Coming out of Albany, New York via an election campaign for a judge on the Albany County Surrogate Court where Democrats are resorting to guilt by association charges to supplant a sitting judge, Cathryn M. Doyle.
The interest, from where I sit, is two-fold. Research by a citizen to ferret out the truth is impressive and nicely presented in Albany Citizen One. It should serve as a model of how to vet candidates for public office, even supposedly non-political ones like county judges. Secondly, in addition to demonstrating that Republican political operatives tend to stick with their modus operandi and the wheels of justice are slow, the indictment and conviction of Thomas J. Spargo is instructive as to the applicable laws.
Let's just have a quick look at the last first:
COUNT ONE
ATTEMPTED EXTORTION
(18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 1951)
- From on or about November 13, 2003, to on or about December 19,2003, in the Northern District of New York, defendant THOMAS J. SPARGO, aided and abetted by others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, did knowingly attempt to obstruct, delay, and affect commerce and the movement of articles and commodities in commerce by extortion, as those
terms are defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951; that is, defendant THOMAS J, SPARGO, while a Supreme Court Justice of the Third Judicial District of the State of New York, engaged in a course of conduct whereby defendant SPARGO solicited and, directly and through others, pressured an Ulster County attorney practicing before him (the "Attorney") to consent to give $10,000 for the benefit of defendant SPARGO, all under color of official right and induced by fear of economic harm, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951.
Note that in count one there's a reference to the commerce clause to make it a federal case. Presumably, to take another example, if torture of detainees were to be charged, there would have to be reference to a specific law or power of the entity bringing the charge in order for the prosecution to go forward. Numbers always make it easier.
COUNT TWO
ATTEMPTED BRIBERY
(18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 666)
- From on or about November 13, 2003, to on or about December 19, 2003, in the Northern District of New York, defendant THOMAS J. SPARGO, being a Supreme Court Justice of the Third Judicial District of New York State, a State government agency that received benefits in excess of $10,000 under federal programs and assistance from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2003, aided and abetted by others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, corruptly solicited and demanded, for his own benefit, a thing of value, that is $10,000, intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with business, transactions, and a series of transactions of the Third Judicial District of New York State involving a thing of value of $5,000 or more, that is, for the use of his official actions and influence to the benefit of an Ulster County attorney practicing before him, and for refraining from the use of his official actions and influence to harm that Ulster County attorney, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B).
Note again the reference to "benefits" and "business." Can we say Republicans "hoist on their own petard?" A story in the Village Voice sums it all up.
Thomas Spargo -- Bush Campaign Operative Turned NY Judge -- Gets 27 Months in Prison for Bribery, Extortion
By Elizabeth Dwoskin, Tue., Dec. 22 2009 @ 4:51PM
An upstate New York Supreme Court justice who had been prominent in the Bush 2000 Florida campaign — and who specialized in shaking down attorneys — was sentenced yesterday to 27 months in prison.
Thomas Spargo, an Albany-based judge trying cases in Ulster County, had been convicted in August of soliciting a bribe and attempted extortion. He was ousted from the bench in 2006.
Spargo was an election-law specialist and GOP loyalist who worked for George W. Bush during the 2000 Florida recount boondoggle and was spotted as one of the "Brooks Brothers rioters" trying to stop the recount.
There was good reason to be reminded of "Miami-Dade 2000" in the summer of 2009 when Spargo was convicted. Even Rachel Maddow made the connection between Republican strategies then and now, though she doesn't include Spargo in one of the targeted ten. Being older and wiser, Spargo probably knew better than to mug into the camera:
The particulars of Spargo's case were campaign related.
Spargo asked for $10,000, which, according to the The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, was going to be used to defend himself against misconduct charges for which he was being investigated. (At one time the judge complained that the fees were costing him $140,000.)
snip
The commission voted unanimously in 2006 to remove Spargo from the Third Judicial District bench for engaging in prohibited political activities during his 2001 campaign for New York State Supreme Court. During that campaign, Spargo did things like courting voters by giving out doughnuts and jugs of cider, buying rounds of drinks for all the patrons of a bar, and handing out $5 coupons to a convenience store. He was barred from the bench and from ever again holding judicial office in New York, and was indicted for extortion and bribery two years later....
The reason this bit of history is being resurrected now is because Cathryn M. Doyle, an incumbent in the Surrogate Court has been subject to a whisper campaign based on Spargo's threat to use his influence with her to punish lawyers who didn't "contribute" to his defense. But Albany Citizen One is also concerned, rightly IMHO, that sloppy reporting by "official" media are helping mislead the citizens:
Hey, we all make mistakes, but when it was reported that Judge Doyle was present every day of the trial when she was not even in the State, that’s potentially damaging to all parties involved professionally and personally. When a term is struck from the record yet still reported in the paper, "unindicted co-conspirator, " I have to question the objectivity of the reporter. The TU reporting was, in a word, irresponsible. When asked to print a retraction in reference to the fictitious Holiday Season expose condemning Judge Doyle as an "unindicted co-conspirator" and "companion" of Tom Spargo present inside the courtroom, the paper responded by noting that "no one read it...it was a holiday week."
Now, there's a novel excuse for sloppy reporting. In any event, Judge Doyle apparently felt contempt for Spargo's claim to be able to subvert her, as well as the inquisition, and that resulted in her censure for providing evasive answers. It might be worth noting that the Commission on Judicial Conduct found no reason to remove Doyle from office. The voters should be able to rely on that and retain her services, unless a clearly superior candidate applies.
According to Albany Citizen One, that doesn't appear to be the case this time around.