NYS Focus⁠26%

Lawyer Seeks to Boot State Senator Luis Sepúlveda From Court Case ⁠36%

By Sam Mellins⁠38%

8/5/2026, 7:50:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Hasty Generalization, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 31.6% saturation with 149 hits. Analysis detected 849 faulty-reasoning hits from 472 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.8% and a BS Rank of ⁠36% (19,641 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 64.20% of the article peer group.

State Senator Luis Sepúlveda, who works as a lawyer in private practice, could face disqualification from a case he has been litigating since September, after opposing lawyer David Kaminsky filed a letter Monday asking the court to boot Sepúlveda off the case. 
Kaminsky cited reporting about Sepúlveda’s legal failings from New York Focus and other media outlets to argue that he should not be allowed to continue on the case. 
In April, New York Focus reported that since 2017, Sepúlveda, who chairs the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee, has repeatedly failed his clients . 
His mistakes include missing court appearances, failing to file documents on time, and submitting faulty paperwork to the court. 
These mistakes have caused his clients to lose cases by default and suffer consequences, including evictions. 
The case in question revolves around outstanding water bills for a building in the Bronx that the plaintiff sold to the defendants last year. 
In his letter, Kaminsky said that Sepúlveda’s previous failures represent a “pattern of concerning behavior” that creates doubts about whether the politician “can dedicate adequate time and attention to his clients.” 
Sepúlveda’s clients, the defendants in the case, could not immediately be reached for comment. 
Kaminsky’s letter also raised another concern. 
This spring, Manhattan Housing Court Judge Jason Vendzules issued a ruling against one of Sepúlveda’s clients, a building superintendent facing eviction, after Sepúlveda failed to show up for a scheduled court date. 
Following the ruling, Sepúlveda made a complaint against Vendzules to the Office of Court Administration, the agency that runs New York’s court system, according to a document filed in the case by Vendzules. 
This caused Vendzules to recuse himself from the case to avoid “any appearance of impropriety or bias that this complaint has colored my decision.” 
Kaminsky’s letter argued that since Sepúlveda chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state’s judges, his filing a complaint against a sitting judge would run afoul of legal professional rules , which bar lawyers from claiming the ability to improperly influence government officials. 
Last month, Sepúlveda told the news site Hell Gate that he “cannot confirm or deny” filing a complaint against Vendzules. 
On Tuesday, Sepúlveda’s spokesperson Mike Nieves told New York Focus that Sepúlveda “did not file a complaint.” 
Asked for comment on Kaminsky’s letter, Nieves said Sepúlveda “doesn’t have any issues” with Kaminsky “putting in whatever letter he put in.” 
“That’s for the court to decide, and so he has no comment on it,” Nieves said. 
Kaminsky, through a representative at his office, declined to comment. 
Since his legal missteps came to light, Sepúlveda has faced calls to resign as chair of the Judiciary Committee but has rejected them , and maintains the support of state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who controls committee chair assignments. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 21.8%Sam Mellins: 1.9%New York Focus: 1.6%Confirmation Bias21.8%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 1.1%New York Focus: 0.5%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 4.9%Sam Mellins: 1.4%New York Focus: 2.1%Availability Heuristic4.9%This article: 6.6%Sam Mellins: 0.3%New York Focus: 0.5%Representativeness Heuristic6.6%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.2%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.5%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 7.4%Sam Mellins: 3.7%New York Focus: 2.9%Framing Effect7.4%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.5%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 3.4%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.4%Status Quo Bias3.4%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.7%New York Focus: 1.5%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.9%New York Focus: 1.2%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 31.6%Sam Mellins: 11.3%New York Focus: 6.9%Negativity Bias31.6%This article: 8.3%Sam Mellins: 1.0%New York Focus: 1.0%Self-Serving Bias8.3%This article: 3.4%Sam Mellins: 0.6%New York Focus: 0.6%Fundamental Attribution Error3.4%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.3%New York Focus: 0.1%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.1%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.3%New York Focus: 0.6%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.1%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 6.8%Sam Mellins: 0.5%New York Focus: 0.5%Recency Bias6.8%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.2%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.5%New York Focus: 0.4%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.1%Straw Man0.0%This article: 9.3%Sam Mellins: 2.3%New York Focus: 2.0%Appeal to Authority9.3%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.3%New York Focus: 0.8%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.3%New York Focus: 0.5%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 9.3%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.1%Circular Reasoning9.3%This article: 12.5%Sam Mellins: 2.1%New York Focus: 2.2%Hasty Generalization12.5%This article: 3.4%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.2%Red Herring3.4%This article: 8.5%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.2%Bandwagon8.5%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 2.6%New York Focus: 2.5%Appeal to Emotion0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.2%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 3.4%Sam Mellins: 1.7%New York Focus: 1.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)3.4%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.1%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 9.3%Sam Mellins: 0.5%New York Focus: 0.5%Burden of Proof9.3%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 4.9%Sam Mellins: 2.0%New York Focus: 1.5%Anecdotal4.9%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 4.2%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.8%Ambiguity (Equivocation)4.2%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.5%New York Focus: 0.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 6.6%Sam Mellins: 0.4%New York Focus: 0.4%Unattributed Quote6.6%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.5%New York Focus: 0.5%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 5.9%Sam Mellins: 1.0%New York Focus: 1.3%Biased Writer Voice5.9%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.2%New York Focus: 0.3%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 8.5%Sam Mellins: 0.1%New York Focus: 0.3%Politically Left Leaning Bias8.5%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.0%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Sam Mellins: 0.0%New York Focus: 0.3%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

472 words analyzed.

Speakers

4speakers43%attributed speech270writer words
Selected voice

David Kaminsky

100%flagged-word coverage
103 attributed words51% of attributed speech73% writer coverage
0%15.0%30.0%Biased Writer Voice+27.2 ptsWriter: 0.0%David Kaminsky: 27.2%27.2%Politically Left Leaning B-14.8 ptsWriter: 14.8%David Kaminsky: 0.0%0.0%Unattributed Quote-5.2 ptsWriter: 5.2%David Kaminsky: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.