called him
- 0:43Speaker 2: back then, of Poly Prep for many, many years was
- 0:46Speaker 2: a guy named Bill Williams. And I just look at Takapina.
- 0:52Speaker 2: I go with a gun to his head. Bill Williams
- 0:56Speaker 2: would have never picked Sid Rosenberg, Joe Takapina, and Arthur A.
- 1:00Speaker 2: Dollar to be the three stars coming out of poly
- 1:04Speaker 2: prep class of 84 and 85. And Joe squeezed my leg.
- 1:08Speaker 2: He's like a gorilla, Joe. He squeezed my leg. He goes,
- 1:12Speaker 2: there's no way, man. Three of us, man. There's no way.
- 1:15Speaker 2: It was a wonderful afternoon. And Sid, there is a
- 1:20Speaker 2: little bit of a difference between you and I. And
- 1:23Speaker 2: I've been thinking about how do I say this without
- 1:25Speaker 2: insulting you. You're a lot more gratuitous with the compliments
- 1:30Speaker 2: and with I love you and you're the greatest friend
- 1:34Speaker 2: in the whole world. That's the nicest way I could
- 1:36Speaker 2: put it. The only way I could put it is
- 1:37Speaker 2: you're much more full of crap than I am. But
- 1:41Speaker 2: I say this with sincerity. I'm not just throwing bouquets.
- 1:46Speaker 2: Besides the fact, obviously, you deserve that honor. And to
- 1:49Speaker 2: be put in there next to Rosanna Scotto, I mean,
- 1:52Speaker 2: no offense. I mean, she's been at the top of
- 1:55Speaker 2: the game for 30 freaking years. I mean, she's been,
- 1:59Speaker 2: you know, the star of New York forever.
- 2:00Speaker 3: Yeah, but she does TV.
- 2:01Speaker 1: TV's easy. I love Rosanna. She's terrific. But the truth is, TV,
- 2:05Speaker 1: you sit there, they run everything in front of you.
- 2:07Speaker 1: I've done a lot of TV, so have you. It's
- 2:09Speaker 1: a lot more difficult to do the show that I
- 2:11Speaker 1: do four hours a day than Rosanna does.
- 2:12Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
- 2:15Speaker 2: Obviously, I know her a long time from the whole
- 2:17Speaker 2: Bay Ridge Poly Prep. So with the two of you
- 2:20Speaker 2: to go in there and the thing is this, and
- 2:24Speaker 2: this is the truth for everyone who's listening, because I'm
- 2:26Speaker 2: not just saying this because I'm on his show or
- 2:28Speaker 2: I'm his buddy. He hit every note. He hit every chord.
- 2:33Speaker 2: In other words, who he thanked, who he called out.
- 2:38Speaker 2: There was a bunch of students there. He said, he
- 2:41Speaker 2: addressed it. He goes, I know you all hate me
- 2:43Speaker 2: now because you hate Donald Trump. But if you met him,
- 2:45Speaker 2: he's really a nice guy. You'll really like him. And
- 2:47Speaker 2: cracked up the whole room. I mean, you know, and
- 2:50Speaker 2: obviously your mother, your mother standing up, pumping her fists
- 2:53Speaker 2: in the air. was magical. I mean, come on, Sid.
- 2:57Speaker 2: I know how close you are with your dad, and
- 2:59Speaker 2: we'll talk about it in a second, but to have
- 3:01Speaker 2: your mom there standing up, pumping her fists in the
- 3:04Speaker 2: air the way I was last night when the Giants won.
- 3:07Speaker 2: I mean, it was absolutely, it really was. I couldn't
- 3:12Speaker 2: wait to run up to you to tell you, like,
- 3:14Speaker 2: I mean, look, Sid, we... about present company included. I mean,
- 3:18Speaker 2: you know, we're both like missing a chromosome or like,
- 3:21Speaker 2: you know, we're not the brightest guys in the planet,
- 3:23Speaker 2: but you know, I mean, you, you really, you nailed it.
