County DA’s phone seized in probe
TROY, N.Y. >> The state Attorney General’s Office has apparently ramped up its investigation of Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove’s handling of a deadly 2016 police-involved shooting.
Investigators from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office served a warrant on Abelove in his office in the Rensselaer County Courthouse. They seized a cellphone Thursday morning as part of a probe into the death of Edwin Thevenin in the early morning hours of April 17, 2016, after a car chase that ended at the foot of the Collar City Bridge.
“As Attorney General Schneiderman said at the start of the investigation, his Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit will follow the facts of this case wherever they lead,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokesman for Schneiderman, said by email Thursday afternoon. “The Thevenin family — and the Rensselaer County community — deserve answers.”
“I will continue to fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office and look forward to a quick resolution to this review,” Abelove said in a statement via email Thursday afternoon. He referred additional comment to his personal attorney, John Bailey of the Albany law firm of Bailey, Johnson, DeLeonardis & Peck.
Abelove and Bailey con-
firmed investigators seized a county-owned cellphone as part of its investigation into Abelove’s probe of the shooting, which led to a grand jury clearing the officer who fired the fatal shots less than a week after the incident.
“What this is, in our view, is political grandstanding by the attorney general,” Bailey said Tuesday morning. “I think he’s looking to appeal to his political base by going after a police officer and a district attorney.”
Police said Thevenin, 37, of Watervliet, was killed at the end of a chase that began about 3:15 a.m. April 17, 2016, after city police Sgt. Randy French tried to stop a suspected drunken driver on 6th Avenue. After initially pulling over, police said, Thevenin sped off, nearly running French down before he made his way up Hoosick Street and tried to make a U-turn onto the westbound entrance to the Collar City Bridge.
Thevenin hit a barricade, however, police said, and was quickly boxed in by French and Capt. Matthew Montanino, the shift supervisor, who responded to French’s call for assistance. At that point, police said,
Thevenin first backed into Montanino’s car, then pulled forward, pinning French between his cruiser and Thevenin’s vehicle. Police said French responded by firing eight shots from his service weapon into the windshield of Thevenin’s car.
Schneiderman filed suit against Abelove 10 days after the shooting. He claimed the district attorney continually blocked attempts to determine if Thevenin’s death fell within the terms of an executive order signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2015. That order gives Schneiderman the authority to take over the investigation of any officer-involved shooting in which a civilian was killed and the victim was either unarmed or there was a question whether that victim could have been considered armed and dangerous.
Schniderman claimed in the suit that Abelove refused to turn over his files on the case, lied to the media in saying representatives from Schneiderman’s office had said their office would not take charge of the investigation and presented the case to a grand jury just five days after the incident without informing the Attorney General’s Office. That grand jury cleared French of any wrongdoing in the case.
“The governor’s order provides our office with the
authority we requested to investigate any parties that may have criminally interfered with our office’s investigation into Mr. Thevenin’s death,” Spitalnick said. “Our office will continue to pursue this case without fear or favor and look forward to providing those impacted by Mr. Thevenin’s death with more answers.”
Bailey responded, however, that Schneiderman is not doing any favors for the Thevenin family, or French, by dragging out an investigation into the shooting despite a lack of credible evidence contradicting police accounts. He also reiterated an argument he made last year, after Abelove did cede control of the investigation to Schneiderman’s office, that the DA was waiting for Cuomo to give his attorney general specific authority to investigate the shooting and turned over the case once Cuomo signed such an order May 1, 2016. Cuomo signed a second executive order in Feburary authorizing Schneiderman to specifically investigate Abelove’s handling of the case.
“Joel Abelove did nothing wrong,” Bailey said. “The matter involving Mr, Thevenin is tragic, but the truth is, Mr. Thevenin was engaged in conduct that put Sgt. French’s life in jeopardy, and Sgt. French responded appropriately.”