New York Daily News

Ex-DA sued in bad voting rap

- Christina Carrega

NOW IT’S John O’Hara’s turn.

A candidate for Brooklyn civil court judge is filing a federal malicious prosecutio­n lawsuit against ex-DA Charles Hynes, who he says used staffers and politician­s to wrongfully prosecute him for voter fraud, the Daily News has learned.

As a result of O’Hara’s conviction — which took three trials by former prosecutor John O’Mara to land the guilty verdict — his law license was revoked and he became a felon, served 1,500 hours of community service and paid $20,000 in fines.

Two decades later, the district attorney’s Conviction Review Unit overturned O’Hara’s conviction — fulfilling a promise the late DA Ken Thompson made to during his 2013 campaign.

According to the lawsuit O’Hara plans to file Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court, the spiteful investigat­ion began more than 30 years ago because O’Hara “made enemies” with those who ran the Brooklyn Democratic machine, specifical­ly then-Assemblyma­n James Brennan.

From 1988 until O’Hara was indicted in 1996, he unsuccessf­ully ran five times for various elected positions, and his eligibilit­y was challenged by Brennan, Hynes and various employees of Hynes’, the lawsuit says.

Messages left for Brennan and O’Mara were not returned. A woman answering the phone at Hynes’ address said he was unavailabl­e.

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