Nearly a dozen Capital Region school districts have paid more than $1.5 million in severance packages to superintendents who, in many cases, were forced from their jobs in the last 10 years for political or disciplinary reasons.

The payouts do not include lucrative health benefits that were doled out as part of the severance agreements, including lifetime insurance plans for some of the departed.

A Times Union review of dozens of contracts and severance agreements awarded to superintendents shows that school boards routinely agree to confidentiality clauses that often keep secret the reasons why their superintendents are terminated.

In some instances, a school board's motives for paying off and forcing out a superintendent are driven by the political motives of the elected board members rather than issues of incompetence or misconduct.

The highest payout to a superintendent forced out of a job took place last month in Montgomery County when the board of education for the Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville school district voted to terminate its contract with Laura Campione Lawrence, 55, who was paid more than $302,000 in a severance agreement that effectively awarded her the full value of her three-year contract.

Campione Lawrence, who was superintendent of the newly merged public school district for only a few months, stumbled on an alleged practice dating back years in which teachers or administrators in the former Oppenheim-Ephratah school district may have systematically changed the grades of students who failed classes. The practice was so explicit that in some instances failing grades on students' report cards were crossed out and passing grades written in by their teachers, according to two people familiar with the matter, but not authorized to comment publicly.

Campione Lawrence, a former St. Johnsville elementary principal who was appointed superintendent of the Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville school district in May 2013, alerted Patrick Michel, superintendent of the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Then she contacted the state Education Department, which launched an investigation that's ongoing.

But not long after Campione Lawrence initiated her probe, including interviewing teachers who claimed they were instructed by school administrators to change failing grades, four of the board's seven members, including some with ties to the former Oppenheim-Ephratah district, voted to put Campione Lawrence on leave. The vote took place a few days after a state Education Department investigator arrived at the district on Nov. 1 and began seizing records.

Campione Lawrence declined to comment for this story. She never returned to work after being placed on leave, although she was never served with disciplinary charges. On April 11, following months of negotiations between attorneys for the district and Campione Lawrence, the school board authorized the severance agreement that keeps Campione Lawrence on the small school district's payroll for the remainder of her three-year contract, and includes lifetime family health benefits that, with an average life expectancy, could be worth more than $500,000.

"It was the best we could do," said Keith Handy, an Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville school board member who voted against placing Campione Lawrence on leave. "I'm not happy about any of it, but it's the best we could do."

Thomas Gallagher, acting superintendent of the school district, said he doesn't believe Campione Lawrence's inquiry of any alleged grading irregularities was a factor in the board's vote to remove her.

"The board had other issues, but I don't believe that was one of them," Gallagher said. "Knowing this board, if there were any truth to it, they would have commended her."

Occasionally, the reason for a school leader's departure is apparent, as in 2010 when Schenectady Superintendent Eric Ely negotiated a separation agreement in the wake of a scandal involving his former facility supervisor, Steven Raucci, who was convicted of arson and weapons charges related to his school employment.

Still, more often the reasons why a school board privately approve severance agreements to push a superintendent out the door is a mystery. The agreements come with confidentiality clauses, and many times recommendation letters for the departing administrators.

Some former superintendents say the relationships often sour between the elected school board and the appointed superintendent — situations that have become more common as budget gaps widen and learning standards have increased.

The severance agreements are often needed because superintendents are contract employees who, under state Education Law, are given contracts of three to five years in length. The contracts generally include payment of banked sick and vacation time, as well as health insurance for the superintendents and their families.

In January, Fort Ann schools Superintendent Maureen Van Buren resigned for what she said were personal reasons after leading the Washington County district for nine years. Her salary was $117,000 a year, but because she had a year and a half left on her contract the district had to pay her $173,923 in salary, according to a copy of the separation agreement. Van Buren also was paid $16,000 in unused vacation and personal days, as well as a contribution to her retirement fund. The district is paying an interim superintendent $500 a day until a permanent leader is hired.

Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide Schools Finance Consortium, said the role of district leader is a delicate one. People in the job must appease teachers, administrators, school board members and parents, and those relationships can become volatile. Also, a school board can be supportive of a superintendent's work, but then reverse course when new board members are elected and seated.

"If there's a majority of the board that is willing to buy out a superintendent, then that's the will of the people," said Timbs, who is a former superintendent.

The Wynantskill Union Free School District in Rensselaer County paid out more than $270,000 to two superintendents who left employment in 2012 and 2013. Christine Hamill, who retired, was paid $124,869 in unused vacation and sick time in 2012. A year later, the district paid Hamill's successor, Lisa Henkel, a severance of $150,000 to terminate her contract, plus $34,300 in accrued leave pay.

The price districts pay in severance is arguably an outgrowth of the contracts used to hire the superintendents. Salaries for superintendents have steadily risen by at least 20 percent in many districts since 2004, even through a recession. Top district administrators also are receiving benefits that range from fully paid life insurance, to monthly travel stipends and payments into tax-sheltered annuities.

In 2011, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to introduce legislation that would have capped superintendents' salaries at $175,000 for districts with more than 6,500 students.

At that time, Cuomo's office said 33 percent of New York state superintendents made more than $175,000.

But the idea never gained traction. Also, former state Sen. Republican Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie successfully got the Senate to approve a bill in recent years that would have restricted superintendent payouts to 25 percent of their salaries. But the measure never made it past the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the state School Boards Association is lobbying the Legislature to lift a cap on salaries for BOCES superintendents, whose current salaries average $167,000 a year. The cap for BOCES superintendents limits pay to 98 percent of the commissioner of education's 2003-04 salary. The association is pushing to continue the 98 percent cap, but "remove the reference to a specific year of the commissioner's salary."

Timbs said school superintendents need the contracts to protect them against school boards that can shift their support from year to year.

