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I've never been so UN-happy to be right. I predicted several months ago that Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy wouldn't face any charges for his embarrassing incident last May in which he played "Paul Blart - Trash Cop" and scared the daylights out of a woman (I know, she's probably no angel) in the early-morning hours. She was so scared she called 911 and drove directly to the police station with a loud, angry and...according to her...booze-smelling McCarthy in hot pursuit. Barney Fife....ur...the "Sheriff of Schenectady"...ur, I mean, the mayor parked right behind her and the cops finally came out to see what was going on after about 10 minutes had lapsed.
This entire matter stinks. Let me count the ways:
1) The Saratoga County D.A. sure did McCarthy a favor by releasing this report on a Friday afternoon, heading into a holiday weekend. That's usually when politicians release bad news because fewer people are paying attention. Oh yeah...and there was no news conference where a skeptical public could get some questions answered.
2) Two cops said McCarthy was crying and acting erratically. Virtually all the witnesses say he was yelling at the woman. Um, that doesn't sound like normal behavior to me.
3) No written statements were taken by the cops.
4) No field sobriety tests were given despite the victim's report that McCarthy was drunk and at least one cop saying he smelled booze.
5) #3 and #4 above pretty much guaranteed that the mayor, their boss' boss, could not and would not be charged.
The cops and mayor did all they could, quite effectively unfortunately, to keep us in the dark. The only thing left for us is to shed as much light as possible on the pathetic facts. - Chuck
Kelly and I talked about the case this morning.