Former NYS Supreme Court Judge Indicted for Extortion

Indictment: Spargo solicited $10,000
Former jurist, GOP lawyer targeted in federal shakedown investigation
The Albany Times Union by BRENDAN J. LYONS, Senior writer - December 11, 2008

ALBANY-- A former state Supreme Court justice from Albany County was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on attempted extortion and bribery charges in connection with a scandal that led to his removal from the bench two years ago. The felony indictment alleges that Thomas J. Spargo, 65, of East Berne, pressured an Ulster County attorney who had cases before him to give Spargo $10,000. The money, solicited in 2003, was intended to help defray Spargo's legal bills in connection with a state judicial panel's years-long effort to have him removed from the bench, records show. "The indictment further charges that Spargo solicited the money by causing the attorney to fear that Spargo would use his official acts and influence to harm the attorney if he was not paid and, conversely, to help the attorney if he was paid," states an FBI release announcing the indictment. The investigation of Spargo was first publicly disclosed by the Times Union in Wednesday's editions. The case is being handled by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., and the FBI's Albany division. "This case should demonstrate that the FBI will pursue all allegations of judicial corruption vigorously, as public corruption violations are among the most serious of all criminal conduct and can tear at the fabric of a democratic society," said John F. Pikus, special agent in charge of the Albany division, in a prepared statement.

It's unclear why the case is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice rather than by federal prosecutors with New York's Northern District. E. Stewart Jones, Spargo's attorney, could not be reached for comment. Late Tuesday, Jones had declined to comment on the investigation. Spargo is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Albany next week on the indictment. In May 2006, Spargo, an attorney in private practice, was removed from the bench following an approximately three-year investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The Court of Appeals later affirmed the commission's determination that Spargo be removed. The commission's probe centered on Spargo's alleged shakedown of at least one attorney; by the fall of 2003, Spargo's legal bills to fight a removal action against him had mounted to more than $140,000, records show.

Spargo, an expert in state election law, won an election for Berne town justice in the late 1999 and used the victory to buoy his successful bid for state Supreme Court in 2001. His victory in that election was buttressed by a cross-endorsement from the Republican and Democratic parties, which secured his name on both lines in the seven counties of the Third Judicial District. But Spargo's tenure on the bench almost immediately became clouded as the state judicial panel began examining a series of misconduct allegations. The panel determined Spargo should be removed for doling out coupons for gas and coffee and buying drinks for voters during his 1999 campaign. The panel determined this was an effort to "buy votes." Another charge sustained by the commission is that Spargo, while sitting as a town court justice, had presided in cases involving the Albany County District Attorney's Office without publicly disclosing that then-District Attorney Paul Clyne had been his client in an election law case, and still owed him $10,000. Still, "The commission's emphasis in removing Judge Spargo was on the money transactions, the attempt to get the lawyers to give him money," said Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator and counsel for the Commission on Judical Conduct.

The two-page indictment handed up Wednesday does not identify the attorney Spargo is accused of attempting to extort a bribe. But the judicial panel's files indicate Spargo explicitly pressured an attorney named Bruce Blatchly. "While they were alone in chambers, respondent told Mr. Blatchly that the legal expenses associated with his litigation against the commission were rising, that he was going to be raising funds, and that he was looking for $30,000 from attorneys in Ulster County," the commission's 2006 report states. "(Spargo) further told Mr. Blatchly that rather than solicit a number of lawyers for small contributions, he had decided to go to three attorneys who were often in court, Mr. Blatchly, Mr. (Alfred) Mainetti and Maureen Keegan, and that he would be asking for $10,000 from each of them," the report continued. Spargo, a former counsel to the state Republican Party, came under scrutiny in the mid-1980s when as an attorney for the Pyramid Company development firm he allegedly funneled more than $750,000 into a Poughkeepsie Town Board race for candidates who were supportive of a shopping mall project. Spargo invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during testimony before a state panel in that matter, and was never accused of wrongdoing. CLICK HERE TO READ THE INDICTMENT ..... Brendan J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com.