Jury selection for the trial of Bob LaPietra was supposed to begin Monday.
Instead, Mr. LaPietra, Village of Cobleskill trustee, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree falsifying business records, all Class A misdemeanors.
Sentencing is set for July 15 and as part of the plea deal, will include “significant” community service and no more than three years probation.
District Attorney Jim Sacket said the plea satisfies a three-count indictment charging Mr. LaPietra falsified business records, first degree, Class E felonies.
“Yesterday, Mr. LaPietra admitted for the first time that he wasn’t a resident of 784 East Main Street,” Mr. Sacket said.
“To me, that’s huge.”
Mr. Sacket said Mr. LaPietra was allowed to plead guilty to the reduced charges “because he admitted his criminal acts and because of the difficulty of dealing with the highly technical issues involving election law…
“Revealing the truth of Mr. LaPietra’s criminal acts was the sole purpose of this criminal prosecution.”
Court analyst Nancy Palma said the court never got to jury selection; shortly after lunch Mr. LaPietra and his attorney, James Long of Albany, asked to see the judge and entered the plea.
Mr. LaPietra had been expected to go on trial on 14 felony counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing in connection with his nominating petitions in a successful November run for trustee.
Mr. LaPietra was arrested in September on 13 charges each of perjury and offering a false instrument for filing and in October, indicted by a grand jury on a combined 30 counts.
During pretrial motions, Schoharie County Court Judge George Bartlett dismissed 16 counts of first-degree perjury.
Mr. Sacket consolidated counts 17-30 into three counts and Mr. LaPietra pled guilty to the lesser charges of second-degree falsifying business records.
Mr. LaPietra couldn’t be reached at either his Morris number or on his cell phone.
The case focused on whether Mr. LaPietra lived at 784 East Main Street, the address he listed on his nominating petition and whether he witnessed the signatures on them.
Mr. Sacket and Schoharie County Attorney Mike West both said they don’t believe Mr. LaPietra’s plea will mean he’s out as trustee, even though the charges seem to go hand-in-hand with his election.
“Nothing in law is automatic,” Mr. West said,
“Even if you’re convicted of a felony, you’re not automatically out. If he says, ‘I’m not resigning…’ “
Mr. West said he believes it would take some sort of action to the Appellate Division to have Mr. LaPietra removed, and even that would have to come from a citizen and not the village board.
Mr. LaPietra was represented by attorney James Long of Albany.