Brendan J. Lyons reports in the Albany Times Union that a female attorney first demoted and later fired as a law clerk after accusing an acting state Supreme Court justice of sexual harassment is now suing, claiming there is “a widespread culture of silence and retaliation” in the state's judicial system. The lawsuit from Alexis Marquez is in U.S. District Court against acting state Supreme Court Justice Douglas Hoffman, the Manhattan judge she accused of harassment. And 16 other officials, including the state’s chief administrative judge, Lawrence K. Marks, and the state’s chief judge, Janet DiFiore, are also named in the suit. The suit claims Marks ignored her complaint against Hoffman, and then deleted “approximately half of the court system’s statewide sexual harassment policy” last December, about nine days later. But Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for the state Office of Court Administration, says, "Our updating of the court system's sexual harassment policy had nothing to do with these allegations." Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.