- 3:27Speaker 2: And obviously having Trump and BB both give you, and
- 3:30Speaker 2: by the way, folks, Trump didn't come on the screen
- 3:33Speaker 2: and say, congratulations, Sid Rosenberg. I'm getting into the whole thing.
- 3:37Speaker 2: God bless. He was on there for like two minutes.
- 3:42Speaker 1: It was a hundred seconds. He called me his friend
- 3:44Speaker 1: three times. He was over the top.
- 3:47Speaker 3: I mean, B.B. gave me about 80 seconds.
- 3:49Speaker 2: He's not a BS. He's not a guy who's full
- 3:51Speaker 2: of crap. I mean, he was great. B.B. was very charismatic.
- 3:57Speaker 2: It was... I was very pleasantly surprised by it. And
- 4:03Speaker 2: I had no idea how they were going to get
- 4:04Speaker 2: the whole thing done in two hours, considering how many
- 4:07Speaker 2: people were getting inducted. But they did it. I mean,
- 4:10Speaker 2: your buddies from Rochester and Scarsdale or Schenectady. Those guys
- 4:14Speaker 2: were great.
- 4:14Speaker 1: Binghamton and Glens Falls. Those guys were great.
- 4:17Speaker 2: They bagged it out. They were great.
- 4:18Speaker 1: I mean, you had three big stars there. You had me,
- 4:21Speaker 1: the aforementioned Rosanna Scotto. You had Bill Ritter. big star
- 4:25Speaker 1: channel seven. And then four guys who no one ever
- 4:27Speaker 1: heard of. And those guys were terrific. Especially the guy,
- 4:30Speaker 1: Dan minor.
- 4:31Speaker 3: He was very good.
- 4:32Speaker 2: Yeah. And they, and they had, they had their own
- 4:34Speaker 2: fan club. They're yelling and screaming for them. Obviously bill
- 4:37Speaker 2: Ritter was, you know, Everyone was sitting on the edge
- 4:40Speaker 2: of their seat, basically, if we're going to be honest. Like,
- 4:43Speaker 2: is he going to screw up? Is he going to
- 4:44Speaker 2: forget something? But he wasn't. He was great. He was great, yeah. Look,
- 4:48Speaker 2: all three of you made us cry, and that is
- 4:51Speaker 2: not an exaggeration. It was fantastic.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Right, but even Tackle Pina.
- 4:55Speaker 2: yeah rosetta broke down from the beginning and then you
- 4:58Speaker 2: know you look you're like a half a wimp you
- 5:00Speaker 2: know you're like you're a big tough guy you do
- 5:02Speaker 2: you push up yeah you're but i mean you cry
- 5:05Speaker 2: at the drop of a hat i do you know
- 5:06Speaker 2: it's just like i want to thank my wife and
- 5:09Speaker 2: you're crying well two weeks ago you were calling me
- 5:11Speaker 2: calling the world kaiser name no that's not true i
- 5:16Speaker 2: take that for a bet but your son was there
- 5:18Speaker 2: your beautiful daughter was there it was really a wonderful
- 5:23Speaker 2: And God bless you. It's well-deserved. And I love the
- 5:26Speaker 2: fact that you had John Katsimatidis, who we know and
- 5:29Speaker 2: love telling you what a great broadcast you are. So
- 5:32Speaker 2: that would next, whatever it is, you got to redo
- 5:34Speaker 2: your contract. You could just bring that tape in and
- 5:36Speaker 2: play it for him.
- 5:39Speaker 3: That's a good idea.
- 5:39Speaker 1: I think I'll do that.
- 5:40Speaker 2: Now, we're close.
- 5:41Speaker 1: We're very, very close.
- 5:43Speaker 3: I expect there's going to be some very good news
- 5:45Speaker 3: coming out of WABC very, very soon.
