TROY — Three Rensselaer County government officials, including Richard W. Crist, the county’s director of operations, have been indicted on federal criminal charges related to their handling of absentee ballots in recent elections.
Crist and Jim Gordon, the county’s director of purchasing, and Leslie A. Wallace, a longtime political consultant who was listed in payroll records two years ago as an “assistant for constituent relations” in the office of county Executive Steve McLaughlin, all turned themselves in at the federal courthouse in Albany on Thursday morning. They are scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge on Thursday afternoon.
Their arrests are the result of a more than year-long federal grand jury investigation. The indictments have not been made public.
The investigation has focused on the actions of multiple Republican officials and has been led by the U.S. Justice Department and special agents with an FBI white-collar crime and public corruption unit in Albany. It had already led to the guilty pleas of former Troy Councilwoman Kimberly Ashe-McPherson and Jason T. Schofield, the county’s former Republican elections commissioner.
Schofield pleaded guilty to 12 counts of unlawfully using the names and dates of birth of voters to fraudulently apply for absentee ballots for elections held in 2021. He resigned before pleading guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
Ashe-McPherson pleaded guilty 10 months ago to a single felony count in which she admitted to fraudulently submitting absentee ballots in the 2021 primary and general elections as she sought reelection to the city council. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 13.
It’s unclear who could face any additional charges.
The federal investigation had recently focused on campaign work by county employees who work under the direction of…
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