Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:06:33 PM
Questions of Influence in
Abuse Case of Paterson Aide
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, DANNY HAKIM, DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: February 24, 2010
Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.
In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case,
complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it.
The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed
that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal
security detail.
Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final
protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor,
according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on
Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.
Many details of the governor’s role in this episode are unclear, but
the accounts presented in court and police records and interviews with
the woman’s lawyer and others portray a brutal encounter, a frightened
woman and an effort to make a potential political embarrassment go
away.
The case involved David W. Johnson,
37, who had risen from working as Mr. Paterson’s driver and scheduler
to serving in the most senior ranks of the administration, but who also
had a history of altercations with women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/nyregion/25paterson.html?hp=&pagewanted=all