- 5:47Speaker 2: I do.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Well, thank you for all that, Artie. It was great
- 5:49Speaker 1: to have you there on Thursday. It really was. And
- 5:51Speaker 1: you were terrific, and you were texting me throughout the
- 5:54Speaker 1: whole thing. Some very, very nice things. And we love you.
- 5:57Speaker 1: The Rosenberg family loves you.
- 5:59Speaker 2: Listen, when you're close to someone, and you truly care
- 6:02Speaker 2: about them and their family, and you see them succeed,
- 6:06Speaker 2: you feel like you succeed. I mean, look... I'll take 0.00001%
- 6:11Speaker 2: of credit for your success. Right. I mean, I was
- 6:14Speaker 2: in studio with you and Bernie when, you know, when
- 6:17Speaker 2: I was still on the air and then, you know,
- 6:19Speaker 2: all these years thereafter, you know, I felt a tiny
- 6:23Speaker 2: piece of that, that victory lap that you were taking.
- 6:26Speaker 2: It was, it was really, it was wonderful. Um, I
- 6:30Speaker 2: would like to vent about something kind of legal or
- 6:33Speaker 2: not legal because I, I, I totally agree with you,
- 6:36Speaker 2: and I've been railing about it on my little show
- 6:39Speaker 2: about these horses. Everyone is full of crap. I couldn't
- 6:44Speaker 2: agree with you. It got nothing to do with the horse. Oh,
- 6:46Speaker 2: the horses are being mistreated. That's such crap. Our homeless
- 6:50Speaker 2: people are being mistreated. The poor people who are mental
- 6:53Speaker 2: illness on the street, and they're taking a crap in
- 6:55Speaker 2: a gutter, and nobody comes and helps them and says, hey, man,
- 6:58Speaker 2: you're in bad shape. I'm going to give you a
- 7:00Speaker 2: shot in the arm to calm you down, and then
- 7:02Speaker 2: we're going to get you to a hospital. Those people
- 7:04Speaker 2: are being mistreated. Some of the kids in our school
- 7:07Speaker 2: are being mistreated. But those frigging horses, they're a loss.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Let me ask him. I don't know the answer to this,
- 7:15Speaker 2: but I don't think there's any laws on the books.
- 7:17Speaker 2: that says if someone who works for city government sees
- 7:20Speaker 2: someone on the streets and it's below 20 degrees, they
- 7:24Speaker 2: have to pick them up and bring them inside. Or
- 7:26Speaker 2: if it's above 90 degrees, they have to pick them
- 7:28Speaker 2: up and bring them inside. Those laws are on the
- 7:30Speaker 2: books for the horses. If it's too cold, the horses
- 7:34Speaker 2: can't work. If they're too hot, the horses can't work.
- 7:37Speaker 2: I wanted to see if John Samuelson, if that's the
- 7:40Speaker 2: rule for his bus drivers or his train operators or
- 7:44Speaker 2: anyone else who works for him, that's the rule for
- 7:46Speaker 2: the horse. Those are the rules for the horses. Yeah. I,
- 7:50Speaker 2: I told someone on the, Oh, Tom Allen, who he's
- 7:53Speaker 2: a great guy. He's the publisher of a city and
- 7:56Speaker 2: state magazine. And he, Oh, he's all for the horse bed.
- 7:59Speaker 2: I said, if those, if that real estate is, on
- 8:03Speaker 2: the West side becomes a school, a senior citizen center,
- 8:08Speaker 2: something to help the people and not something for somebody
- 8:11Speaker 2: to make money. I'll wear a toupee for a day.
- 8:14Speaker 1: I ain't going to happen.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Right. Right. Because it ain't happening.
- 8:18Speaker 3: No, it's not happening.
- 8:19Speaker 2: When de Blasio came into office after 20 years of
- 8:24Speaker 2: Republican rule between Giuliani and Bloomberg, his biggest issue, what
- 8:29Speaker 2: he's frigging horses. And I saw him, I said, bill,
- 8:32Speaker 2: You have just made the Republicans look like geniuses. After
- 8:36Speaker 2: 20 years of their rule, your biggest issue is not education, crime, subways, infrastructure.
