Frida Hanimov

Elman tells Frida the judge is looking at papers submitted by her ex-husband.

Frida pleads with Elman. What do you want me to do? I'm losing my children.

Elman shows Frida his cell phone with Judge Garson's phone number on the screen.

If you are saying that Garson is corrupt, will he reverse everything for me?

Elman, an electronic salesman, guarantees she'll win custody of her younger children, Sharon and Nottie, but it will cost her.

Prosecutor Noel Downey.

Two weeks later, wearing a wire again... Frida visits Elman to negotiate a price for her children. And the DA gave you the money to give, all marked money, all marked money to give Elman. The price to keep custody of Sharon and Nottie, $9,000. I want guarantee for the money.

And Frida says it worked. Judge Garson had appointed this lawyer, Paul Semenovsky, to represent her children. And suddenly, Semenovsky was treating Frida very differently. So you're giving Elman money and you're seeing a result. I'm seeing results.

Okay, guys ready? I felt like they're not talking anymore about my little kids because it's so obvious they're going to be mine. In the beginning I was so dangerous, remember? Now I'm a very good mother. Now you're a good mother? All of a sudden I get visitation from my oldest son after six months.

So she gives Elman the money and boom, everything changes.

Semenovsky, good morning to me all of a sudden and the judge is going easy on me. I felt very good.

I felt something is wrong, but I couldn't prove it. I just couldn't prove it. I said, what kind of America is this? I'm Frida Hanimov. I went undercover for the district attorney office to nail a corrupt judge. I'm not a police officer. I'm not a detective. I'm a mother and a nurse. I'll do anything, anything in the world to keep my kids. Even if I have to fight with a tiger, I'll do it.

It was up to the DA now to figure out how an electronic salesman could possibly be influencing custody decisions.

They put a tap on Elman's phone.

On tape, he assures lawyer Paul Semenovsky that he's working to get him money from various divorce litigants.

Szymanowski brags about boozing it up with Judge Garson.

Detectives begin tailing Szymanowski. This is surveillance tape of him hugging Ellman.

Investigators believe they had figured out the food chain, literally.

If this was what was going on in public, authorities wanted to know what was happening behind closed doors. Were judicial decisions being bought? Officers from the district attorney's office worked in the middle of the night, long after Judge Garson had left for the day. They searched his robing room, looking for a place to hide a camera. They found this hole in the ceiling.

On a cold December night, detectives from the district attorney's office made their way into this room, Judge Garson's chambers. A tiny camera placed in his ceiling.

This is the camera?

And it went through the ceiling, wires going down?

And you were watching this in real time?

Just weeks after Frida Hanimoff, terrified she was going to lose her children, started working undercover to try to prove whether Judge Garson was taking payoffs, the district attorney began surveillance of the judge and his meetings with lawyer Paul Semenovsky.

It's totally at home.

One of Szymanowski's clients was this man, Avraham Levy, estranged husband of this mother of five, Saga Levy. Detectives secretly listened in as Judge Garson tells Szymanowski that his client, Avraham, will win the family house.

She's f***ed.

At a later date, Judge Garson instructs Szymanowski how to write a memo on the issue.

The judge is telling him what to say in court and things like that?

So he says, when you go back into court, say this and that.

According to investigators, the judge and the lawyer said things about other women, too.

Investigators say they heard Paul Semenovsky tell Elman what Judge Garson said about Frida.

In a sexual way?

Here she is, pregnant, pleading for her children, and this judge is talking about her mouth. Yes. In a sexual way.

But the worst thing that was going on in Garson's chambers, according to investigators, were the kickbacks in the form of lucrative work.

All that whining and dining of the judge paid off for Szymanowski, according to investigators, in a big way. If a child needed representation in a custody case, Judge Garson would assign Szymanowski as the law guardian, and the divorcing parents or the taxpayers would foot the bill, often tens of thousands of dollars.

Judge Garson's behavior was especially appalling for Joe Hines, the district attorney in charge. For him, this investigation was personal.

The district attorney thought he had the goods on Semenovsky, but he wanted Judge Garson. He told his staff to offer Semenovsky a deal and get him to flip. They would recommend Semenovsky serve no prison time. It was an offer he couldn't refuse. Semenovsky took the deal. He would wear a wire and go see the judge.

The D.A. bought a $275 box of cigars.

Next, Semenovsky brought cash, $1,000, a thank you for referring a case in another court to him.

I'll meet them about five, six blocks away from the warehouse.

Judge Garson calls Szymanowski back to his office, tells him it's too much money, and tries to give it back. Szymanowski insists. In the end, Garson keeps the money.

Attorney Ron Fischetti represented Judge Garson and told us the judge's behavior may look bad, but there is nothing illegal about any of it.

A judge is supposed to take referral fees?

He ended up taking it.

Furthermore, Fischetti says, Garson showed Szymanowski no special treatment in exchange for all those meals.

The judge is on tape telling and coaching Szymanowski on how to win a case in front of him.

He's giving him lessons. He's telling him how to write the memos.

And that's wrong. He says, your client's going to win, but he doesn't deserve it. It sounds as though he's saying, I shouldn't be doing this, but because of our relationship, I'm going to.

