Judge Tosses Crawford Corruption Case

(adapted from Times Herald-Record November 01, 2007)

By Oliver Mackson

New City - A judge today dismissed a corruption indictment against two Town of Crawford officials, finding that Orange County prosecutors presented inadmissible, hearsay evidence to a grand jury.
Rockland County Court Judge Victor Alfieri's 15-page decision also found that prosecutors allowed the grand jurors to ask irrelevant questions and prevented a witness from answering a relevant question. The judge also found that "a prosecutor also made some inappropriate comments to the grand jury, which certainly could have subjected the grand jury to improper influence and bias."

The decision dismisses felony charges against Crawford Councilman Daniel Flanick and Building Inspector John Calaca. They were charged with bribe receiving, coercion, tampering with a witness and conspiracy - charges that could have landed them in state prison after being stripped of their titles.

The decision gives prosecutors the option of re-presenting the case to another grand jury. District Attorney Frank Phillips said today that he's still reviewing the judge's decision, which was made public at about 4 p.m.. Phillips said he might decide by Wednesday whether to re-present the case.

Flanick's lawyer, Stewart Rosenwasser of Montgomery, said it would be "a miscarriage of justice" to re-present the case.

"We now find that there is new meaning given to the old saying that you can indict a ham sandwich," Rosenwasser said, "because in this case, they indicted a baloney sandwich."

Flanick, Calaca and Police Advisory Board member Jim Detch were indicted in March. They were accused of coercing two local businessmen, Kevin McGill and Jeff Long, into dropping a harassment complaint that they filed in 2005 against Claude Babcock, who was running for highway superintendent. Babcock got into a fracas with Long and McGill over placement of one of his campaign signs on their property.