The NY Daily News compares a good political investigation & prosecution with a bad one --- revisits Brooklyn DA Hynes' wrongful prosecution of John Kennedy O'Hara and distinguishes it from what Albany DA Soares is likely to do to the top Republicans in New York State

The NY Daily News editorial board succinctly laid it out as follows:   

"Albany District Attorney David Soares says his office is conducting a “preliminary review” of a five-page letter from state Senate Elections Committee Chairman Zellnor Myrie claiming the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin committed fraud related to petitions filed to run (unsuccessfully) on a third-party line. The campaign of Gov. Hochul, a Democrat like Myrie, has happily reminded the public about this.... [In this instance] an inquiry can’t hurt.... The criminalization of election disputes is a dangerous game, subject to partisan games while potentially putting people’s liberty at risk. The saga of gadfly John Kennedy O’Hara, prosecuted three times by defeated, disgraced and now dead Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, is exactly how to not pursue such election matters. O’Hara has since been fully exonerated and is now suing the state and city for millions...."

However, that doesn't tell the story of the wrongful investigations and prosecutions of John Kennedy O'Hara nearly as well as Mr. O'Hara's own complaint in federal court for wrongful prosecution, and a variety of civil rights violations in connection with repeated election cases and prosecutions connected to his political activities and voting patterns in the 1990s

O'Hara's civil case is not about what went on in the court room(s) during his three criminal trials (the first time ever in New York --- three trials on the same criminal charges)  ---  it is all about what went on in the corridors behind the court room(s)  ---  and on the phone lines between judges and political operators all over the state (especially between folks solely located in Brooklyn, and between folks located solely in Albany, and between some folks in Albany and others in Brooklyn).

Sixteen (16) paragraphs in the O'Hara complaint show that former Assemblymember James Brennan the main party in interest in most of the O'Hara election cases functioned as a "secret investigator" for Brooklyn DA Hynes in the O'Hara criminal case(s); and Brennan also allegedly unlawfully obtained several years of O'Hara's tax returns. In addition, O'Hara intends to prove that Assemblymember Brennan communicated with several of the Judges involved in the O'Hara criminal trials and appeals. One paragraph of the O'Hara complaint (para. # 44) even reiterates Brennan's own sworn testimony admitting Brennan's trying to directly contact Justice Irving Aronin in a 1994 election case then before Justice Aronin and against O'Hara.

After the second mistrial in the criminal case against O'Hara (the first due to an appellate reversal and order of a new trial, and the second as a result of a hung jury)  ---  something bizarre occurred.  ---  O'Hara was not permitted to have an adjournment in order to obtain a new trial counsel from the newly appointed "trial judge," Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges.  According to the NY Times report on that aspect of the case, a spokesman for the office of Brooklyn DA Hynes indicated the refusal to grant the adjournment was not from the DA's side in the case; but instead, Justice Gerges' refusal to grant the adjournment only had to do with trial judge Gerges' personal schedule. Not mentioned as the key factor in the trial judge's schedule was his son-in-law Donald Kurtz's pending candidacy to be a Civil Court Judge from Brooklyn. At the time Justice Gerges was put on the third O'Hara trial, Donald Kurtz was endorsed by the Democrat Kings County Organization; however, "reform" clubs like Assmblyman Brennan's CBID had been opposed to Kurtz, and CBID was clearly likely to continue in that opposition and support a "reform" candidate for Civil Court Judge. But once the O'Hara case was assigned to Justice Gerges, the "reform" opposition to Donald Kurtz swiched to tepid support, and Kurtz was unopposed for the Civil Court slot in the Democrat primary.  

For years after the last of the O'Hara trials, whenever O'Hara was brought up to Justice Gerges  ---  he would shake his head and in a somber tone say, "As an attorney, that young man should have taken the deal; I tried to explain, but he just wouldn't listen."  Gerges meant it. It looks like he took the deal to handle the O'Hara case in a special way, and it worked out very well for Gerges and his family.

Instrumental in all of the negotiating for the non-opposition to the candidacy of Donald Kurtz for Civil Court by Brennan and the "reformers" was Jeffrey Feldman, a key behind the scenes operator in the Brooklyn courts for many purposes  ---  both before and after he arranged the "election" of Brooklyn judges.

Some of these matters have been confirmed by a Brooklyn DA's report [ Memorandum of Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez  ---  From: Conviction Review Unit by ADA Mark Hale  ---  Re:  People v. John K. O'Hara, Indictment Number13525/1996  ---  (undated); pages KCDA001162  through KCDA 001189]  that mentioned O'Hara's criminal prosecutions began with three (3) separate and unsuccessful civil election cases brought against against O'Hara by Assemblymember Brennan and another named defendant. According to the DA's report, "....  Although such requests to investigate are not necessarily public matters, this formal request by an Assemblyman on his official government stationery to the Board [of Elections] about a political opponent appears unusual. Moreover, not only did Brennan use his official stationery to seek an investigation, but he also signalled the Board of the political nature of his request: in his letter, he "cc'd" Jeff Feldman, who was then (and still is), the Executive Director of the Democratic Party County Committee, and undoubtedly well-known to the Board. On July 11, 1994, the Board's Enforcement Counsel wrote back to Brennan, addressed to his legislative office in Albany, acknowledging the complaint against O'Hara....  [[[ There is a lengthy discussion of the Board of Elections' faulty investigation of the Brennan investigation request; and a description of the apparent collusion by two of the defendants, who are named in the O'Hara suit for dmages, prior to the Board's referral of the O'Hara case to the Brooklyn DA's Office for criminal prosecution ]]]  .... [A]fterward, presumably at the urging of Brennan, Board Counsel Wait called the [Brooklyn] District Attorney's office and had "several discussions" with the KCDA about his investigation. Wait also sent his file on O'Hara to the KCDA....  Wait's Confidential Memorandum and a Board investigator's interview notes, which... contained an incomplete or incorrect interpretation of evidence...."

Over the years, there were several meetings and telephone conversations in which the named defendants discussed the evidence that they had against O'Hara, and the evidence that they still needed to make out a case against him. Several of those meetings took place in an office and residence on Twenty-fifth Street just outside the main gate to Green-Wood Cemetery in South Brooklyn. In attendance at those meetings were at least two or three of the named defendants, an assemblymember, and a New York State Senator, a Democrat District leader, and several attorneys. Their conversations always included discussions of O'Hara and how his activities were a major interference to many of their joint and/or several plans and ambitions. 

Jeffrey Feldman was at the very same 25th Street premises many times, often in the company of several judges then sitting in the various courts in Brooklyn. Almost everyone of them, including Feldman, would talk about O'Hara, and/or the O'Hara case(s) specifically, with the Democrat district leader and Democrat County vice-chairperson who had offices and her residence at 25th Street. That Democrat District Leader and County Vice-chairperson also had other direct communications with Assemblyman Brennan, various ADAs in the Brooklyn DA's Office, and another named defendant in the O'Hara lawsuit  ---  much of those other communications were about O'Hara, and/or the case(s) against O'Hara, including during the O'Hara criminal trials.