When you get off from your car, you see this big, huge warehouse.

But that's what it sounds like. That's not correct. But 48 hours after Judge Garson took that money, detectives picked him up and brought him to a place they call the Gulag.

he still had the thousand dollars in his pocket.

When Judge Garson saw what investigators had on tape, they say he offered to cut a deal. But in the end, it fell apart. And nine months after Frieda Hanimoff went undercover... It took a lot of guts for her to do what she did. The authorities arrested Judge Garson and charged him with receiving a bribe. Accepting all those free lunches could put the judge behind bars for up to seven years.

And when investigators raided Nisam Elman's warehouse, they found a treasure trove of documents.

They arrested Nisam Elman and also retired court clerk Paul Sarnell. and Judge Garson's court officer, Louis Salerno. They were accused of taking bribes to steer cases to Garson's court. This surveillance tape shows Salerno accepting a bribe, a bag full of electronics, right on the courthouse steps.

And it all starts with Frida.

But it doesn't end with Frida. There are many women who say that because of Judge Garson, they lost custody of their children.

Remember Sagal Levy, the woman whose divorce Judge Garson was discussing in that undercover tape? Sagal had always suspected corruption. In fact, she's the one whose tip to Frida about Nisam Elman started Frida on her crusade. Judge Garson was arrested before he ruled on Segal's case, but her estranged husband has pled guilty to conspiring to bribe the judge.

He paid Elman $10,000. But ironically, he says he's the victim, and that he only did it because Ellman threatened him that he would lose everything if he didn't pay up.

And so when Lisa and her husband went through their own divorce later that year, she was terrified.

And this big steel gate will open up My heart was really going fast. And then the boom, they close it after me. I said, oh my God, I have no way out, even if I want to run away.

Lisa's ex-husband hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing, but Lisa still believes his friendship with Ellman hurt her. She believes that Judge Garson shorted her on child support. Judge Garson has not been charged with fixing any decisions, but an administrative judge was appointed to review his divorce and custody rulings.

The man alleged to be the gatekeeper of Judge Garson's corrupt court, Nisam Elman, sat down with us for his first interview, his lawyer, Gerald McMahon, by his side. Do you think, in your heart, that you did anything wrong?

You didn't do anything wrong? No. No.

Did you ever bribe Judge Garson?

Were you bribing Paul Semenovsky?

In fact, Elman has been charged with conspiracy to bribe practically everyone in Judge Garson's court, from employees Salerno and Sarnell, to lawyer Semenovsky, to Judge Garson himself. But Elman says he never really knew the judge.

When you told Rita that if she didn't pay, she was going to lose her kids in 30 days, what are you saying you meant?

Did you say, I'm calling the judge? Did you mislead her?

Hi, how are you? Elman says he lied to Frida when he told her her ex-husband was bribing the judge. And in fact, there is no evidence her ex slipped anyone any money. And he has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Still, Elman convinced Frida her ex was up to no good and took $9,000 from her. Every penny, he says, he gave to lawyer Szymanowski. Didn't you keep some of the money yourself?

Greed. But Elman and his attorney believe that if anyone's motive should be in question, it should be Frida's.

You are suggesting that she is not a very truthful person.

He calls her a child abuser who found a way to get the charges dropped. Did she hit her child?

Say cheese. But Frida still has to convince the court that she's the better parent to raise her oldest son.

Hopefully, I'm gonna get my son today.

Nearly two years after Judge Garson's arrest, she's still fighting for custody.

We'll see. I just wanna get over it already.

For almost two years, Frida Hanimoff has been fighting to get custody of her eldest son, and today could be the day. Finally, Yaniv, who still says his mother hid him, agrees to live with her because he wants to be near his school. So after a very long wait and a very short hearing... I got my son back.

My heart is like jumping up and down. This is every mother's dream. you know, to have her kids back. This is a big win for me, a big win. I'm glad. You got it.

It seems that women all over the country have heard about what she's done. People start calling me.

The truth is when I went inside, I didn't care about myself. This is the last chance I have to keep my kids.

Oh, I had the same story as you. I lost two kids. Another woman calls me. I had one kid. They thought I'm a DA. I can help them. But I'm just a mother who fight the system, and I won. And you've been likened to Erin Brockovich. That's what they're saying. And who was the law guardian?

Every month, Freda meets with other women. If she hears what she thinks is evidence of corruption, she calls her new friends in law enforcement. Well, I was there once. If I can help those women, why not? In the wake of Judge Garson's arrest, court administrators formed a new commission to reform New York's divorce court. And Freda was right there.

In this part of New York, at least, things are changing. The district attorney credits Freda with forcing the leadership of the court to reexamine how they pick judges and how they handle custody cases.

Now Hollywood has come calling. A movie company bought the rights to Frida's story. The script line is simple. A Russian immigrant, for whom English is a third language, exposed a potential sewer of corruption in an American court. And now the women who thought they had no voice at all will get to be heard. Do you know the word tenacious? No. What is this?

It's a person who grabs hold when they want something and doesn't let go. So call me that, dear.

