High court to rule on lawsuit
Civil rights charge against prosecutor reaches Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a civil lawsuit that resulted from a convoluted 2009 Rensselaer County election fraud case can continue.
The court agreed to hear an argument over a legal question that will decide whether Democratic Rensselaer County election commissioner Edward G. Mcdonough was too late filing an $8 million federal civil rights lawsuit against former special prosecutor Trey Smith.
Smith’s attorney, Thomas O’connor, said the Supreme Court felt the issue at hand was one of national significance.
“It’s an interesting case and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Mcdonough was accused of committing 74 felonies as part of a scheme in the 2009 primary election to forge more than 50 absentee ballots to benefit Democratic candidates in city council races. He was acquitted twice of forgery and possession of a forged instrument charges, with the second acquittal coming on Dec. 21, 2012.
On Dec. 18, 2015, Mcdonough sued Smith, investigators and witnesses in the case as well as Rensselaer County. Most of the suit was dismissed and he appealed.
In the lawsuit he alleges that Smith fabricated evidence to use against Mcdonough — violating his constitutional rights — as well as malicious prosecution. The suit also alleged that the other Democrats conspired to have Mcdonough take the fall and Smith went along with it as
part of a political vendetta he had against Mcdonough.
The question before the Supreme Court is based on the timing of the lawsuit.
Mcdonough filed the lawsuit in December 2015 under Section 1983 of a federal law which states that defendants can sue officials over civil rights violations. In these types of cases, there is no federal statue of limitations and state law applies, which in New York is three years.
The U.S. Second District Court of Appeals ruled in August 2018 that Mcdonough filed his suit too late, deciding that he should have filed the suit after his first trial when he would have realized that false evidence was allegedly being used against him, according to a petition to the Supreme Court by Mcdonough’s attorney Neal Katyal.
Katyal served as the acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama after Elena Kagan was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the petition, Katyal argues that the Second District’s timeline for the application of the statute of limitation goes against rulings from five other federal courts of appeal.
Those courts have ruled that instead, the clock begins to run when criminal action against a defendant ends, so in Mcdonough’s case, the end of his second trial.
Katyal argues that the Second District is making up a new rule, one that would create an unequal playing field where the statute of limitations would depend on the district where a lawsuit was filed.
He also argued that filing a federal civil rights lawsuit under Section 1983 before a defendant’s criminal trial was complete was disadvantageous for both the defendant, prosecutors and police.
The investigation in the fateful 2009 primary also implicated four then-city councilmen, the city council president, the city clerk as well as two political operatives in a legal saga that continued for three years.
Four of the men pleaded guilty and received varying sentences. Two other men received immunity for agreeing to testify for the prosecution. One of the councilmen, Michael Laporto, was also twice acquitted and filed a federal lawsuit seeking $80 million in damages.
The status of his lawsuit was not immediately available on Sunday.