In appeal, Schneiderman seeks use of email evidence against Steve Pigeon

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has filed an appeal in state Supreme Court, asking that a decision to suppress key evidence in its case against political operative Steve Pigeon be overturned.

The notice of appeal, filed in late July and obtained by City & State this week, asks the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division to review a decision made by state Supreme Court Justice Donald Cerio Jr., a Madison County judge brought in for the highly charged political corruption case. In a June ruling, the judge had sided with the defense in disallowing emails between Pigeon and former state Supreme Court Justice John Michalek to be submitted as evidence. The AG’s office had planned to use the emails to show that favors and gifts from Pigeon – who had cases in front of Michalek at the time – rose to the level of bribery.

RELATED: The rise and fall of Steve Pigeon

Schneiderman’s office, which has also filed a motion to reargue the eligibility of the emails, claims that the email evidence is crucial to its case. In the court papers, his office argues that the suppression of the emails ”has rendered the sum of the proof available as of this date to the People with respect to the criminal charges that have been filed by way of the instant indictment so weak in its entirety that any reasonable possibility of prosecuting those charges to conviction has been effectively destroyed.”

The trial for the state charges was originally set to begin this month, but the suppression of the email evidence, a significant setback in both the state and federal cases, has brought uncertainty. Neither trial would be likely to start before issues surrounding the emails are settled.

Cerio issued a ruling in late June stating that, as Pigeon’s defense team had argued in April, search warrants signed on May 27, 2015, and March 2, 2016, were not properly executed within the 10-day time period spelled out in the documents. While the AG’s office requested the contents of Pigeon’s Google email accounts within the proper time frame, Google did not return contents of the digital messages they were seeking in time.

The AG’s office also indicated that it has since served a new search warrant seeking the same information, and may serve more warrants if necessary, and is “attempting to work with defense counsel” to have that evidence allowed. Should that evidence be allowed, the state would withdraw its appeal, according to the documents.

Amy Spitalnick, a spokesperson for the Attorney General, declined to comment on the appeal in an email to City & State, instead referring to statements she made at the time of Cerio’s decision.

“We respectfully disagree with the court's decision regarding this technical issue and will soon determine how to best move this important prosecution forward,” she said at the time. “We appreciate the court stating that our office has proceeded in good faith at all times on this matter.”

Paul Cambria, the lead attorney on Pigeon’s defense team, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Pigeon, a controversial political operative and former Erie County Democratic Committee chairman, faces a long list of state and federal charges, the result of a multi-agency investigation prompted by complaints to ethics offices about campaign finance irregularities.

RELATED: Where are New York's convicted politicians now?

State and federal law enforcement agencies executed search warrants on his home -  as well as the homes of former Buffalo Deputy Mayor Steve Casey and Chris Grant, a political adviser and top aide to Rep. Chris Collins – in May of 2015, seizing documents, computers and phones.

Casey and Grant, who have both done work for Pigeon on political campaigns, were not charged.

Michalek resigned from the bench after Schneiderman’s office brought charges against him, and he agreed to testify in the Pigeon case in exchange for leniency on his own charges.

Pigeon, who says he is innocent and has called the investigation and subsequent legal actions a “political witch hunt,” faces 13 charges brought by the state, including bribery and illegally coordinating with candidates and one federal charge for allegedly arranging for a contribution from a foreign donor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 campaign, a violation of federal election law.

A copy of Schneiderman's filing is below: 

Schneiderman Appeal of Evidence Suppression in Pigeon Case by Justin McCarthy Sondel on Scribd

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.