So call me this name.

Tenacious. However tenacious Frida was, it would take nearly five years before the case against Judge Gerald Garson would go to trial. A jury found the judge, who handled more than a thousand matrimonial cases while on the bench, guilty of receiving bribes. Garson stood before the court ashamed.

But the former judge refused to apologize to all the women who say they and their children were his victims.

And this is a big mahogany door that I bought.

Welcome to Frida Hannemoff's American dream. This was once her big house in a swanky New York neighborhood. It's a world away from the poverty where she grew up. Frida's parents fled Russia, emigrated to Israel, and at 19, Frida, a young nurse, made her way to America. Just a few weeks later, she met the man she would marry, Yuri Hamanov. His business was diamonds.

They would have three children, Yaniv, Sharon, and Nati. Life was good.

I love this house very much. I worked all my life just to get to this house. And boom, one day,

After 13 years of marriage, Yuri announced to his wife that his business was failing. The dream house had to be sold and they would move to a small apartment in Brooklyn. Frida says her husband told her they had to pretend to divorce. She claims it was part of a scheme to hide their assets.

Then he even gave me Diamonds that he told me that it's worth over $6 million. Oh, look at that.

They shine. Oh, they do. They're gorgeous.

But one day, Yuri didn't come home.

He just disappeared with his clothes. I could not reach him, nothing. And those diamonds? Zircon.

Zircon, yes. The diamonds were fake, but the separation papers Frida signed were real. And she says she had unknowingly signed away her rights to any of her husband's assets.

This is a crime. What he did to me is a crime.

She hired a lawyer to try to stop the divorce and pinned her hopes on the wisdom of a New York State Supreme Court Justice, Judge Gerald Garson.

He will see that this is a setup, a woman that married to a husband who's a wealthy husband, a mother of three kids, will get her rights.

But when she walked into his court, her hopes were shattered.

He threatened and he yells. Judge Garson is screaming at you? Yeah. And the judge tells me that I better settle this case and I don't have any chances. And he told me that if I'm not going to settle that, I'm going to be end up in jail.

The judge chastised her for renting an apartment she co-owned with her husband without his permission.

So stunned by the judge's behavior... Frida says she saw no choice but to agree to the divorce.

Did you take your tablet this morning? Yeah. I said, to hell with money. I'm a nurse. I'll make it. How was school today? As long as I have my kids, I just continue with my life. You know, it's not the end.

Sure enough, two years later, Frida fell in love. She got married and got pregnant. She says her ex got jealous.

He became very obsessed with me.

Frida says her ex-husband, Yuri, began trying to convince the children they would have a better life with him. Her 13-year-old son, Yanif, liked the idea.

Look, Mommy lives in this small apartment, and she doesn't have any money, and this and that. You're going to live like a millionaire with me. One night when Frida had just come home from work... My ex-husband called the police on me. They knock on my door and he goes to me, your son said that you hit him with a belt.

Yanif was standing outside with his father and told the police his mother had beaten him with a belt three days earlier.

My son had a mark on his face. here, red mark. So the husband pointed on my side and said, you see the red line? This is mommy hit him with the belt. How do you think he got that red mark? The kids, they jump, they play basketball, they do things. I never hit my kids, never ever. My kids are well, well dressed, very clean, honors in school. I'm proud to be their mother.

Then the news got even worse for Frida. Her ex-husband filed for custody. He wanted all the children. and the man deciding the fate of her family? None other than Judge Gerald Garson.

I'm not going to lose my kids.

Frida was desperate and heard about a man who could help, a businessman who was boasting around town that he could influence the judge. His name, Nisam Elman.

And I said, let me call him. And he tells me that this judge is in his pocket. In Elman's pocket. In Elman's pocket.

Frida says he told her he could prove it by dialing the judge himself while she listened in. Frida says she heard a man say that she was going to lose her children in 30 days. She hung up the phone, terrified.

Oh my God, this judge is corrupted. I'm gonna definitely lose my kids. I start crying and I'm trying to dial back to him and he's not picking up the phone.

Frida began calling every law enforcement agency she could think of.

I need action right now. I'm losing my kids. I called the district attorney office.

Kings County Assistant District Attorney Brian Wallace was the first investigator to take Frida Hanumoff seriously.

Prosecutor Noel Downing was working with Brian Wallace in the rackets division. Michael Vecchione, their boss, knew that proving corruption in the courts would be difficult and explosive.

Put wires on me. I'll prove you that this judge is corrupted.

I don't care about myself anymore. I just want my kids back.

Frida Hanimoff, three months pregnant and on an undercover mission to expose corruption, headed to a warehouse in downtown Brooklyn to meet businessman Nisim Elman.

ADA Michael Vecchione assigned detectives Jeanette Spordoni and George Terra to Frida.

As they wired her up, their nerves were wound tight too.

You're walking. It's dark. You're listening to your step. Quiet, but you can hear echoes. I was scared, but I'd never show it. Like, you know, my heart will go fast.

Frida found Neeson Ellman right here in his office.

He make phone calls in front of my eyes to the court asking how is the judge.

Their conversation was mostly in Hebrew.