Former Gov. David Paterson will not be prosecuted for lying about taking free World Series tickets from the Yankees while in office, the Daily News has learned.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares sent a letter Wednesday telling Paterson’s lawyer his office will not pursue perjury charges.
The news was sure to be a welcome surprise gift for Paterson’s 57th birthday Friday.
In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The News, Soares didn’t dispute previous findings by the state Public Integrity Commission and an independent counsel that found there’s good reason to believe he lied under oath about the tickets.
Soares said those recommendations were based on a lesser standard that it was “reasonably likely” an offense was committed.
“By contrast, a criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for which contemplates a far more exacting analysis than that required of either the PIC or the independent counsel,” Soares wrote.
“We have determined such a standard cannot be met.”
The decision means Paterson can officially move on from a brief but scandal-scarred and turbulent time as governor.
Soares began looking into the issue after the case was referred in March 2010 by the Public Integrity Commission.
That panel found Paterson violated state ethics law by seeking and accepting five free World Series tickets from the Yankees, which had business before the state.
Paterson was ultimately fined a record $62,125 for his ethics violation.
The Commission referred the possible perjury case to Soares and the AG’s office, saying the governor lied when he insisted he always planned to pay for the tickets and then offered up a backdated check to try to prove it.
His claim was refuted by his staff, the Yankees, an independent handwriting expert and “common sense,” the PIC said, which claimed Paterson paid up only after a reporter’s inquiry.
Former Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who was brought in to review the case by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, found Paterson gave “misleading and inaccurate” testimony under oath to the panel.
She stopped short of saying he perjured himself. Instead, she left it up to Soares to decide.
(Source: NY Daily News)
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One Response
I was saving the following joke for Patterson’s conviction for lying about accepting the Yankees tickets, but since that is not going to happen, I will have to use it now: The punishment for lying about Yankees World Series tickets should have been for Patterson to sit through an equal number of Mets games. And pay for parking. And, yes, I am a Mets fan.
But wait – there’s more: the way the Yankees have been playing lately, maybe they should just give him more Yankees tickets.