Fernando Bermudez had a 27-month federal sentence waiting at the end of the 23-year state sentence he received for his conviction of second-degree murder in connection to a shooting near a Manhattan club in 1991.

But a state judge in Manhattan overturned the murder conviction last week, saying one witness lied and others were influenced into pointing the finger at Bermudez, now 40. Not only did the judge toss the conviction – he threw out the charges, saying Bermudez was innocent of the shooting.

Bermudez pleaded guilty in the drug case after he had been charged in the killing. The drug charges stemmed from an arrest by agents from the DEA’s Westchester County Task Force on Feb. 6, 1991, at the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ordered Bermudez freed on bail until June, 30, 2010, to give his lawyers time to  try and convince the federal Bureau of Prisons that Bermudez has long since served the 27 months in prison as part of the 18 years he wrongly served.

Read the Associated Press account of  the Bermudez case here.

“We’re honored and proud that the Attorney General is sending the case to the Southern District of New York and we’ve answered that call,” Bharara said. “And our job is to make the best criminal case that we can and that’s what we do best and that’s what we’re going to do.”

And once again, the feds’ have charged a Westchester man in connection with the alleged schemes.

Michael Kimelman, 38,  of Larchmont, who founded Incremental Capital, was accused of  securities fraud and conspiracy in one of  eight criminal complaints and felony information documents that were announced today. Kimelman was arrested by FBI agents at his home this morning.

The first shoe in the case dropped Oct. 16 when Bharara  announced the arrests of  six executives in connection with a $20 million insider trading case. Among those charged was Mark Kurland of Mount Kisco. The former president of a hedge fund company was charged along with one of the wealthiest men in the world, Raj Rajaratnam and now-former IBM executive Robert Moffat in the case.

This latest case was built on informants, wiretaps and intercepted phone calls — the staples of drug, organized crime, and anti-terrorism cases. It used to be that white collar cases were painstakingly built on reams of documents. That looks like it’s changing under Bharara as the feds appear willing to employ more aggressive tactics in rooting out white collar corruption.

Read the release from Bharara’s office here.

Just ask the 53 Bronx residents charged in six sweeping federal indictments aimed at the crack and heroin trade in two Bronx housing projects. Some 450 federal agents and New York City cops descended upon the Morrisania section of the Bronx this morning to corral more than three dozen of the accused. And the feds used all the weapons at their disposal in the investigation —wiretaps, informants, undercover officers — to build the case that resulted in the execution of 22 search warrants this morning and the seizure of $18,000, four guns, and 1000 bags of heroin.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called a press conference to announce the arrests, the third such news event since he was sworn in last month. The first two were connected to white collar cases.  Read the release issued by Bharara’s office here.

And then there are those hearings whose length is best measured in seconds. Such is the case with today’s 240-second  appearance by Pelham Middle School teacher Gregg Cavaluzzi, nabbed by Westchester County police on May 31 in an Internet sex sting after he allegedly showed up in Elmsford to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl he had been chatting to first on the Internet and then on the phone. She turned out to be an undercover detective. Cavaluzzi, who had tendered his resignation from the school district prior to his arrest, was fired after he was charged.

Cavaluzzi’s lawyer, Clinton Calhoun and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Martin are in plea discussions in the case and asked today for another 30 days to continue those talks. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas put the case down for a Nov. 30 hearing.

Then Cavaluzzi was led out by deputy U.S. marshals and back to the Westchester County Jail.

Bob Schubert, 86, says in his suit the city failed to make sure his neighbor got proper permits before installing the system. Schubert says the drainage system dried up his 20,000-gallon pond. The suit claims the city inflicted emotional distress as well as shock and emotional scarring in addition to depriving him property, privacy and speech.

The battle over Schubert’s dried up pond grew in intensity when former City Manager Paul Shew sent a mental health team from Westchester Medical Center to Schubert’s home saying he was worried about Schubert’s health.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas has retained the Nov. 12 court date for the case, but not for sentencing. There will be a hearing that day to determine if Calhoun is barred by conflicts from representing Post. His law partner, Kerry Lawrence, represented John Cavallaro, a lawyer who worked for the city and testified for the prosecution at Post and Charles’ trial.

No new sentencing date has been set. Post and Charles each face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Kerik was not given a new date in White Plains. But his lawyers will be before a federal appeals panel in Manhattan tomorrow to argue for his release from Westchester County Jail. Robinson ordered Kerik jailed after ruling he had violated a court order by leaking confidential documents turned over to the defense by federal prosecutors.

Kerik’s trial on public corruption charges is still scheduled for Nov. 9. But that, of course, is subject to change. His trial date has been postponed twice in the last month.

Bogdanos claims in court papers filed in federal court in White Plains that he has never met DiFiore or Glazer. But Dhyalma Vazquez, secretary of Westchester’s Independence Party, said in a sworn affidavit that she met Bogdanos at DiFiore’s house during a campaign event during her first campaign for district attorney in 2005. DiFiore, Glazer, and Bogdanos have all submitted sworn affidavits saying that’s a lie.

What’s not a lie is that there was a criminal probe by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in 2006 connected to Zherka. Bogdanos has submitted court papers regarding wiretaps approved by a state court for three numbers connected to Zherka, his business, and a business associate named Genaro Morales in the spring of 2006.

No criminal charges have ever filed against Zherka, who lives in Katonah, in connection with that probe.