Governor Paterson personally ordered two state employees to contact a woman seeking an order of protection against his top aide, sources tell the Times. It was previously disclosed that Paterson had a little telephone chat with the woman, Sherr-una Booker, the day before she failed to appear for her third court appearance in the matter. But in today's installment in the Paterson nesting doll bombshell series, the Times reports that the governor's interference allegedly went beyond just a plausibly innocuous phone call, and now there's speculation that his actions may indeed be criminal.
Booker initially accused Paterson's longtime aide David Johnson of brutally assaulting her on Halloween after he saw the provocative costume she intended to wear to a party. She told police Booker choked her, threw her into a mirror, and took her and her friend's cell phones so they couldn't call 911. When it became clear that Booker intended to pursue legal action against Johnson, Paterson instructed his press secretary, Marissa Shorenstein, to ask the woman to publicly describe the episode as nonviolent, an anonymous source tells the Times.
Shornstein failed to reach Booker, but Paterson allegedly enlisted the help of another state employee who knew the woman. Deneane Brown, an employee of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, called Booker on "more than one occasion" and arranged the phone call with the governor. Brown had also carried water to defend Johnson when the Times started looking into allegations that he punched another girlfriend in the face outside Paterson's Harlem office in 2001. Paterson’s chief of staff Woody Pascal "counseled" the woman, no charges were filed, and last month Brown told the Times, "To me, it was more of a lover’s spat."
The Attorney General's office is moving quickly with the investigation, and has already interviewed two senior officials at the State Police who may have also played a role in pressuring Booker to drop the court case. There's speculation that Paterson could conceivably face obstruction of justice charges; Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and former federal prosecutor, tells Politico, "Although the issue of intent is always critical in obstruction cases, the Times story lays out a scenario that a prosecutor might well take a hard look at."
With four weeks left before the state needs a new budget, some Democracts, like State Senator Liz Krueger, have called on the governor to hand over the authority to negotiate the budget to Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch. But others see a racial element at work here. "You do have to raise the question: Why hasn’t there been an outcry of this magnitude previously?" Senator Eric Adams, a black Democrat from Brooklyn, asks the Times. "This is not the first time a governor has been under scrutiny. This is not the first time a governor has been investigated. To prematurely call for him to have his powers circumvented or have him removed, I think it’s unfair."
As for Paterson, he told a Midtown breakfast forum yesterday that he still has no plans to step down, explaining, "This is a separate issue that really involves the problems of someone that worked for us and not me. I think there is an hysteria that I’ve been the victim of over the past couple of months. I’ve been resigning about five times before this weekend." And once again he brought up how he missed watching an important sporting contest because of this whole thing: "During the Super Bowl, I spent the whole Super Bowl trying to dispel rumors that I was resigning the next day over what, I have no idea." You know he's never going to forgive the Times for that one!
