According to a report in Newsweek, an assistant to New York Attorney General Letitia James could face a criminal tampering charge over a November of 2023 incident. That assistant is Assistant Attorney General Stacey Hamilton, and she allegedly threw a liquid onto a neighbor’s car, causing damage and potentially meaning she will face a misdemeanor third-degree criminal tampering charge, for which she could face 90 days in prison, if convicted. She heads to court on April 17 for a hearing on the alleged vandalism that led to the potential charge.
According to the Times-Union and Newsweek, which reported on the original vandalism incident, police received a vandalism report on November 16, 2023. It was then that a neighbor of Hamilton’s claimed that she damaged his vehicle by pouring an unknown, liquid substance on it. The neighbor claimed that the liquid ruined the car’s paint.
Then, according to Hamilton’s attorney, Kevin Gagan, Assistant AG Hamilton was assaulted by the car owner’s girlfriend. That alleged assault occurred on the evening of the supposed criminal tampering incident. The car owner’s girlfriend now faces an assault misdemeanor charge for her alleged assault of Hamilton.
Gagan also alleged that Hamily is receiving “unfair treatment” in the case, accusing the Albany County District Attorney, David Soares, of that “unfair treatment.” However, Gagan’s allegations come despite the Albany DA having appointed a special prosecutor to the case who is unassociated with the office, as Newsweek reported. Hamilton, for her part, insisted she is innocent and that the paper’s reporters “really need to actually do some investigating.”
Fleshing out his allegations about the Albany DA, Gagan claimed that the criminal tampering complaint was fabricated, saying that the purpose of bringing it was to “get [Hamilton] arrested and to get into the papers to embarrass her so that she would drop the criminal case against this guy’s girlfriend—that’s the whole case.”
Continuing, Gagan claimed that the DA’s office was “pulling the strings behind this” complaint, alleging that it would do so because of “maybe some personal animosity between” Hamilton and a former coworker of hers who works in the Albany DA’s office. Firing back, the office claimed there is “absolutely no truth to claims of behind-the-scenes manipulation by any member of our office.”
Hamilton, when asked about the potential charges by the Times-Union, said, “You clearly require some investigation and some update in your knowledge” and that she has not been “charged with something.” She also threatened the paper, saying, “It’s a piece of paper. Do you understand what words mean? I understand what’s written on a piece of paper… If you do anything else with false information further than asserting it to me on the phone, you better be real careful.”
Hamilton’s spat with the neighbor and Albany DA comes amidst NY AG Letitia James’ fight with former President Donald Trump over what she alleges was civil fraud when he allegedly inflated the value of his properties. Trump maintains he did nothing wrong and is appealing the lower court’s verdict.
Featured image credit: By Er-nay – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67718860
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