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Law360 (October 2, 2020, 10:27 PM EDT) -- A New York state grand jury on Friday indicted Rochester Mayor Lovely A. Warren on felony fraud and election law charges, court documents show.
The charges against Warren, a Democrat, stem from the campaign finance activities of the Friends of Lovely Warren group and the Warren for a Strong Rochester political action committee during the mayor's 2017 reelection campaign, according to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office.
The mayor's campaign treasurer, Albert Jones Jr., and the treasurer of the political action committee, Rosiland Brooks-Harris, have also been indicted, according to the filing.
The charges come as the city is already embroiled in unrest surrounding the March police killing of Daniel Prude, a Black man, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the two-page indictment, between 2013 and 2017, Warren, Jones and Brooks-Harris, "while acting on behalf of a candidate or political committee, knowingly and willfully solicited, organized or coordinated the formation of activities of one or more unauthorized committees, made expenditures in connection with the nomination for election or election of any candidate or solicited any person to make any such expenditures." They sought to evade the contribution limits laid out in Empire State election law, prosecutors alleged.
The indictment didn't provide specifics, but Assistant District Attorney Jacob Ark said at a press conference Friday that the entire political action campaign itself is fraudulent.
"The long and short of it ... is largely the use of the political action committee in conjunction with the authorized campaign committee," he said.
Ark said that hundreds of thousands of dollars were involved in the scheme, though he declined to provide a specific figure.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said at the press conference that New York's State Board of Elections received complaints in late 2017, and the matter landed in her office in March 2018.
"We all want our elections to be run fair," she said. "And these are laws on the books to allow and ensure that people who entering political office follow the rules so there's equal access to everyone."
She added, "It is not political. I am simply doing my job."
Warren, Jones and Brooks-Harris were each indicted on one count of scheme to defraud and one count of violating election law. They are set to be arraigned Oct. 5, the DA's office said.
The mayor's term ends in 2021, according to her office.
Warren's attorney, Joseph Damelio, couldn't be immediately reached for comment late Friday. However, earlier in the day, he told a Rochester newspaper that "if mistakes were made, they were honest mistakes."
"The type of mistakes that we make in our job every day … "nothing underhanded, nothing sinister, nothing like that," Damelio said, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.
The people of New York are represented by Michael Bezer, Karine Pinch and Jacob Ark of the Monroe County District Attorney's Office.
Warren is represented by Joseph Damelio.
Counsel information for Jones and Brooks-Harris wasn't immediately available Friday.
The case is The People of the State of New York v. Lovely A. Warren et al., in New York State Court for Monroe County.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