He said school leaders move their families, buy houses — and quickly uprooting is costly. "I have an obligation to myself and my family ... I can't leave them high and dry because three people lost a school board election," Timbs said.

In 2011, the Troy City School District Board of Education had apparent disagreements with Superintendent Fadhilika Atiba-Weza and paid a severance of $246,054, which included paying $3,900 for unused sick time and $46,054 in unused vacation time.

Last month, the Niskayuna school board paid $139,000 to see Superintendent Susan Kay Salvaggio go, as well as providing her health insurance until June 2015. It came amid community outcry over talks about closing an elementary school to narrow a $2.6 million budget gap.

Jay Worona, general counsel at state School Boards Association, said a superintendent's split from their board is like a divorce. "Sometimes a divorce settlement is very costly," Worona said. "These buyouts are based on a mutual understanding that we love our kids more than we hate each other."

Just like most other cases, neither Salvaggio or Niskayuna school board President Deb Oriola would discuss why the separation occurred.

"Oftentimes there are confidentiality agreements because it's hard in a situation like this to keep the message consistent," said Bob Reidy, executive director of the state Council of School Superintendents. "A lot of times it's done to prevent people freelancing comments which could be detrimental to the district and it could be detrimental to the career of the superintendent."

In 2005, a human resources director in the Ballston Spa school district told the Times Union that Superintendent John Gratto negotiated a separation agreement to purse other interests and opportunities. But when reached last week in Virginia, Gratto said a once-supportive school board turned on him after he started reprimanding staff for what he says were abuses of sick leave.

His targets included an employee who was taking sick days to coach lacrosse games, and a music teacher who took 21 sick days between September and December.

Gratto received a $100,000 severance, and then another $40,000 when he didn't get a job that paid more than $125,000 by January 2006, according to his separation agreement provided by the district.

"It was somewhat surprising," said Gratto about the 2005 decision. He is now an education professor at Virginia Tech. "I think I attempted to institute accountability in a culture that wasn't used to it."

lstanforth@timesunion.com • 518-454-5697 and blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter

Albany

The girls went to school, and for that they were kidnapped.

The world has seen the unforgettably depressing images of those Nigerian students, humiliated and forced to wear hijabs by Islamic extremists who see smart women as a threat. Education, after all, is power.

But here's another image, one that's a rebuke to Boko Haram and other woman-hating fanatics: Temitope Omoladun striding across the stage Sunday to accept her University at Albany diploma.

Omoladun, you see, was born in Nigeria but raised mostly in the United States. The extremists were powerless to stop her education, but when she looks at the images of the kidnapped girls, she still thinks "I'm no different than them. That could have been me."

"Or it could have been one of my sisters," Omoladun said. "It could have been anyone."

I met Omoladun on a gray and humid day last week on the UAlbany campus, just hours before she took the last of her final exams before graduation. She told me about a remarkable journey that had her arriving in New York City as a 9-year old.

In some ways, the move wasn't as much of a culture shock as you might expect. She'd lived in Lagos, a city that now has 21 million people.

But life in New York meant consistent electricity and not having to go to a well for water, luxuries that the young Omoladun thought were pretty cool.

And, of course, New York had profoundly different attitudes about the education of women, a contrast Omoladun couldn't fully appreciate until she was older.

Still, even within her own family, Omoladun fought for the education she'll celebrate Sunday: Her parents initially insisted she settle for a lesser college near home, but she was emphatic about going to a school like UAlbany.

"I wanted to push myself," she said. "I know what I'm capable of."

She certainly succeeded in Albany. She was one of 11 students honored this year with the Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, and she's also received the President's Award for Leadership.

Take that, Boko Haram.

The name of that terrorist group translates to something like "Western education is forbidden." So how could it be anything but sickening to a 21-year-old like Omoladun, who has made the power of learning central to her life?

"These girls are trying to be the future lawyers and future doctors," Omoladun says. "Who are these people to deprive them of their human rights?"

When I met Omoladun, I also met Umaru Barrie, a Sierra Leone native in Sunday's graduating class. Together, Omoladun and Barrie responded to the Nigerian kidnapping by organizing a campus march that, they say, included about 150 students — an effort that was part of the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

That "hashtag activism" has been ridiculed in some quarters, and sure it is tempting to dismiss it. Why, after all, would terrorist thugs in a faraway land be impressed by a rally in Albany, or by what's trending on Facebook or Twitter?

Barrie said he's heard that kind of criticism from fellow students.

His response: Maybe you're right, maybe the effort won't accomplish anything. But doing nothing will certainly accomplish nothing — and isn't it better to at least try?

"This is a way of sending a message," Omoladun added, "and to say, 'This is how we want it to be.' "

Guess what? World outrage does seem to be having an effect on the Nigerian government, which initially seemed indifferent to the girls' plight but has finally begun to respond more aggressively.

Omoladun is about to get a closer view of the crisis. She'll travel on Tuesday to Nigeria, where three of her seven siblings still live, for the first time since she left for New York. She admits to worries about whether it's safe to travel in the country.

Yet she refuses to cancel her trip. "You can't let fear consume you," she said.

It isn't fair to expect a graduating senior to know what she wants to do with her life, but Omoladun seems to have her plans set. She'll take a year off for volunteer work, then go to medical school. She expects to one day be a doctor who helps to provide better maternal care in developing countries, including Nigeria.

In short, she'll be doing what Boko Haram believes no woman should do.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill

A different jury, a different outcome.

This time former state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno walks scot-free, acquitted cleanly and quickly of two counts of "honest services" mail fraud. Five years ago, a different federal jury found him guilty of the same charges. He was poised to go to jail for two years.

But as the trial record clearly shows, after those convictions the U.S. Supreme Court changed the definition of the applicable law ruling on an unrelated case, which led eventually to the Bruno convictions being set aside. And which in turn, at the prosecution's discretion, led to a second trial just concluded.

