By ANDY GARDNER

CANTON -- Summations are due next week in a hearing to determine whether St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain will be replaced with a special prosecutor for all cases involving Canton attorney Ed Narrow.

The hearing was held because the embattled DA is objecting to Narrow’s motion to recuse her from his cases. Narrow wants the special prosecutor because he believes Rain has a vendetta against him.

After hearing from two witnesses on Thursday morning, Acting County Court Judge Derek Champagne gave Narrow until 4 p.m. April 4 and Rain until 4 p.m. April 6 to hand in written closing arguments.

Narrow had originally planned to call several other witnesses at Thursday’s hearing but they did not appear because Judge Champagne decided they were not relevant to the matter at hand.

Narrow declined to comment on what he intended to ask the witnesses, one of whom was Rain herself.

“The areas in which I was seeking to question Ms. Rain about, he felt that it wouldn’t assist him in making his decision. They weren’t necessarily material and relevant to the cases I was arguing,” Narrow said. “He’s already made his ruling (on allowing the witnesses).

“I think it would have been helpful … but obviously we respect the judge’s opinion and decision.”

Narrow was able to put former Chief Assistant District Attorney David Haggard on the witness stand Thursday. He said he called Haggard to show what he says is “the district attorney’s tendency to seek what we believe to be revenge against people she believes have grieved her. Mr. Haggard has publically stated she has a list of people she believes has grieved her and the intent to use a grand jury against those people,” Narrow claimed after the hearing.

A grand jury in February cleared Narrow and former Chief Assistant District Attorney David Haggard of any wrongdoing in a case Rain had sent to be considered for indictment. Special prosecutor Gary Miles stood in for Rain.

That matter is among the reasons Narrow believes Rain has a vendetta against him. She made the accusation that Narrow committed a crime by misrepresenting facts while signing Oral “Nick” Hillary out of jail and posting his bail. Hillary last fall was found not guilty of murdering 12-year-old Garrett Phillips.

Narrow has filed intent to sue Rain because of “Ms. Rain’s continued insistence that Mr. Narrow committed a felony when the grand jury established no criminal liability whatsoever,” he said in a phone interview following Thursday’s proceedings.

“For the public to have confidence in the criminal justice system in St. Lawrence County, they need to have confidence in the top law enforcement official … the legislature has voted no confidence,” Narrow said in a phone interview. “She has had a string of ethical complaints … it seems to me it’s apparent based on her performance in that office that she is not capable of administering justice to the citizens of St. Lawrence County.”

Rain did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Narrow’s questioning of Haggard on the witness stand ended with the attorney trying to get the former chief ADA to give an opinion on having a large backlog of cases in local court with no plea deal in writing.

“We have approximately 81 active clients in St. Lawrence County. Of those 81 clients, 39 are without written plea offers … which in my experience working with district attorney’s offices in our neighboring counties is a disproportionately high number,” Narrow said on the phone after the hearing.

“Would it be unusual to have 50 percent of them to be outstanding without a plea offer?” Narrow asked Haggard on the stand.

“If that’s the case, I would imagine it would be somewhat unusual,” Haggard replied.

Narrow twice tried to ask Haggard if he feared for retribution from Rain after testifying. Champagne sustained Rain’s objections to the two questions, which she made before Haggard could answer.

“Those are salacious allegations,” Rain said.

“I don’t know how salacious it is, but objection sustained,” Champagne said.

Haggard testified that he was never directed to treat Narrow’s cases differently nor did he notice Rain treat Narrow’s clients differently in court.

“Did I ever request of you different treatment of Mr. Narrow’s clients?” Rain asked Haggard on the stand.

“No,” he answered.

“Did I ever treat Mr. Narrow differently with any of his cases?” Rain asked Haggard.

“Any time that you appeared on cases where I was present before Mr. Narrow I didn’t see any difference,” Haggard said after a long pause to think between Rain’s question and his answer.

The proceedings concluded with testimony from Heather Colton, who testified about a time she encountered Rain in Fowler Town Court where a convicted former judge presided over a hearing. Colton said she was there to support the alleged victim in a sex abuse case where the defendant was Keith Sharlow.

The presiding justice was Paul Lamson, who earlier in March pleaded guilty to receiving sexual favors in exchange for beneficial rulings to defendants.

Colton told the court that on Aug. 5, 2016, she arrived at the Fowler court with the alleged victim, and Rain showed up soon after. They went in the courthouse for the brief matter in front of the judge, and then they all left.