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The Superior Court judge in the Sheff v. O'Neill lawsuit has told the plaintiffs and the state that he will postpone court action until the General Assembly convening in February takes up the compromise proposal submitted last June. Judge Marshall K. Berger Jr. heard testimony in November in which both sides assumed the original settlement was dead. But in a 12-minute session, he said that his own research indicated that the proposed settlement remains before the legislature. Ralph Urban, representing the attorney general, said state officials treated the proposed settlement as dead because some of the deadlines in the agreement can no longer be met, but agreed that the judge was correct. Urban agreed that the settlement will be before the General Assembly -- with thirty days to act -- "unless the attorney general withdraws it." Matthew Colangelo of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, arguing for the plaintiffs, said the plaintiffs also have the right to withdraw the agreement from the legislature. Judge Berger said that may be true, but he has not considered that possibility. Both the plaintiffs and the state, and the city of Hartford, agreed to stay in touch with each other and with the judge. Read a news account of the final arguments: Sheff v. O'Neill final arguments
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