Rarely do we have a chance to see what is essentially the same trial done over start to finish with a different jury.

Perhaps that's just as well. Witnessing how radically different the outcomes can be for the defendant as we just have is unsettling to say the least, since what we're talking about here is our legal system at work, with its enormous power over our lives and liberties, not the lottery.

Joe Bruno is elated at the outcome, as he should be. Hats off to him. He ran the gauntlet twice and survived, and when he says "it's like the first day of the rest of my life," I think we can all empathize with his enormous relief and what it must feel like being reborn after an nine-year ordeal with the courts.

A disappointed U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said there was no way to fathom what was going through jurors' minds leading up to the verdict. Just as for the jurors, there was no way to know for sure what was in Joe Bruno's heart concerning the alleged bribes or kickbacks from Loudonville businessman Jared Abbruzzese. But at the end of the day, this jury clearly gave Joe the benefit of the doubt. That had to be a shared result from an outstanding legal defense that created reasonable doubt, and the prosecution's failure to connect the dots sufficiently to nail down a bribe or kickback rather than let Joe skate with a "consultant fee."

What has also changed in the five years since the first trial are all the other prosecutions we've witnessed by the U.S. Attorney's office against state legislators, politicians, lobbyists — those who would be in Joe Bruno's company as defendants. We are now used to a fairly high level of proof and evidence with wiretaps and sophisticated surveillance and accounting. The dots are routinely connected, in bold lines. The Bruno allegations were far more circumstantial, tenuous.

Joe Bruno, as the winner, can now call the game as he chooses. "There should never have been a retrial. Never! That was persecution, not prosecution," Joe said after the verdict. From his perspective, understandable. But there's a bit of history being rewritten here.

In truth, the feds had little choice. A jury found Joe guilty the first time, so it wasn't a stretch that a separate jury would come up with the same conclusion. And a midlevel appeals court all but told the prosecution to go ahead with a retrial when it ruled in the government's favor over of question of double jeopardy. Had the feds not gone ahead with a retrial, they would have been accused of a whitewash — of giving strong allegations of public corruption a free ride.

Looking back over the recent trial, what could have perhaps been done differently by the feds to get a different result? For one, the jury makeup. With nine women, it was an unusual balance. For another, it was arguably a mistake to give Abbruzzese immunity from prosecution. Instead, forcing the businessman to invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination over and over, instead of delivering, as he did, self-serving testimony that also attempted to exonerate Joe, would have tainted both Abbruzzese as a witness and the defendant. At one point, Abbruzzese insisted a $250,000 state grant he was expecting and eventually got was arranged with Gov. George Pataki — not Bruno, as the feds alleged. Yet Pataki was never called to the stand to straighten it out for us.

Even if Pataki affirmed what the businessman alleged, we would have all been the wiser about how power translated into the release of public funds during that era, a transaction that's always at the heart of public corruption.

All water over the dam at this point. The trial is over, the verdict in. Not guilty. Which is never to be confused with innocent, or exonerated. What is now left for academic debate is what, if anything, was Joe Bruno guilty of. At the least, improprieties of an ethical sort. Asking for $20,000 a month in fees from a businessman at a time Bruno had some level of influence over a state grant the businessman was seeking certainly raises an ethical flag a mile high.

A smarmy relationship, incidentally, that we never would have known about if it were not for the two federal trials.

Still, Bruno can now claim, regardless, his reputation is restored. Which is almost true.

Although one niggling doubt will always be there, whenever the legend of Joe Bruno is discussed:

Which jury got it right?

flebrun@timesunion.com • 518-454-5453

Albany

A 2010 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that retooled the federal honest services statute was a central factor in last week's acquittal of former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

Five years ago, under the looser standards that were widely used by prosecutors to convict corporate and public officials since 1988, Bruno was found guilty of federal corruption charges related to the intersection of his private income and government duties.

But the statute as used during his first trial required prosecutors only to prove that Bruno failed to disclose conflicts related to his public office and private business deals, not that he received kickbacks or bribes.

The testimony at Bruno's 2009 trial revealed that Bruno had cashed in on his political stature, reaping nearly $2 million as a consultant and salesman through two private business corporations that were managed largely by his Senate staff. Witnesses said Bruno did little, if any, work for the income.

But the evidence that Bruno failed to disclose the conflicts between his Senate work and private income, which led to his conviction, was not enough under the new standards set by the Supreme Court in another case. The conviction, and Bruno's two-year prison sentence, were thrown out based on the precedent.

Even under the prior standards, at his first trial Bruno was acquitted of the top counts in the indictment, which centered on his receipt of $1.37 million from Wright Investors' Service and $632,116 from an Albany investment banker. Wright, a Connecticut investment firm, won hundreds of millions of dollars of pension investments from New York labor union leaders and fiduciaries who were solicited with Bruno's help.

On an appeal from Bruno, the federal circuit court ruled there was enough evidence to retry Bruno under the new standards, that it was not double jeopardy and that the evidence at his first trial could support a conviction under the new rules requiring a bribery or kickback scheme as part of an honest services fraud conviction.

"Remanding for retrial ... would allow the government the opportunity to muster evidence sufficient to satisfy the new standard," the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in 2011. "We find that there is sufficient evidence in the record for a reasonable jury to find a quid pro quo ... (and that) the government's evidence would permit a reasonable jury to find that Bruno performed virtually non-existent consulting work for substantial payments."

Despite calls from Bruno supporters that the case should be abandoned, the Justice Department and many observers said there was no justification to do so. "The law changed, but then the 2nd Circuit said essentially in the face of the new law the evidence is there to support the new standard." said Daniel J. French, U.S. Attorney for New York's Northern District from 1999 to 2001. "It's hard for prosecutors to have that kind of reaffirmation by an appellate court and then walk away from a case. This is probably one of those cases that had to be tried."

