|
QUEENSBURY---The Queensbury Town Court continues to be the venue for favorable dispositions of cases involving public officers and officials in Warren County.
Although charged with illegally using a state police computer to learn the address of a former assistant Warren County prosecutor who he had been dating after she apparently ditched him and moved to Schenectady, former State Police investigator John V. Duff was allowed to plead to a non-criminal charge of second degree harassment in Queensbury Court.
He received a conditional discharge and an order of protection requiring him to stay away from the prosecutor who now works for the Schenectady County district attorney's office, and paid a $100 surcharge.
Duff, 55, of Queensbury, had initially been charged with unauthorized use of a computer, a misdemeanor which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine but he was allowed to plead to the lesser charge by special prosecutor Derek Champagne, Franklin County district attorney.
Kate Hogan and the Warren County District Attorney's office had disqualified themselves from the case because the woman involved, Jessica Lorusso, 30, worked as an assistant district attorney in Hogan's office at the same time that Duff was a part-time investigator for the DA's office.
Duff retired from the State Police last year with 32 years of service. He had also worked as an investigator for two years in the DA's office.
He was accused of using the New York State Police Information Network (NYSPIN) to find Lorusso's address last July 12 after she left the Warren County DA's office, using his police identification number as well as the number of another State Police investigator.
He came under investigation after Lorusso reported a burglary to her apartment in Schenectady earlier this year. Officials claim that Duff was not suspected of having any involvement in the break-in.
However, when the Schenectady Police conducted a check of Lorusso's records, it was learned that her state records had been accessed under Duff's ID number and that of the other investigator on numerous occasions. The incident that Duff was charged for occurred last July when he requested Lorusso's driver's history report. Under state Penal Law, he could have been charged with felony computer trespass charges each time he illegally used the police computer to access her records.
Although the State Police Internal Affairs division reportedly sought felony charges against Duff, Champagne gave him the sweetheart deal, leaving Duff without a criminal records despite proof of numerous incidents of illegal computer use. He claimed that there was no way to prove that Duff had used the identification of the other State Police investigator. 6-22-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
|
