Leibell’s Attorney Defends Decision to Stay in CE Race
In a new defense memorandum submitted Thursday, former state senator Vincent Leibell’s attorney, David Lewis, defended Leibell’s decision to stay in the county executive race even after he knew he was unlikely to ever take office.
“If he abandoned the campaign, then the Independence Party would have likely won and the Republican party would have, by default, lost the race for County Executive that they would otherwise would [sic] win, thereby harming his political party, disappointing his supporters and relinquishing control to the opposition,” Lewis’s memorandum, submitted in response to a memorandum written by the prosecution, states. “Mr. Leibell had an obligation not to give up because of the political consequences to his party and its followers.”
Former county legislator MaryEllen Odell, Leibell’s opponent in the county executive race, was running on the Independence line after narrowly losing in the Republican primary.
The 46-page memorandum contains many technical arguments for a sentence outside the sentencing guidelines agreed to in the plea deal, which called for 18-24 months in prison. It includes several additional letters written in support of the former senator and goes after some of the letter-writers who have called for Leibell to receive the maximum sentence under the guidelines.
Leibell was videotaped last June asking an attorney to lie about money he had received from Leibell. The memorandum gives additional details about the relationship Leibell had with the attorney, widely believed to be former Putnam County attorney Carl Lodes, as well as the circumstances leading up to their meeting and Leibell’s downfall. Lewis said Leibell agreed to the meeting only after the attorney threatened to commit suicide.
“He had told Mr. Leibell that he himself was under federal investigation and that he was going to get a gun to kill himself and at least his widow would have the life insurance,” the memorandum states.
In response to the prosecution calling Leibell’s admission of guilt far from immediate, Lewis says Leibell was almost completely in the dark concerning the investigation until shortly before the election.
“Under the government theory, the only way to prove ‘immediacy’ is to appear in their office and confess upon their first issuing of subpoenas,” Lewis writes. “This is too much to ask of a person in this litigious society.”
Leibell served in the Senate from 1995 to 2010. In December, he pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice and tax evasion charges.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.