At his second trial that began May 5, prosecutors now had to prove that Bruno's receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Loudonville businessman Jared E. Abbruzzese was in exchange for official acts Bruno may have performed on Abbruzzese's behalf. The government focused its case on witnesses who acknowledged Bruno apparently did very little for the money he was paid. Prosecutors pushed their case on a theory Bruno was paid not for any consulting or lobbying, which was never documented, but for his political muscle.

"It's a different legal theory," said Paul DerOhannesian, an Albany attorney who attended both trials. "The first theory was concealing a conflict of interest. This time, you're looking at a bribery ... and that is more difficult to prove, as well as the corrupt intent behind it."

DerOhannesian said the government was now obligated to show an "intent" by Bruno to take a payoff, which he said is "a tough thing to do."

Yet it was a standard that defense attorneys across the nation had been clamoring for dating back decades in arguments that prior rules were resulting in unfair convictions.

The Supreme Court agreed. During oral arguments on the honest services law, Justice Antonin Scalia characterized the statute as "a mush of language" from Congress that was "inherently vague" and subject to abuse by overzealous prosecutors.

Now, the government's case was made more difficult by the fact that their evidence was circumstantial and their witnesses composed largely of Bruno's friends, business associates and former Senate staffers.

There was also no witness who would testify Bruno agreed to take money in exchange for any official act. Abbruzzese's testimony at the second trial was more polished, and he denied under questioning from Bruno's attorney that he ever sought to bribe the senator. At the first trial, he acknowledged his "global solution" to pay Bruno $80,000 for a horse the government described as "virtually worthless." Abbruzzese admitted in 2009 the horse deal made up for $80,000 Bruno had been shorted in a consulting deal set up by Abbruzzese, through a wireless communications company in which Abbruzzese had a controlling interest.

The consulting deal was ended by company executives who testified that they did not know what Bruno did for them.

After the federal jury swiftly returned a not-guilty verdict on Friday, E. Stewart Jones, who was Bruno's co-defense attorney with William J. Dreyer, said prosecutors made a fatal mistake by focusing heavily on their theory that Bruno sought to undermine the New York Racing Association's control of three state thoroughbred racetracks in order to help Abbruzzese win the rights to the multibillion-dollar franchise. "It was a fatal flaw in the government's theory of criminality ... to link his (Bruno's) desire to change NYRA to any form of official act that was in response to an Abbruzzese bribe," Jones said. "Horse racing was on the brink of suicide in this state because of NYRA, and Joe Bruno time and time again bailed them out, and he wanted them to be better and he wanted horse racing to be successful. It was an insane theory."

The government never challenged the efficacy of the projects in which they alleged Bruno's legislative decisions crossed paths with his private income.

Rather, they asserted that Bruno used the subtly of those situations, including his dealings with Abbruzzese, to cash in.

"We don't seek people's scalps, we seek justice," U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said after the verdict. "We felt this was a case that had to be brought."

Hartunian said their office cast aside criticisms from some observers who said Bruno should not have been prosecuted because his age, health, popularity or the things he did as a Senate leader and political icon in the Capital Region.

"To those supporters of Mr. Bruno who believe that the facts were insufficient to bring him to trial, I say this: Two grand juries heard the evidence and voted to bring the charges," said Hartunian, who was an assistant U.S. Attorney during Bruno's first trial. "A jury found the defendant guilty on these counts in the first trial in 2009, albeit using a conflict-of-interest standard."

The defense attorneys built their case largely through the cross-examination of government witnesses, including many who remain loyal Bruno supporters. They also adopted a strategy to concede openly that Abbruzzese put Bruno on his payroll because of the swagger he brought as one of New York's three most powerful lawmakers.

"The value of Joe Bruno was not for the government to decide, but it was for Jerry Abbruzzese to decide," Jones said. "This was not the only consulting job he had. The fact he accomplished so much in one phase of his life (as a senator) did not preclude him from taking that and using it in other phases of his life."

Under the old standards for honest services fraud, Jones said, Bruno's conviction may have stood.

"That law was so loosely structured that virtually anybody charged with that law was going to be convicted; it was virtually indefensible," Jones said.

With Friday's acquittal, Bruno's legacy may remain tarnished by a federal investigation and prosecution that played out over a decade. Still, his status as one of the region's most popular lawmakers will remain. His name is etched on everything from a baseball stadium to the international airport that displays his bust.

The prosecution of Bruno stemmed from an aggressive FBI investigation that dogged the rags-to-riches political figure in his final years at the helm of the Republican- controlled state Senate from 1995 until his abrupt resignation in 2008, as the probe intensified.

The two criminal trials provided an unprecedented look inside New York's weak ethics rules, revealing the blurred lines between private business dealings and political duties. For Bruno, the testimony also showed that Senate lawyers and staffers routinely worked on Bruno's private business matters, handling everything from his Christmas shopping to the negotiation of his consulting contracts.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter

Q: Two fixes are needed on Washington Avenue Extension at Crossgates Commons (Home Depot and Walmart Plaza), especially since they are building a new store at the entrance. First, they need a sign facing the traffic entering from Washington Avenue Extension saying something like "Oncoming Traffic Does NOT Stop."

I can't tell you how many times I've started to turn left toward Home Depot only to have someone start to cross my path because they assumed that it was a four-way stop intersection. Second, they need to eliminate the through traffic option from the second right lane when heading west at the intersection with the Home Depot/Walmart exit.

There are five lanes at the intersection. The far left lane is a dedicated turning lane. The next two lanes are thru traffic lanes leading to the two westbound lanes on Washington Avenue Extension. The next lane is marked as a right-turn lane or a through-traffic lane, and the extreme right lane is a dedicated right turn lane. The problem is the optional right turn or through-traffic lane. The optional through lane does not lead to a real third westbound lane. Rather, it feeds into the acceleration lane for traffic entering from Home Depot/Walmart.

Moreover, Washington Avenue Extension has only two lanes approaching this intersection. The thru lane option only encourages aggressive drivers to swing into this lane when approaching the intersection to pass any number of cars in the real driving lane and then blast through the intersection only to have to merge back into the real driving lane. Obviously this happens most in heavy commuting traffic when the lights at the intersection turn green. I can't see any value to encouraging this type of dangerous aggressive driving. There are two lanes entering the plaza and both exit lanes from Washington Avenue Extension should only be exit lanes.

— Tom Mitchell, Guilderland

A: We had to turn to three different agencies for a response.

The first intersection is owned by Crossgates Mall and is located in the city of Albany.

A Crossgates Mall spokeswoman told us the mall would cooperate with whatever DOT and the city decides.

"We appreciate Mr. Mitchell's comments and will cooperate fully with DOT and the city in implementing any recommended signage changes to the intersection commented on by Mr. Mitchell," Jennifer Smith said. "The two intersections work in tandem and are regulated by signage installed pursuant to plans approved by the DOT and the city."

Steve Smith, spokesman for the city of Albany, said that intersection cannot be a four-way stop because it would clog traffic.

"The other three directions have to stop," he said. "If there was a four-way stop, the traffic would back up to Washington Avenue Extension."

Smith said the city would go up to that location to evaluate it, and it's possible signs will be added below the stop signs to add the words "to oncoming traffic." That should make clear it's not a four-way stop.

The state DOT is responsible for the signal at the intersection of Washington Avenue Extension at Crossgates Commons and Springsteen Road.

"There are five westbound lanes, one left turn only, two through, one through/right, and one right turn only," spokeswoman Carol Breen said. "All of these are considered driving lanes. The westbound lanes were widened from four to five when Crossgates Commons was constructed. The westbound through/right turn lane develops from the westbound on-ramp leading from the Crossgates Mall access road and continues through the signalized intersection with Crossgates Commons. This lane ends 800 feet west of the signalized intersection, where it reduces back to two westbound lanes before Rapp Road. This is enough distance for cars in the through/right turn lane to safely merge into the flow of traffic. This lane helps move more traffic through the intersection to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. There is not a sustained need for three lanes past Crossgates Commons, which is why the three lanes are merged into two."

DOT tracks accident history, she said, and that intersection is not a frequent site of crashes.

"Getting There" is compiled by staff writer Tim O'Brien. Do you have a question about transportation? Call 518-454-5020 or email gettingthere@timesunion.com. Please include your name, town and telephone number.

Troy

A proposed state bill allowing night court is seen by City Council members as a way to allow the city to save money as it adds another city court judge.

A resolution supporting the night court bill introduced by Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Schenectady, could save the city $750,000 to $800,000 in construction costs and the expense to buy a new building for some police operations, said Councilman Jim Gordon, R-1st District.

Steck's bill came in response to Schenectady, which he represents, having to add additional court space at a cost of $1 million to accommodate its new city court judge.

Troy is supposed to have a new courtroom and chambers in place for the new city court judge as of Jan. 1, 2015. This would be the third courtroom for the city. Current plans call for moving the police department administrative functions and detective bureau to another location and retrofitting the police space into the courtroom.

Bill Chamberlain, the city's director of operations, told the City Council in April that the state Office of Court Administration had rejected a suggestion for night court in Troy.

But now, Steck's bill, if passed, would give Troy an opportunity to avoid the additional expense. That's money that would probably have to be borrowed, Gordon said.

Night court probably would allow the city to avoid the expenses of construction and acquisition in the buildings, said Michael Morris, a spokesman for Mayor Lou Rosamilia.

Morris pointed out that nobody knows what will occur. He said the administration has to review Steck's legislation.

The City Council resolution backing the bill will be introduced by Gordon, City Council President Rodney Wiltshire, D-At-large, Councilman Dean Bodnar, R-3rd District, and Councilman Ken Zalewski, D-At-large, at Thursday's Finance Committee meeting. Gordon said other council members' support would be welcomed.

Councilwoman Lynn Kopka, D-At-large, said the state legislation is good means for reducing the financial pressure on the city.

Gordon said the city faces the expense issue because the state legislation that created the additional judgeships did not provide any money for new court facilities. That was left for the cities to bear.

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe

Event celebrates 360 years of Jewish life in America on Sunday at Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

As the state attorney general's office sues for reimbursement from John J. O'Connor and Susan Bruno for allegedly conspiring to pay her for an alleged no-show job, their attorneys are fighting back with differing defense theories.

Bruno's lawyer, E. Stewart Jones Jr. — who represented her father, former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, in his successful defense of felony fraud charges with the federal government — argues in legal papers that she was entitled to the pay she received at the Research Foundation for the State University of New York.

Jones took over the representation of Susan Bruno from Albany lawyer Stephen Coffey, who had represented her when she and O'Connor were being investigated by the state ethics commission. The ethics commission in 2011 found reasonable cause that O'Connor violated the state's Public Officers Law by giving a no-show Research Foundation job to Bruno. O'Connor's actions were an unwarranted privilege conferred on Bruno, the commission said.

Schneiderman sued last year seeking recovery of $165,000 in payments to Bruno. The attorney general based the case on allegedly false and fraudulent reports, and claimed she was paid for services she did not perform.

The lawyer for O'Connor, Karl J. Sleight, claims the statute of limitations on his client's alleged illegal behavior has lapsed.

The arguments are in legal records in the case that are not in the public file, but were obtained from the attorney general's office through state Freedom of Information Law.

Jones further states that the suit should not be before state Supreme Court in Albany County because the Research Foundation is not a state agency, and therefore the court lacks jurisdiction.

"The defendant performed the services she was required to perform," Jones wrote, adding that Bruno "was entitled to the pay she received." As a special assistant to O'Connor, Bruno was paid $84,120 a year until her departure in March 2009.

O'Connor was president of the Research Foundation from 2000 to 2011. He served during that period as top officer of SUNY and the SUNY board of trustees. He also was officer in charge of the university system during its search for a new chancellor.

Jones said during the senator's trial this month that he didn't think the Susan Bruno case was going anywhere. Schneiderman's office said the case is still in the discovery stage and had no comment. It was filed under the False Claims Act by the attorney general's Public Integrity Bureau.

According to the attorney general's filings, Susan Bruno rarely was seen at work, and an investigation into her activities while on the clock showed she was busy with a Senate fundraiser, waiting for a vet to attend the family's horse, going to the track with family members, doing her father's laundry, working on Senate campaigns and driving her father and his friend Kay Stafford to the airport so they could go to a GOP convention.

Gabryszak probe continues

Two investigators with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics last week interviewed women who have accused former Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak of violating state law, according to a person involved in the probe.

The JCOPE team making inquiries includes a female investigator who usually works out of the agency's New York City office, lawyer Pei Pei Cheng-de-Castro, as well as Buffalo-based investigator Peter Smith. Several women have claimed Gabryszak sexually harassed or made improper statements to them during their employment by the Democrat from Depew. He resigned his Assembly seat in January after the claims were made public in December. Gabryszak's lawyer, Terry Connors, said he was unaware of the JCOPE probe.

Meanwhile, JCOPE is without a voice representing Senate Democrats. With a meeting scheduled for May 28, the appointee of former Senate Leader John Sampson said she stepped down because she had served her term. Manhattan lawyer LaShann DeArcy had been a holdover in the post initially filled by Sampson appointee Ravi Batra in September 2012.

Sampson is currently facing federal corruption charges. Current Senate Democratic leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has not replaced DeArcy, whose term expired in December.

jodato@timesunion.com • 518-454-5083 • @JamesMOdato

Colonie

A 650-gallon fish tank shaped like a wine bottle made a big splash at All Star Wine & Spirits.

So many kids came to see the fish that owner Craig Allen thought someone put a "Chuck E. Cheese" sign on his Latham store.

The reality TV show "Tanked" built the aquarium and unveiled it on camera in front of hundreds of fans inside the wine store in February. The tank held more than 65 saltwater fish as colorful and beautiful as their names: harlequin tusk, puffer fish, powder blue tang and foxface.

Within two months, most of the fish died.

"I'll take the blame," said Allen, who said he was overconfident about how the fish would do in the new tank.

The death of the fish taps into fears raised by aquarium enthusiasts who claim that Animal Planet's "Tanked" and National Geographic's "Fishtank Kings" sacrifice fish in pursuit of dramatic TV. Endless discussions on Internet message boards criticize the shows for stocking aquariums too quickly with large, flashy fish in tanks that are not properly acclimated.

The stars of "Tanked" say the critics have it wrong. Indeed, it looks like they took pains to protect the fish in the Latham wine bottle tank.

"Our first thing is to take care of the fish and make sure the fish are safe," said Wayde King, CEO of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing and co-star of "Tanked." Reached by phone at his Las Vegas office, King had not heard of the fish losses at All Star Wine & Spirits.

Several hundred people filled the wine store on Feb. 7 for the moment when the "Tanked" stars unveiled the 17-foot high aquarium to Allen, who had commissioned the $100,000 tank. In reality TV lingo, this is the "reveal."

But this one was faked, for a good reason.

Before fish are put in a new tank, they are placed in large bags filled equally with water from their old and new tank so they can adjust to the new water. That process took longer than expected on the All Star set, and the fish weren't ready for the scheduled 7 p.m. reveal, Allen said.

Rather than throwing the fish in the tank before they were ready, the film crew taped Allen walking in and shouting "Wow" in front of the crowd and fishless aquarium. The tight camera angles dodged the tank. The aquarium was finally filled with fish by 2 a.m., and the money shots were recorded. The episode, which aired in March, mixed shots of the full tank with Allen's dramatic entrance, creating the illusion that it happened at the same time.

The producers of "Tanked" hired Eddie's Aquarium Centre in Cohoes to monitor the fish and tank for five days after the film crew packed up and left. Ed Duncan, owner of Eddie's, sent daily water results to the show's aquarium expert in Las Vegas.

"Part of the drama is to have the tank filled with gorgeous fish right away and that presents a challenge when the tank isn't really ready to accommodate that," Duncan said.

Starting a new aquarium is tricky business. Fish waste raises toxin levels in the water, and new tanks don't have enough bacteria to break down the waste. Fish experts recommend introducing fish slowly because it usually takes four to six weeks to grow enough bacteria to eliminate the waste. The process can be sped up by adding live bacteria to the tank.

Allen himself is not a novice. The wine store owner has kept saltwater tanks for more than a decade and has several in his store. He also has an employee who has experience with fish, and was in contact with an aquarium expert in Clifton Park.

Allen shipped in seawater, flew in live cultures of bacteria and used seeded bio-balls to kick-start the tank's bacteria levels. He had video cameras on the tanks so he could monitor the fish overnight from home.

"We probably had more people that cared and were paying attention than most," Allen said.

Allen signed a 10-page agreement with the "Tanked" production company that detailed a specific protocol on how to care for the fish. The agreement released the production company from responsibility if any fish died after the show was filmed, but the document stated the tank owner should hire a professional to provide ongoing maintenance. It also stated: "After the production company is finished filming you will need to find a home for the excess livestock in the aquarium, if any."

It's an important point.

"Tanked" overstocks the aquariums for filming, said Izzy Capuano, technical advisor for the show. Capuano owns Infinity Aquarium in Las Vegas and often appears on "Tanked." He is the expert who monitored the wine bottle tank in the days after the film crew left. "All the fish you see for filming, typically, a big percentage are pulled out and either reintroduced slowly or kept out," Capuano said in a telephone interview.

Eddie's Aquarium had eight tanks ready to handle 30 or 40 fish, Duncan said.

But Allen said he doesn't recall anyone telling him to take out excess fish.

"That's news to me," Allen said.

Allen said he was told to expect 30 percent of the fish to die, but Duncan said that was a miscommunication by a show's staff member and Capuano outright said it was wrong.

"We would never knowingly set up a tank sacrificing 30 percent of the fish," the "Tanked" expert said.

If tank owners follow the show's protocol, "everything goes smoothly," Capuano said. "I believe the owner (Allen) got a little crazy and wanted to keep everything in the tank."

For the first two weeks, everything did go smoothly inside the wine bottle tank.

"I was probably a little cocky thinking our tank wasn't going to have one fish die," Allen said. Early on, Allen sent 10 or so fish down to Eddie's, but he brought most of them back to the wine store.

Then the fish started getting sick from spikes in the waste level, stress and parasites. Allen and his staff member monitored the water levels, changed the water and put sick fish into a medicated tank in the back of the store.

About 60 percent of the fish died in the first two months. One of the casualties was the harlequin tusk, an Australian fish with purple teeth and the most expensive fish in the tank at $300. Today, only 10 fish are alive.

"Do you not think that I care?" Allen said. "I'm the one who is attached to them and feeds them and has them like pets. I'm also the one who puts the money up."

Allen spent about $3,000 on the fish.

"I was upset because I thought everything was going to go perfect, and it didn't," Allen said. In retrospect, he said "I've never had a tank where everything works just perfect. I should have known and not got cocky."

He admits he probably should have removed more fish earlier. He said he plans to restock the tank, but this time he is doing it slowly.

"Tanked" is in its third year on Animal Planet. The show has had mishaps. The crew installed a 5,000-gallon tank in a Coney Island Applebee's, where a whitetip shark died after colliding with a plastic replica of the Wonder Wheel. The "Tanked' crew also installed a working gumball machine fish tank at Serendipity Restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. When the tank was removed, rumors circulated on the Internet that the tank failed and the fish died.

King, the co-star of "Tanked," said he wanted to set the record straight. The gumball tank worked perfectly, he said. Caesars didn't want to maintain it, so the fish were relocated and King took the tank back. He refashioned it into a snow globe fish tank for another client.

Neither Serendipity or Caesar's returned calls for comment.

"There is a lot to be done to maintain an aquarium and we are hoping it's being done, but we can't be there after we leave," King said. "If you sell a car, you can't tell if they are changing the oil."

ccrowley@timesunion.com • 518-454-5348 • @cathleencrowley • http://facebook.com/cathleenFcrowley

Johnstown

When Grace Rutagengwa walked across the stage and received her associate degree at Fulton-Montgomery Community College Friday night, it was another big step along an extraordinary journey for a survivor who endured the unspeakable horrors of the genocide in Rwanda in which her parents and three siblings were killed.

"I didn't know if I could do it," she said of earning a college degree, since English is her fifth language and she still struggles with fluency.

"I tried so hard and it really happened. I feel really happy. Now, I feel like I can do anything in my life," said Rutagengwa, 22. She maintained a 3.0 GPA and received a Distinguished Service Award for her volunteerism on the Johnstown campus and for sharing her survivor's story at local high schools, churches and at the United Nations in New York City.

She accepted her diploma from Robin DeVito, a mother of two who became Rutagengwa's guardian and surrogate mother several years ago and who raised Rutagengwa as her own.

"She has overcome so many hurdles and challenges," said DeVito, a disability counselor at FMCC. "She has grown into a brilliant, beautiful young woman who is mature beyond her years. She feels she has an angel watching over her. She's still our Amazing Grace."

Friends dubbed Rutagengwa "Amazing Grace" after learning of the atrocities she endured. Grace was the youngest of four children raised on her family's prosperous farm in Ntyazo in southern Rwanda,. Her parents were well-educated members of the minority Tutsis. They employed farmhands who were Hutus, the majority ethnic group. In the spring of 1994, ethnic tensions boiled over and ended in Africa's worst genocide in modern times. A six-month massacre that year left an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead across Rwanda.

The farmhands and Hutu neighbors set upon Rutagengwa's parents and siblings with guns and machetes. Despite being critically injured, Rutagengwa's mother managed to hide her youngest daughter, Grace, then 3, under her bloody skirt before she died. When a neighbor woman found the corpses, there was so much blood covering the motionless little girl that she thought Grace was dead as well. But then she saw the girl move.

The woman, whose name was Providence, sheltered Grace until the girl could be safely transported out of the country, hidden in a suitcase. The orphaned girl endured overcrowded, abusive and unsanitary conditions in refugee camps in Congo and Burundi. There was no formal schooling. Young girls were vulnerable in the lawless camps, so Grace learned to cut her hair short and to dress plainly and tried to pass as a boy so she would be left alone.

She was eventually relocated back to Rwanda and, at 5-foot-9, she grew into a standout basketball player who competed with a traveling Rwandan team. During a basketball tournament in New Jersey, she and a teammate fled and sought political asylum. Rutagengwa knew a student from Africa who attended FMCC, which has a number of international students and a strong English as a Second Language program. She met DeVito, who took her into her home in Duanesburg. Rutagengwa graduated from Duanesburg High School in 2011 with a Regents diploma and scholastic awards. She was the subject of a 2011 Times Union profile. DeVito and Rutagengwa moved two years ago to Amsterdam, where they have an apartment. DeVito's other children are grown and have moved out.

"I'm so proud of Grace," said Kathy Saso, an ESL teacher for Capital Region BOCES who taught Rutagengwa and has remained friendly with her. "She is an example of incredible perseverance. She worked so hard and she has a deep faith that helped her through."

