Peekskill Dems May Sue Catalina, Testa

Saying that the Peekskill GOP conducted “Trump-Like politics,” local Democrats are exploring filing a lawsuit against Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina and County Legislator John Testa for slander and libel.

Testa and Catalina had accused the Democrats in August of forming a “corrupt syndicate in an attempt to circumvent the election process,” a statement which the Westchester Fair Campaign Practices Committee ruled recently was unfair.

This controversy is all about signatures on petitions—always a flashpoint for much of the political infighting in New York as local political committees attack each other’s required ballot petitions on a myriad technical details.

Testa had claimed that Ken Martin, Vivian McKenzie, Kathleen Talbot, Catherine Borgia, Derek Hartley, and 20 other people whom he identified by name, submitted petitions which “they knew contained over 100 disqualified entries.”

He said in a press release:

“I am not surprised by the Peekskill Democratic Party’s dishonest attempt to once again cheat and deceive the public during this process. They do it every election so I have come to expect it, and sure enough they got caught again,” said Legislator Testa.

The Democrats say Testa and Catalina knew their charges were false when they made them because they had already been notified by the Westchester County Board of Elections of the determination of their petition challenge.

“What Peekskill has learned over the last two years that Frank Catalina has been mayor it is that his approach to government and politics makes Donald Trump look like Mother Theresa,” said Peekskill Democratic Chairwoman Marina Ciotti. “This lawsuit intends to hold Mayor Catalina and John Testa accountable for their outrageous and divisive behavior and restore the reputations of the community members who volunteered their time to be part of the political process.”

In fact, the Democrats said, just 83 signatures had been disqualified by the Westchester County Board of Elections.

Many were invalidated on technicalities; for example a page of 14 signatures that was disqualified because the petition carrier forgot to fill in the number of signatures collected in the witness statement. Others were disqualified because they entered their Town/City as “Cortlandt Manor” instead of “Cortlandt” or didn’t initial a correction made on a date.

The Westchester Fair Campaign Practices Committee said:

FINDING: UNFAIR.

The heading of Mr. Testa’s press release of August 4, 2015 said that “…dozens of Democratic officials [were] caught in scam to submit illegal election documents”. In the release Mr. Testa claimed that 25 petition carriers, “in league with The Peekskill Democratic Party, formed a corrupt syndicate in an attempt to…defraud the voters…” Mr. Testa named a number of Democratic individuals, including Ms. McKenzie, who, he claimed, engaged in fraudulent conduct.

The Committee found that Mr. Testa’s use of such terms as “fraud,” “fraudulent,” and “corrupt syndicate” was unsupported by any evidence presented, nor was any evidence presented that any of the named individuals had engaged in fraudulent or otherwise illegal conduct.