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St. Lawrence County Assistant DA sought top Public Defender's job before resigning, denies claims by DA Rain he was offered the job

Posted 9/21/15

By JIMMY LAWTON CANTON – St. Lawrence County Assistant District Attorney Michael Gebo, who recently resigned amid public scrutiny, met privately with county officials in July with an interest in …

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St. Lawrence County Assistant DA sought top Public Defender's job before resigning, denies claims by DA Rain he was offered the job

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON – St. Lawrence County Assistant District Attorney Michael Gebo, who recently resigned amid public scrutiny, met privately with county officials in July with an interest in the chief public defender’s post.

Gebo, who resigned Sept. 11, after accepting blame for failing to file appellate briefs, met July 3 with county Legislature Chair Joseph Lightfoot, county Legislator Don Hooper and county attorney Stephen Button to discuss a possible transfer to the chief public defender position.

“It’s absolutely true, there was a meeting,” Lightfoot said. “Mr. Gebo had expressed an interest in transferring out of the District Attorney’s office and wanted to talk about his options.”

But District Attorney Mary Rain says there is more to the story. She says Gebo told her personally that Button, who formerly held the chief defender’s position, offered him higher pay in exchange for transferring departments.

Button says no such deal was ever offered. Discussions about the position occurred, but no promises were made, he said.

“I don’t deny that I did speak to him, there were discussions regarding the possibility, but I have no authority to offer him a job,” he said.

Button said hiring a chief public defender would require a nomination from a search committee and board approval.

Gebo acknowledges he was interested in taking over the chief public defender’s position, which remains unfilled at this time, but laughed at the idea that he was being lured away from Rain’s office.

“The job was open. I was interested in the position, but there were practical problems involved,” he said.

Gebo said because of his position as an ADA, he would have been in conflict in many of the cases he handled as a public defender and they would have to have been assigned to someone else or to another court.

Gebo said his interest in the post was to advance his career and receive a higher salary.

“The fact of the matter is that it was not practical due to the potential conflicts,” he said.

Rain’s story differs from that of Gebo, Button and Lightfoot in another way.

She says Gebo told her that Button had promised to work around the conflict issue and increase his salary, but the deal fell through when Button couldn’t make good on the promise.

Rain said that “coincidentally” appeals stopped being answered around the time the meeting occurred.

Lightfoot said Gebo was never offered the position, but had certainly shown interest in it.

“He was absolutely never promised the position,” he said.

Dan Manor, an investigator in the DA’s office, performed an exit interview with Gebo after his Sept. 11 resignation.

In that interview, Manor also said Gebo stated that he was “offered” a public defender’s position by Button, but the deal fell through because Button couldn’t keep some of the conditions that had been promised.

Button said that when he was chief public defender he had approached Gebo about working for the county, but that was prior to Gebo’s hire as an ADA.

Rain said she wants to know why the meeting was held privately in Ogdensburg and why the county attorney did not approach her to say he was offering someone in her office a position. Lightfoot said he agreed to the meeting after it was requested by Gebo.

Rain said the case raises the question as to “why?” and will be weighing options as to how best to deal with the situation.

When questioned about the private nature of the meeting, Lightfoot said he often meets with people to discuss county business in public places such as restaurants. He said he has no requirement to advertise such meetings and that doing so would be impractical.

“It wasn’t a secret meeting. It wasn’t announced because it didn’t need to be,” he said.