- 8:42Speaker 2: It's the 12 horses in Central Park. This is what's
- 8:46Speaker 2: on the cover of the paper every day. I guess
- 8:48Speaker 2: Giuliani and Bloomberg did as great of a job as
- 8:50Speaker 2: we all did. We all thought they did. So it's crazy.
- 8:54Speaker 2: Something's shady going on. It is.
- 8:57Speaker 1: It's all about the real estate and they can't fool me.
- 9:00Speaker 1: And it's very nice for people who love animals who
- 9:02Speaker 1: also get way.
- 9:03Speaker 3: Too carried away. Animal lovers get ridiculous.
- 9:05Speaker 2: I'm sorry. They eat a steak. They eat a steak
- 9:08Speaker 2: and eat chicken.
- 9:09Speaker 3: Right, exactly.
- 9:10Speaker 1: And when Curtis Slee was on your side, you know,
- 9:12Speaker 1: you got issues. So John Samuelson will join me in
- 9:15Speaker 1: about 20 minutes in studio. He is the president of
- 9:18Speaker 1: the Transport Workers Union, like Arthur just talked about. So
- 9:22Speaker 1: a couple more minutes here quickly, Arthur. I want to
- 9:24Speaker 1: get to Europe. They got that game off yesterday. The
- 9:27Speaker 1: Steelers and the Saints, no issue in Paris. first game ever,
- 9:31Speaker 1: but I know a lot of my Italian friends, you
- 9:33Speaker 1: mentioned Joseph Tacopino, he had a law office in Milan,
- 9:36Speaker 1: Italy for a long time. I know you love that place,
- 9:39Speaker 1: and you've got some issues with Milan as well. What's
- 9:43Speaker 1: going on there?
- 9:43Speaker 2: So, Joe and I were in the law office together
- 9:46Speaker 2: in Milan. Joe and I owned a restaurant together in Milan,
- 9:49Speaker 2: and watching the videos last night.
- 9:52Speaker 1: I had no idea that you guys actually owned that
- 9:54Speaker 1: office and all that together.
- 9:56Speaker 2: My Giuseppe don't bother to tell me how to solve it.
- 10:00Speaker 2: you do that? Why? Because I don't keep a little
- 10:16Speaker 2: interpreter next to me, number one. Number two, I enjoy
- 10:19Speaker 2: being a lawyer. I didn't want to do the whole thing.
- 10:21Speaker 2: Believe me, he offered me, let's do this. I go, Joe,
- 10:23Speaker 2: come on, I'm a lawyer. What do I know about
- 10:26Speaker 2: this soccer crap? Anyway, it broke my heart last night. Because,
- 10:31Speaker 2: you know, look... We all have these mixed feelings about France, right?
- 10:35Speaker 2: Because for a lot of different reasons, going back to
- 10:38Speaker 2: World War II and thereafter and how they've treated us,
- 10:41Speaker 2: we can't use their airspace, we can't use their airspace.
- 10:44Speaker 2: They were stuck-up people. But when I saw, obviously my
- 10:48Speaker 2: heart broke for those people who were store owners in Paris.
- 10:50Speaker 2: But last night, when I saw, I mean, they were
- 10:52Speaker 2: trying to go, they went to the Colosseum, the Roman Colosseum.
- 10:56Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, the Eiffel Tower is nice. But that's
- 10:59Speaker 2: a new man-made thing, relatively speaking, to the Colosseum, which
- 11:02Speaker 2: goes back thousands of years. In Milan, they tried to
- 11:08Speaker 2: storm the Duomo, which is amongst the most gorgeous churches
- 11:12Speaker 2: on the planet Earth. I mean, thank God they had
- 11:14Speaker 2: enough military there not to... But these guys... Look, Sid...
