Thug Watch

Reader dt sends this lovely story in:

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) An Arab-American woman who was fighting a pair of parking tickets says she fainted in court after the judge asked if she was a terrorist.

The judge confirmed that he made the remark but said he was ''probably kidding with her.'' And he denied her claim that he also accused her of financially supporting terrorists.

There was no transcript of the proceedings. The woman, Anissa Khoder, has filed a complaint against the judge, Village Justice William Crosbie, with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Khoder told The Journal News that as she approached Crosbie's table in court on Thursday, the judge considered her name out loud and asked if she was a terrorist. She said she was stunned and offended but kept that to herself.

She claimed that after giving the judge her explanation for why the tickets should be dismissed, ''He said something like, 'You have money to support the terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket.' I could not believe I was hearing that.''