Originally Posted - March 10, 2007

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Let's see if we've got this right.

If Albany County District Attorney David Soares decides that drugs are coming into Albany County from Paris or Brazil, he can load up his camera crews and zoom off to those countries to effect search warrants and make arrests on the dime of the Albany County taxpayers? That is, of course, after he first notifies the Albany Times-Union.

Something wrong with that scenario, when you're undertaking law enforcement for the sake of media coverage.

Apparently David Soares is fantasizing that he's with the U.S. Attorney's office, maybe he thinks he's Alberto Gonzalez's deputy, jetting off to Florida in his "nationwide" probe of alleged illegal sales of steroids. With his grandstanding tactics of the last two weeks, now hob-knobbing with major league athletes and their agents and owners, he seems to think he's leading the drug war by himself. This guy has delusions of grandeur, loves that media. Wonder if he's asked any of those professional athletes and celebrities that he claims are involved for their autographs? For sure no one asking for his. Maybe that's the problem. He likes to be the center of attention.

Soares is due for reelection in 2008 but other than Beth Geisel and Christopher Porco and a few other high profile cases, his tenure as a DA has been less than stellar. Maybe that's what this is all about, a job audition.

Look at what he did for people of State of New York in prosecuting former state comptroller Alan Hevesi. This man, charged with the public trust and billions in state pension funds stole over $200,000 from the taxpayers and got absolutely no jail time thanks to the generous plea bargain deal crafted by Soares. In that case, it was politics over people.

Soares wouldn't have prosecuted Hevesi had it not been placed under his nose so that he couldn't avoid it. Where are the other public corruption cases in Albany or is he trying to tell is Albany, political capital of the state, is graft-free? What else is Soares doing besides scheduling his TV appearances and talking with his press agent? Where's the prosecutions in Albany County for something other than marijuana and prostitution busts?

So where's the drug arrests in Albany County, why is he spending money arresting Florida pharmacists and doctors instead of attacking the street crime in Albany County? Where's the statistics about the use of steroids in Albany County? Are there any arrests being prosecuted in the county and city courts for steroid use? How come Soares isn't interested in stopping the cocaine, meth, ecstasy and heroin coming in from New York City and over the Canadian border. Not enough glamour in it for him?

It appears that Soares is more interested in headlines than anything else. He loves that media attention, sopped it up when the district attorney's office was prosecuting ax-murderer Christopher Porco. Only thing, the cameras weren't focusing on him but rather on prosecutor Michael McDermott who has since left the DA's office for private practice.

Soares seriously harms inter-agency relations, saying local law enforcement is only interested in overtime rather than drug enforcement. He says that he wants law enforcement to go after "upper management and upper distribution channels". Good thing that Manuel Noriega is in jail or Soares would probably be alerting the TU to head to Panama.

If he learns about counterfeit Cuban cigars being sold down on State Street, will he head to Cuba to stem the tide?

Do you remember how Soares handled the Beth Geisel case, the English teacher at Christian Brothers Academy who was charged with having sex with several male minors at the Catholic school?

While such sexual liaisons are a virtual epidemic across America today, Soares panned for the cameras on the "Today" show and CBS' The Early Show, reveling in the media frenzy in the case of the young blonde female teacher at the Albany Catholic boys school, charged with having sex with a 16-year old---morally illegal as well as by statute. Do you see other prosecutors doing that? It's not news. It's become almost routine.

But as the facts came out, it appeared that Geisel was the victim and Soares started to backpedal.

There were three male CBA students involved but one was 17, the legal age of consent in New York. One of the so-called victims, who had sex with Geisel in the football stadium while his friends were nearby, "…….had a big smile on his face and said he had just ______the teacher".

Does that sound like someone who has been victimized?

Soares pandered to the press in the Geisel case, hot to trot to go to trial but then his case fell apart and he wasn't so anxious to present his "victims" to a jury anymore, saying the case might be plea bargained or resolved by way of a Superior Court Information which, according to him is often used in cases that involve sexual abuse so the victim won't have to take the stand.

That was more of a CYA move by Soares because his case had some serious holes in it with the woman's attorney saying its a real possibility that it's the woman who might have been the victim in this----teenage boys preying on her vulnerability, on an alleged psychological problem and an admitted alcohol dependency problem.

The so-called victims sure weren't embarrassed about talking about it. They, like Soares, seemed to enjoy being the center of attention and bragging of their escapades. Their statements were pretty graphic and disturbingly revealing about their smartass attitude concerning the situation. Their statements, now public record and widely publicized, clearly indicated their state of mind and that they are far from victims. In fact, their statements seem to indicate that they thought the whole thing amusing.

Then there was an allegation that students allegedly used blackmail against the ex-teacher to supposedly coerce her into having sex with them, allegedly threatening to tell school officials and others that she was providing alcohol to them.

So did Soares prosecute any of them? Hardly.

Soares sad that he didn't consider her alcohol dependency to be a mitigating factor in the Geisel case. Strange, he seemed to think that an alleged alcohol dependency by his cousin was enough to spring his relative from prison even though he'd been convicted of murdering his wife.

Soares, in his position as an assistant district attorney, had written to the Rhode Island Parole Review Board last April requesting that his cousin, Aires Correira, sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence in 1990 for the 1988 murder of his wife, be allowed to serve the rest of his time on parole.

"Alcohol was involved and there was an argument that got physical. Eventually, he beat her….He woke up the next day and she didn't".

So, Soares is saying that the use of alcohol excuses a murder but that it doesn't cloud the judgment involving sexual interaction?

It seems that one of the biggest problems involving Soares is his judgment.

We are a nation of laws. We don't try cases in the press---or at least scrupulous prosecutors don't. Soares loves the hype, loves the spotlight.

Amy Tingley, an attorney representing the executives of Orlando's Signature Pharmacy that Soares and his bunch raided said her clients tried to turn themselves in last month after they learned of the investigation but Soares refused.

Yeah, because then he couldn't have made the big splash that he did, there wouldn't have been the big media circus and he couldn't have felt so important as he met with representatives of major league baseball and football.

Tingley has been quite vocal about Soares "misstatements", has attacked the vague indictments and predicts that her clients will be vindicated.

If Soares developed information about the alleged nationwide distribution of steroids involving various states, then he should have turned the information over to the FBI and Department of Justice and returned to the job of prosecuting crime in Albany County He was elected by the people of the county of Albany to be the chief law enforcement officer of Albany County, not to take over the job of Attorney General Gonzalez. He was elected to serve and protect the people of Albany County, not promote himself. Where are his priorities?

Soares should forget the news conferences, forget the cameras. There are plenty of drugs in Albany County, in Washington Park, in the alleys, on the campuses, in the offices.

There are plenty of big dealers in Albany County, preying on the children in our school yards. Soares ran for the office on a platform of "sensible drug law reform". But where are his drug arrests? According to some lawyers, instead of backing the Rockefeller drug law reform and going easier on low-level drug offenders, Soares has in fact been imposing tougher penalties for marijuana possession. Where are the major drug arrests in Albany County?

Soares has a strange standard of justice from what we've seen. Last May, members of the Albany County law enforcement community were calling for his resignation after he stated at a conference in Canada that our drug laws don't work and are supported only because they supply lucrative jobs for law enforcement.

The police unions and some politicians told Soares to take his career in another direction and get out of Albany. That might be even wiser advice this time around because his ever increasing feud with the police is counterproductive in the war on crime. 3-10-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette