Yesterday's testimony, unusual for a mayor before a City Council committee, was the first time Mr. Bloomberg had floated the idea of borough boards, and he appeared to be recognizing that there was strong public and political sentiment for a sounding board for educational issues that would be closer to the neighborhood level than City Hall.
But it is unusual to have such testimony from a high-ranking cartel member himself.
Mr. Taylor's long and direct testimony is unusual for international war crimes trials, where only a few defendants have spent even short periods on the stand.
Unlike in the first trial, the government took the unusual step hearing the testimony of the three judges, from the United States Court of Appeals in Chicago, who were the target of Mr. Turner's comments.
What was unusual about yesterday's testimony -- in this, the third trial stemming from the assault on Mr. Louima -- was that Officer Rosario apparently admitted to the very charges he is trying to defeat.
"When I go home from today's work and I choose, because of my nature, to associate with another man, how is that a problem for you?" the lawmaker, Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in an unusual personal appeal during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Many legal experts also said they thought it unusual that the unreliable testimony from a prosecutor at the OCDA office didn't appear in the AG's brief, since the author of that brief -- supervising Deputy Attorney General Theodore Cropley, a member of the state AG's office -- sat in on the hearings in question and would have been aware of such allegations.
The testimony presents an unusual situation.
It was testimony to the unusual amalgam of political, managerial, legal and educational skills he brought to the post, salted with street smarts.
Testimony in an unusual federal court case will continue on Tuesday as artist Peter Doig attempts to prove that he did not create a 40-year-old painting signed "Pete Doige".
