A matter of public trust
There’s good reason to be unsettled by allegations against Albany County Assistant District Attorney Ariel Fallon, accused of malicious prosecution in two federal lawsuits.
In one, Ms. Fallon is alleged to have ignored the findings of Albany police officers while threatening to charge a supposed witness with perjury if she did not lie on the stand. Ms. Fallon was allegedly aware the witness had recanted her story in a notarized confession.
Ultimately, the case ended when the witness handed a note to County Judge William Carter admitting she had fabricated her testimony, according to the lawsuit.
In the other lawsuit, a woman contends Ms. Fallon continued to prosecute her on a felony weapon possession charge even though police had found no gun the woman’s home and had not planned on charging her with a crime. The case was ultimately dismissed for a lack of evidence.
Yes, these are only allegations, and Ms. Fallon adamantly denies the claims, according to her attorney. Yet it is noteworthy that Albany police offi cers have backed some of the claims in sworn affidavits, and each case contains more than a few troubling details.
At the least, the lawsuits raise questions about the decisions to move forward with the cases and suggest Ms. Fallon, a prosecutor since January 2013, made some serious mistakes. Nevertheless, her boss, District Attorney David Soares, has said nothing about the allegations or the federal lawsuits.
Mr. Soares should reconsider. After all, the claims strike at the integrity of his operation and could undermine public faith in other cases handled by his office — including, potentially, the high-profile case against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over an accusation of misdemeanor forcible touching.
Unfortunately, this is hardly the first suggestion of unethical behavior from within the office of Mr. Soares, a Democrat elected in 2004. There was, for instance, the staggering 2018 discovery that another of his assistant district attorneys for years had been moonlighting for one of the Capital Region’s better-known defense lawyers.
As shocking as that was, the allegations against Ms. Fallon are more serious, in that they allege severe abuses of power and terribly adverse effects on innocent citizens. The lawsuits seek $2 million and $1.25 million in compensation, respectively, and both ask for up to $10 million in punitive damages.
At the risk of stating the obvious, we’ll note that society of course wants prosecutors to aggressively pursue cases when there is evidence a defendant is guilty and to show restraint when there is not. In the name of justice, we trust prosecutors to wield their tremendous power responsibly and judiciously.
Ms. Fallon stands accuses of violating that trust, not once but twice. They are serious and troubling accusations that Mr. Soares must not ignore, or leave to civil lawsuits to resolve. He needs to find out what happened, and tell the public.