Civil Charges Filed Against Spitzer Aides
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- July
- 24
The state Commission on Public Integrity filed its long-awaited report today on Troopergate and charged three former aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the former State Police Superintendent Preston Felton with violating the state’s Public Officers Law.
You can read the report here.
The commission’s 68-page report found that former Spitzer aides Richard Baum, Darren Dopp and William Howard, as well as Felton, violated sections of the Public Officers Law by conspiring to release travel records on the use of state aircraft by former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
Baum, Spitzer’s former chief of staff, and Howard, former department of homeland security assistant secretary, have reached settlement agreements with the commission. Dopp and Felton are fighting the charges.
Baum and Howard were charged with violating one count of the Public Officers Law; Dopp was charged with two counts, and Felton was charged with three counts.
Dopp faces up to a $10,000 fine on one of the counts, while Felton faces up to $10,000 on each of two counts, according to commission spokesman Walter Ayres.
Spitzer was not charged.
“There is reasonable cause to believe based on the record evidence that, during 2007, senior officials in the Administration of Governor Eliot Spitzer engaged in a course of conduct that violated the Public Officers Law,†the commission’s report states.
“The evidence also supports a reasonable belief that these Spitzer Administration officials caused the State Police to serve the Governor‘s and their own non-governmental interests in a manner that compromised the State Police,†the report states.
“Finally, there is reasonable cause to believe that in doing so, these Spitzer Administration officials misused their official positions to cause the State Police to engage in conduct that was wholly unrelated to the State Police‘s statutory mandate of “detect(ing) and prevent(ing) crime.â€
The commission has been under fire for more than a year as it looked into allegations that Spitzer aides were out to damage Bruno, Spitzer’s chief Republican foe, by releasing records that showed he was using state aircraft to attend political events.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found no criminal wrongdoing by Spitzer’s aides in a probe last year, while two investigations by Albany County District Attorney David Soares also found no criminal misconduct.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 11:54 am by Joseph Spector.
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