- 11:19Speaker 2: I feel that someone's behind it. They're paying these kids
- 11:23Speaker 2: or they're offering them something. These kids don't even know
- 11:26Speaker 2: what they're protesting. Are they protesting the war in Gaza?
- 11:30Speaker 2: Are they protesting Ukraine? Are they protesting their education system?
- 11:34Speaker 2: Are they protesting their cost of living? They don't know
- 11:37Speaker 2: what the F they're doing. They're just there because it's
- 11:40Speaker 2: fun and let's burn something down. I mean, it's I mean,
- 11:44Speaker 2: but the woman who's running Italy, she ain't fooling around, man.
- 11:50Speaker 2: She's shutting things down. She's shutting people down. She's shutting curfews.
- 11:54Speaker 2: You know, she's Trump's buddy most of the time when
- 11:57Speaker 2: they're not fighting over something stupid.
- 11:58Speaker 3: Most of the time.
- 11:59Speaker 2: Right. Look, he wants to fool around with her. You
- 12:02Speaker 2: know it and I know it. She's Italian. She speaks Italian.
- 12:07Speaker 2: She sounds sexy. So there's a sexual tension going on there.
- 12:10Speaker 2: That's no secret. Right. But she's not fooling around. She's
- 12:14Speaker 2: going to go after these people, which thank God she is. So,
- 12:17Speaker 2: you know, that breaks my heart. And the last thing here,
- 12:21Speaker 2: a little more local, these Cornell boys, right? Obviously, you know,
- 12:26Speaker 2: you have a gorgeous daughter, but you also have a son.
- 12:30Speaker 2: This is a civil case. This is not a criminal case.
- 12:34Speaker 2: This is a civil case. So the lawsuit is a
- 12:39Speaker 2: civil case. that some lawyer just filed. It's not like
- 12:43Speaker 2: a district attorney's office, a lawyer who took an oath
- 12:47Speaker 2: to uphold the constitution of the state of New York
- 12:50Speaker 2: has filed a case. So when a prosecutor does it,
- 12:53Speaker 2: the ruling is the complainant's name, the woman's name is
- 12:57Speaker 2: not disclosed because an investigation has been done and there's
- 13:01Speaker 2: probable cause to charge the individual with a crime. That's
- 13:06Speaker 2: not the case here. Here is just the opposite. The
- 13:09Speaker 2: school investigated the case, didn't bring charges. A district attorney's
- 13:13Speaker 2: office investigated the case and didn't bring charges. But some schmuck,
- 13:17Speaker 2: like any lawyer, could do it and brought a civil case. Now,
- 13:22Speaker 2: everyone knows these boys' names. They're forever scarred on the Internet,
- 13:25Speaker 2: forever and ever and ever. It doesn't go away. And
- 13:28Speaker 2: they asked that the girl's name come out. Could everyone
- 13:31Speaker 2: find out who this woman is? In the civil case,
- 13:34Speaker 2: and the judge said no. No. In the decision, no,
- 13:37Speaker 2: we're going to still maintain her privacy. And I just
- 13:43Speaker 2: don't think that's fair. In other words, if you're going to,
- 13:46Speaker 2: I mean, she signed off on the case. So if
- 13:49Speaker 2: you're going to say these seven guys did this to
- 13:51Speaker 2: you two years after they did it to you. Well,
- 13:54Speaker 2: let's know who it is. Let's look at this person's background.
- 13:57Speaker 2: Let's look at, has she ever been in trouble? Let's
- 13:59Speaker 2: look at her grades. Let's look at how she got
- 14:01Speaker 2: into Cornell. Let's do an investigation. I'm not saying that
- 14:05Speaker 2: if it's a criminal case where a grand jury has said, hey,
- 14:08Speaker 2: there's probable cause this guy did something real bad and
- 14:11Speaker 2: we're going to go forward with a prosecution. That's different.
