DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of the New York Daily News
Disgraced City Councilman Dennis Gallagher, who leaves office Friday, says he would have been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman in his office if he had gone to trial.
“I still feel strongly that had this gone to trial, I would’ve been vindicated,” said Gallagher, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex charges last month.
A source close to the Middle Village Republican said he took the no-jail plea deal because he didn’t have the money for a long legal battle.
Gallagher, 43, had already paid his lawyers $460,000 by the time he entered the guilty plea March 17 and wasn’t able to come up with an estimated $430,000 for trial, the source said.
“I look forward to putting this behind me,” Gallagher said, refusing to discuss his future options.
Mayor Bloomberg has until Sunday to call for a special election to replace Gallagher, who was one of only three Republicans on the 51-member Council.
From there, things get complicated. City election law dictates not one but two special, nonpartisan elections to fill Gallagher’s seat.
The first special election, to be held between 45 and 60 days after Bloomberg’s announcement – at a cost of $380,000 – will select someone to hold Gallagher’s 30th Council District seat until the end of the year.
Then, in November, voters will pick someone to hold the seat beginning in 2009, the final year remaining in Gallagher’s term.
Finally, voters will return to the polls in the fall of 2009 to cast ballots for the seat’s normal four-year election cycle.
There are at least six people hoping to run in the first special election, but getting on the ballot is a daunting task. Would-be candidates have 12 days from Bloomberg’s announcement to collect 2,700 signatures.
The potential field includes Republicans Anthony Como, commissioner of the Queens Board of Elections; Thomas Ognibene, a Middle Village lawyer who represented the area in the Council from 1991 to 2001, and Joseph Suraci, a Kew Gardens lawyer who claims party leaders passed him over for a Civil Court judgeship in 2003.
Democratic hopefuls are led by Glendale resident Elizabeth Crowley, the cousin of Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens), who lost to Gallagher in 2001; Ridgewood civic leader Charles Ober and Middle Village paralegal Michael Mascetti.
With Lisa L. Colangelo
