Pre-trial arguments in Moore case adjourned
An assistant district attorney said today that prosecutors decided not to file legal papers about their evidence against Penfield Town Councilman Andrew Moore until this week because they did not want to add to pre-election media attention.
“The last thing our office would want to do is to inject politics into a prosecution,” Assistant District Attorney William Gargan said today, after a judge adjourned pre-trial arguments in the case against Moore.
Moore, now suspended as the county GOP’s executive director, faces two misdemeanor charges of official misconduct and a misdemeanor count of coercion.
Moore won re-election to the Penfield council this month. His attorney, Matthew Lembke, noted today that more than two weeks have passed since the election and prosecutors only filed their legal papers Wednesday.
In October, a judge dismissed a felony charge against Moore at the request of prosecutors, who had decided there was not sufficient evidence for a grand jury to return a felony indictment, as it had.
Prosecutors contend they do have evidence to support the misdemeanor charges.
The charges against Moore evolved from a 2007 political letter he ghost-wrote for Christopher Gorman, an employee of the now-defunct Robutrad Corp. Gorman, a Democrat, also previously had unsuccessfully run twice against Republican Dave Malta for a County Legislature seat representing Webster.
Moore was working on Malta’s campaign when he wrote the letter for Gorman to sign in which Gorman endorsed Malta in an Independence Party primary. Moore has told investigators and the Democrat and Chronicle that he thought the letter from Gorman would be helpful to Malta.
Moore said he asked Robert Morone, then the county’s liaison to Robutrad, to ask Gorman whether he would sign the letter. Gorman has told investigators that he felt pressured to agree so he could keep his job as a painter with Robutrad, which supplied trades workers to the county.
Moore contends that he did not expect Morone to pressure Gorman.
Robutrad is at the center of an ongoing investigation. Fourteen trades workers and Morone have been accused of defrauding the county out of more than $110,000 by doing work that wasn’t county-related while on county time. Nine trades workers, including Gorman, have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor petit larceny and are cooperating with authorities.
Morone is also facing federal fraud-related charges.
Prosecutors allege that Moore exercised criminal coercion by collaborating with Morone to get Gorman to sign the letter. Gorman felt he could lose his job if he didn’t agree, prosecutors contend.
Prosecutors also allege that Moore, who was the staff director for the Republican majority of the County Legislature in 2007, thought he could only retain the job if the GOP kept the majority in that election. The political letter was an attempt to ensure he kept the post, Gargan alleged today.
Lembke noted that Moore left that job in late 2007.
Asked why Moore would have left the job if, as prosecutors allege, he was so vested in its prestige and salary, Gargan answered, “That’s a question you can only ask him.”
County Court Judge Richard Keenan today adjourned pre-trial arguments until Jan. 7. Moore is seeking dismissal of the charges against him. His trial is scheduled for March 15.
