Updated at 9:45 a.m. to include response from District Attorney Mary Rain

By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON – Former St. Lawrence County Administrator Karen St. Hilaire offered a scathing testimony of District Attorney Mary Rain at a Senate hearing focused on creating an oversight committee for prosecutors.

The seven-page document accuses Rain of unethical tactics including attempted extortion and abuse of power.

Rain however says St. Hilaire's claims against her have been proven to be unfounded and that's why no action has been taken against her as a result of the allegations.

"She believes if she repeats her  lie over and over it will be come truth. Three agencies have found these allegations to be false but she just keeps making them," Rain said. "(The investigative agencies) are not going to sanction her false allegations."

The testimony was submitted to Sen. John Defrancisco R-Syracuse in support of his efforts to create an oversight committee for district attorneys, who he says wield unchecked power. The hearing was held June 8 in Albany.

According to St. Hilaire’s testimony problems with Rain date back as far as 2009 when she was chief public defender.

“During her first 18 months there were numerous complaints of harassment, sexual harassment, failure to discharge her duties, and abuse of staff. After numerous counseling sessions with Ms. Rain by myself and the Director of Human Resources, it was determined that she was not fit to manage the office,” she said.

Rain was eventually stripped of her administrative powers, but was elected as district attorney two years later.

St. Hilaire says it wasn’t long before Rain abused her new position.

St. Hilaire says Rain accused her of criminal activity and misappropriation of funds and criminal “nonfeasance.”

She says the allegations from Rain were retaliatory in nature due to the fact that Rain was not granted a request for expanded office space and staff that would have cost the county $750,000.

At that time Rain issued a letter stating that a “Preliminary review has uncovered additional acts constituting closer scrutiny under (CPL) 190.05 of other department heads and they will be the target of thorough and vigorous investigations.”

“Following the delivery of her June 30th letter advising me that she was conducting a Grand Jury, Ms. Rain began a very public media campaign aimed destroying my reputation and insinuating that I had broken the law,” St. Hilaire said. “In violation of the ‘secrecy of the grand jury process,’ she publicly stated that I was the ‘target’ of her investigation and discussed how she believed I was ‘guilty’ of charges which were yet to be clearly defined.”

St. Hilaire said the same day Rain issued the letter, she attended a Democratic caucus, even though she was a Republican. St. Hilaire said that act was a violation of Open Meetings Law since there was a quorum present.

In her testimony St. Hilaire said she was contacted by two county legislators who were at the caucus. The legislators told her that Rain said she “was convening a grand jury action and I was her target.”

“It was reported by these same legislators that Ms. Rain discussed the possibility of dropping the Grand Jury investigation for a favorable vote by the Legislators on her choice of new space. It was after this attempted ‘extortion,’ that the two legislators left the meeting and reported the details to me,” St. Hilaire said in her testimony.

“It is my belief that Mary Rain misused the Grand Jury proceeding and issued these subpoenas to ‘get even with’ and threaten those she viewed had wronged her by removing her from her previous position and disagreed with her request for additional space,” her testimony says.

St. Hilaire said she filed a complaint with the Committee on Professional Standards detailing incidents and accusing Rain of unethical and potentially illegal actions. She requested an investigation but was directed to the Public Integrity Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office. St. Hilaire said she submitted a letter to the bureau but is aware of no action being taken.

“The Attorney General’s Office sent me a letter acknowledging that they had received my complaint and assigning the case a number for me to use in any further correspondence on this matter. That was two years ago next month. I have heard nothing from them since that time,” she said in her testimony.

St. Hilaire resigned as county administrator in March of 2015, but says Rain continues to cause problems for the county.

She says cases continue to be dismissed in St. Lawrence County because of actions or failure to take action on Rain’s part.

Hilaire points out that 14 attorneys have come and gone from that office in her two-year tenure. That number has since risen to 15.

Rain says however that the reason prosecutors are leaving is due to massive case loads at the understaffed office. She says employees of her office, put in time well above and beyond what they are required.

Recently, legislators passed a vote of “no confidence” in Ms. Rain and asked the governor to investigate her office with the eye to removing her from office.

But Rain says she expects no action from the governor's office as all of the claims made by the county legislators and St. Hilaire are without merrit. Rain says she has not been contacted by any of the investigative agencies.

"When things like this are unfounded they don't even bother to reach out," Rain said. "If they have any kind of validity at all I would have heard from them."

“The County residents have lost faith in their ability to find justice in this County and still there have been no consequences for Ms. Rain,” her testimony says.

St. Hilaire said she supports the creation of the prosecutorial oversight committee as other options to check the power of St. Lawrence County’s chief prosecutor have fallen short.

“I was asked to come here today to testify about this matter but chose not to because I have spent enough time and energy on Ms. Rain and I have moved on. I now teach courses such as professional ethics at SUNY Canton and feel this is a much better use of my time,” her testimony says.

“Will another Commission make a difference to St. Lawrence County or any other County where an out of control prosecutor has the power to ruin lives? I don’t know. I only know that the system as it stands today has been ineffective and the people of my County deserve better.”