Clifford Levy

An email from a federal judge in Brooklyn arrived unexpectedly one day in late May, requesting my appearance in court. “It may seem to be ancient history,” the judge wrote, but there was a seismic development in a landmark legal case that I had helped set off nearly a quarter-century ago. Several weeks later, scores of federal and state officials, lawyers and leaders of advocacy groups gathered for a hearing in a packed Brooklyn courtroom used for ceremonial events.

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. A class-action lawsuit, spurred by an investigative series in The Times, came to a close, having helped thousands of mentally ill residents of adult homes. The conditions in homes for mentally ill adults in New York were often abhorrent when The New York Times investigated the facilities nearly 25 years ago.Credit...Nicole Bengiveno By Clifford J.

NEW YORK -- An email from a federal judge in Brooklyn arrived unexpectedly one day in late May, requesting my appearance in court. "It may seem to be ancient history," the judge wrote, but there was a seismic development in a landmark legal case that I had helped set off nearly a quarter-century ago. Several weeks later, scores of federal and state officials, lawyers and leaders of advocacy groups gathered for a hearing in a packed Brooklyn courtroom used for ceremonial events.