- 14:15Speaker 2: But here... Just so you understand, God forbid, my son,
- 14:20Speaker 2: your son, some prosecutor, I'm sorry, some defense attorney on
- 14:25Speaker 2: 13th Avenue, Dyka Heights, or on Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens,
- 14:29Speaker 2: could write up a complaint, say Gabriel or Luca did
- 14:33Speaker 2: something really bad, and now everyone's going to know Gabriel
- 14:36Speaker 2: is Sid Rosenberg's son, but who's the girl? Oh, we
- 14:38Speaker 2: don't know who the girl is.
- 14:39Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you're right. No, you make a fair point,
- 14:41Speaker 3: and again, I haven't... I haven't come out, and like
- 14:45Speaker 3: the Attorney General has, Letitia James, I haven't come out
- 14:49Speaker 3: and decided who's guilty, who's not in this case.
- 14:51Speaker 2: I haven't.
- 14:52Speaker 3: I usually do 10 with the girl, and the fact
- 14:55Speaker 3: that seven guys did this looks, at the very least,
- 14:57Speaker 3: it's morally reprehensible.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Really reprehensible. And if my son took part in that,
- 15:01Speaker 1: I would kick my son's ass to see, you know,
- 15:03Speaker 1: legal or not.
- 15:05Speaker 2: A hundred percent. But all I'm talking about is due process. No,
- 15:08Speaker 2: you're right. And the due process that's been there already is, yes,
- 15:12Speaker 2: the school investigated, and everyone's saying, well, Cornell doesn't want
- 15:15Speaker 2: this black mark on them, so they're not going to
- 15:18Speaker 2: do anything. Everyone's accusing the district attorney of corruption, saying, hey,
- 15:23Speaker 2: Ithaca is all about Cornell. I mean, they just dismiss
- 15:30Speaker 2: a case of that magnitude or they don't take it seriously. Sid,
- 15:34Speaker 2: just so you know, I can't speak for Ithaca, New York,
- 15:36Speaker 2: but in the five boroughs, any woman who goes in
- 15:39Speaker 2: and says, this guy touched the hair on my head
- 15:41Speaker 2: and I did not consent, they're locking that guy up.
- 15:45Speaker 2: There's no if, ands, or buts. They just, boom. They
- 15:47Speaker 2: arrest now, and then they investigate later.
- 15:50Speaker 3: Write questions later, right.
- 15:52Speaker 2: So you lose your job. You're embarrassed in front of
- 15:55Speaker 2: your family. You've got to pay a lawyer a lot
- 15:57Speaker 2: of money. And then when he gets dismissed, nobody knows
- 15:59Speaker 2: about it. Nobody hears about it. Nobody cares. You can't
- 16:01Speaker 2: get your job back. Right. Because you're in Google as
- 16:06Speaker 2: a potential rapist. No, no, no. You're right. It's rough
- 16:08Speaker 2: when you represent people.
- 16:10Speaker 3: And people still think that even if they are acquitted,
- 16:12Speaker 3: that they're guilty. You're right. It's a nasty, nasty thing.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Artie, you were magnificent on Thursday, even better here this morning.
- 16:20Speaker 1: We love having you on this show. You're a dear,
- 16:22Speaker 1: dear friend for a very, very long time. I love
- 16:24Speaker 1: you to pieces, Arthur Aydala. Thank you so much.
- 16:27Speaker 2: God bless and good luck to you. You're a beautiful
- 16:29Speaker 2: bride on Sunday.
- 16:30Speaker 3: I appreciate that, Artie. Thank you.
- 16:31Speaker 1: She's got the big grace. That's the amazing attorney, dear
- 16:34Speaker 1: friend of mine, Arthur Aydala, who's also amazing on radio
- 16:37Speaker 1: and television.
- 16:39Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
- 16:42Speaker 4: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
- 16:45Speaker 4: mornings at 6. If you like the podcast, share it
- 16:48Speaker 4: with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download
- 16:53Speaker 4: the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all
- 16:56Speaker 4: major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
- 17:03Speaker 4: and X. See you next time for a new episode
- 17:06Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
- 17:07Speaker 2: What the heck is going on here?