White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Delgado Counsel Says Hockley Distorts <i>Quo Warranto</i> Action in Fund-Raiser

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. January 31, 2003: The attorney for Larry Delgado in the Attorney General's quo warranto action in New York State Supreme Court, now before Judge Francis Nicolai takes Councilman Glen Hockley to task for a recent fund-raising letter sent out to supporters to gather financial support for Mr. Hockley's quo warranto defense. Here is the letter from Jeffrey Binder, Mr. Delgado's counsel:

January 30, 2003
TO THE EDITOR:

Which came first: our citizenry’s distrust and low ethical expectations of our politicians or our elected officials’ unethical conduct so as to hold on to office at all cost? After reading a recent fund raising letter by incumbent Democrat White Plains Councilman Glen Hockley I’m left scratching my head for the answer.

In an epistle dated January 21, 2003, (see attached) asking residents of White Plains for money to help him pay his legal bills, Mr. Hockley misleads his readers with the following false assertion: “…my former opponent is taking me to court again.” As Mr. Hockley’s able counsels must have advised him, the fact is that the Attorney General of the State of New York has initiated this court case in which Mr. Hockley is now a defendant. It is the Attorney General on behalf of the people of the State of New York that is prosecuting this matter, not Larry Delgado.

Just so there is some truth in political speech, it should be pointed out to all those who received the Hockley letter that after the state’s highest court ruled that Larry Delgado’s only option to remedy an election determined by a jammed voting machine was to ask the Attorney General’s office to have a judge rule on who was the rightful winner. Following a long-standing office policy, the Attorney General’s office convened a panel of three seasoned assistant attorneys general to investigate the election. During its six month investigation, the panel interviewed Delgado and Hockley, as well as officials from the Westchester Board of Elections and poll workers.

Information uncovered in the investigation showed that the voting machine in the 18th Election District had in fact, jammed only on the line with Delgado’s name, preventing votes for him being recorded. In the investigation, the panel received 103 sworn affidavits from White Plains voters who said they voted Delgado on the voting machine in the 18th Election District. Those 103 votes would have been more than needed to overcome the 47 vote differential between the candidates.

The Attorney General’s law suit is not being brought on behalf of any one candidate. It simply asks the court to consider the evidence and determine who is the rightful winner of the election.

As Mr. Delgado’s attorney, I can appreciate Mr. Hockley’s desire to pay his legal bills, (we’re making our own appeal too) but what I’m having trouble with is how he has played fast and loose with the facts so as to dupe his potential contributors and somehow vilify my client at the same time. On multiple levels, we must demand more from our elected officials in both public and private or we will never break what I view as an unfortunate downward spiral of confidence in our politicians on the part of the public.

Mr. Hockley concludes his letter by stating that he will “…strive to be the best Councilman that White Plains has ever had.” Perhaps he should begin this endeavor by not misleading his most loyal supporters and profiting from inaccuracy in the guise of political speech.

Jeffrey Binder
Attorney for former Councilman Larry Delgado


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