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| DA Joel Abelove |
Every so many years, I regret casting a vote for a particular candidate for office once I see what he or she does in office.
I am beginning to have that feeling again.
In two instances in quick succession, Rensselaer County's new district attorney is showing some signs that politics is a prime consideration in what he will or will not do in his new role as an elected public servant. You know, one of those office seekers who promised to do all he could to make the community a better one if elected?
Here are the particulars as I understand them from reading all the media coverage. You decide if I'm being too leery of the future business of the DA's office.
• Richard Crist is a highly-paid legislative liaison to our bloated County Legislature -- and also is Republican chairman of the Town of Schodack. Last summer, child endangerment charges were filed against him after he allegedly was involved in a physical altercation with his 17-year-old son in the Castleton Elementary School
parking lot. The charges: two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare
of a child and one count of harassment, a violation.
To many people, including me, that appeared to be overkill. There were no reports of injuries or property damage. But, because some young children in the parking lot with their parents witnessed the incident, someone yelled "child endangerment" and the charges were piled on.
According to court documents, Child Protective Services (CPS) delivered a report back in October, two or three months after the incident, that in effect said there was nothing to the case. Nevertheless, it ricocheted around among town judges in Schodack, East Greenbush
and North Greenbush who took turns recusing their politically-connected selves from the case; and, then-acting-District Attorney Arthur Glass did not deign to close the case before he left office.
When Crist's lawyer, William Dreyer, appeared in Sand Lake Town Court last week to ask that the charges be dismissed, Abelove's office did not fight the request. Here is where it gets more interesting.
Glass, Abelove's predecessor, is a Democrat. Crist is a Republican. In this County, such distinctions, unfortunately, mean something when it comes to how some people are treated by those in charge. Put in the simplest of terms, a Democrat DA who did not drop the charges against a Republican was followed by a Republican DA who did not object to dropping them.
The defendant in question has connections to the new DA that he did not have to the former DA. As reported by the Times Union, Crist "worked on
Abelove's victorious campaign against Democrat Carmelo Laquidara. Crist
helped Abelove win a primary for the Independence Party
line that was important in Abelove's narrow Election Day victory over
Laquidara. Abelove won by 492 votes of the 45,470 cast in the
general election. On Election Day, Abelove received 1,596 votes on the Independence line."
Those efforts alone should have prompted Abelove to recuse himself in the case and let it play out to be sure no stigma would be attached to the office he had moved into less than two weeks earlier. Given the CPS report saying nothing untoward truly happened in Crist's case back in July, there was little to no danger of an innocent person being punished.
A charitable view of the case is that Abelove was new to the office and still feeling his way along, so he didn't fully grasp the perception that would be caused by his action, or inaction, even though the defendant was someone who had helped him gain office.
Now, in another case, he has an opportunity to overcome that choppy beginning to his new career. And, once again it involves a politically-connected individual.
• It seems that Martin Reid, chairman of the Rensselaer County Legislature, has been sucking money out of taxpayer-funded coffers under false pretenses. Essentially, he lied about his work status so he could get unemployment benefits to which he was not entitled.
Reid, who will not talk publicly about his actions, ripped off the taxpayers for more than
$15,000 in unemployment benefits in 2013 after he was forced out of his
$73,000-a-year job with the New York State School Boards Association,
where he’d worked as deputy director of governmental relations. The problem was, he still was employed, making $30,000 a year in the legislature, taking home about $575 a
week -- $170 a week more than allowable if one wants unemployment checks.
Administrative Law Judge Kathleen Mannix found that Reid
“certified with the Department of Labor that he had not worked even
though he knew he had.” Reid, she ruled, "willfully and intentionally misrepresented the facts.” In other words, he lied. And, if one accepts his former employer's statement, he also lied when he said he was told by officials at the School Boards Association that he could claim unemployment benefits after his time there ended.
You, as taxpayers in Rensselaer County, have been paying Reid for the nearly 20 years he has been a member of the County Legislature and in the exalted position of chairman since back in 2010. That alone should mean Reid has the responsibility of publicly addressing his misdeeds.
Which once more brings us to our new district attorney.
The Labor Department has referred the Reid matter to Abelove's office for potential prosecution, but nothing has been done. Abelove says he
has not looked at the case because he has been “dealing with a lot more pressing issues.”
Given the widespread disappointment with, and distrust of, government at all levels, one would think a DA who ran on a strong law-and-order platform would think restoring public trust in government would be one of those "pressing matters."
In a Facebook message posted for public consumption on New Year's Day, Abelove wrote, "My staff and I look forward to working hard to seek justice,
help victims, and make Rensselaer County a safer place to live." OK, do it. The taxpayers deserve justice, they are the victims and they need to be protected from venal politicians.
The only penalty Reid has paid is a paltry $2,300 fine.
The more than $15,000 he ripped off from you and me apparently will be
paid back only if he claims unemployment benefits in
the future and money is deducted from such benefits. Perhaps bouncing
him from public office into true unemployment would trigger such a repayment schedule.
