Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is suing Rensselaer County DA Joel Abelove — and for once, we have to side with Schneiderman.
Last year, Gov. Cuomo issued an executive order giving Schneiderman the right to assert jurisdiction in cases of a fatal encounter between police and unarmed civilians. The state District Attorneys Association expressed concern, and we’re not entirely convinced the move was wise — but there seems no doubt it was legal.
Yet Abelove shut the AG out when he expressed interest in a police shooting that left an unarmed man dead. Troy cops even barred Schneiderman’s investigators, including ex-Albany DA Paul Clyne, from the scene.
Despite an exchange of calls and letters in which the AG asserted his intent to review, Abelove defiantly claimed jurisdiction and then fast-tracked a grand jury that in four days returned “no
true bill” against the police officer involved.
So Schneiderman last week filed suit, asking the courts to compel Abelove to turn over his files and all evidence on the shooting, and to annul the grand jury action.
Abelove has been a vocal critic of the Cuomo order, arguing it is vague and “does nothing to foster transparency into the grand jury process.” But that doesn’t give him the right to ignore it.
The Cuomo order came in the wake of public anger after a Staten Island grand jury issued no indictment in the death of Eric Garner. The thinking is that an independent probe is the best way to address community doubts that local DAs will risk angering police departments they work with regularly.
It’s worked out OK until now, with Schneiderman getting full cooperation in the four cases his office reviewed. And the governor weighed in hard Sunday, with a new executive order specifically empower the AG in the Rensselaer County case.
It’s plainly Schneiderman’s duty to ask the courts to whip Abelove into line: No one, especially not a DA, is above the law.