Rutagengwa works at St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam as a patient assistant in the radiology department. She plans to continue her education at FMCC and has enrolled in the radiology program with a goal of becoming a radiology technician.

Among the few items Rutagengwa managed to save from her war-ravaged homeland and shattered childhood was a snapshot of her late mother, Rose, a silver necklace with a cross and a yellow bracelet with the words "Always forgive, but never forget."

When Rutagengwa received her diploma Friday night, she felt the love of two maternal presences.

"My mother I lost is always with me, but Robin is my living mother and she has done amazing things for me since she took me in," she said. "She helped me, loved me and inspired me. I always do my best to make her proud."

• pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

Albany

The Common Council is poised to vote Monday on a resolution that would move Albany closer to becoming the first community in the Capital Region to install cameras at dangerous traffic intersections.

The resolution — a "home rule message" — asks the state Legislature to vote on recently introduced bills in the Senate and Assembly that would give the city's Common Council authority to install and operate camera equipment needed to ticket owners of vehicles caught running red lights.

The home rule message was added late to council's agenda on Wednesday and is not listed on the council's formal meeting agenda that's posted online. That alarmed 15th Ward Councilman Frank Commisso Jr., who raised his concerns in weekend emails to fellow Common Council members and the media.

In an interview, Commisso said Mayor Kathy Sheehan's designation of the bill as "emergency legislation" and the council's promise for immediate action "dismantles the internal control process we have for the passage of legislation," including review by the Public Safety Committee and allowing residents a chance to voice their opinions.

Council President Pro Tempore Richard Conti said there is good reason to rush; the state's legislative session ends in about a month.

"If we miss that boat, were not even going to have the opportunity" to weigh the pros and cons of red light cameras, Conti said.

If the state approves this bill, a thorough review of red light cameras would take place, Conti said, since regardless of state legislation the Common Council is still the governing body that decides whether to adopt the program.

Commisso questioned that logic. "If the state requires a home rule message from the local government, don't you think embedded in that is the local government should be deliberative in that process?" he said.

The state's bill, which is co-sponsored by Assembly members Patricia Fahy and John McDonald III and state Sen. Neil Breslin, is for a pilot authorization for red light cameras at up to 20 intersections that would expire Dec. 1, 2020.

City officials would decide where to place the cameras. Drivers caught on camera running lights would face a fine of up to $50, though the infraction would be akin to a traffic ticket and they'd receive no points on their license.

• asanto@timesunion.com • 518-454-5008 • @alysiasanto

Colonie

A day after First Lady Michelle Obama pushed Congress to hold the line on nutrition standards for school lunches, the staff and teachers at Shaker Road Elementary School learned more about making healthy food appealing to kids.

Robert Dell'Amore and Elaine Medin, the Long Island-based founders of "The Power of Food: Life Skills for Nutrition, Children and Families," a program that teaches about healthy foods and how to prepare them, demonstrated their methods for children in kindergarten through fourth grade at the school on Wednesday. Along with a chiffonade of kale, great Northern beans, pasta, red cabbage and apple chunks and a lemon-garlic dressing made with apple cider, Dell'Amore served up tips such as: Red peppers have three times more vitamin C than green peppers, raw garlic is six times healthier than cooked garlic, and a lemon with a small tip is juicier than a lemon with a big tip and thicker skin.

Dell'Amore is a private chef, nutritionist and chiropractor. He developed his Power of Food program to persuade children to try healthy foods, which they might then ask their parents to serve at home. As he explained ways to add flavor without salt — by using garlic, lemon and pepper — Medin caramelized mushrooms and onions in a pan, filling the gymnasium with delicious cooking smells. When Dell'Amore held up a container of ranch dressing and asked who liked it, more than 100 hands shot into the air.

"Let me show you an alternative," he said, mixing apple cider vinegar, olive oil and lemon. "This little bit of ranch dressing, just a quarter cup, has more heart-clogging fat than a Big Mac."

The South Colonie schools received a three-year, $1.7 million federal grant that they are using to transform physical education from team-based to fitness-based, getting kids to move their bodies and burn calories. The grant also pays for Dell'Amore's visit. Presentations were planned for the other elementary schools in the district this week.

Dell'Amore's visit to Shaker Road was on the day after the First Lady said Congress should not allow exceptions to new federal nutrition standards for school lunches. House Republicans proposed a one-year waiver for schools struggling financially to meet the new food standards.

Renee Hanks, food services director for the South Colonie School District, knows the struggle well. Federal rules require 50 percent of the grains used in school lunches to be whole grains. Next year, the requirement will increase to 100 percent. Hanks said the students adjusted to whole grain pasta, but she has yet to find a whole grain bagel or breadstick they'll eat. She faces a similar challenge with milk and cheese, which often contain more sodium than the law allows.

Adding to the pressure, the school lunch program must be self-sufficient. If students don't buy lunch, Hanks has less money to work with. Watching Dell'Amore rhapsodize about the fresh crunch of a red pepper, Hunt said, "I can put pepper slices out on the lunch line and they won't touch them. Now maybe they will."

lhornbeck@timesunion.com • 518-454-5352 • @leighhornbeck

Albany

The fishing expedition known as START-UP NY has hooked a big catch: EYP Architecture and Engineering.

EYP is a significant name in the architecture world. Formerly known as Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, the firm has about 400 employees and offices in cities across the country. Getting this company to relocate its headquarters to Albany is certainly a tremendous victory for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's flagship economic development program.

So kudos to the governor and .... What's that you say? EYP is already headquartered in Albany? It's a homegrown success story founded here in the 1970s?

Oh.

You see, while much of the attention of the state's new tax-exemption program has focused on whether it will attract new companies to the state, it also can grant tax-free status to businesses that are already here if they vow to create jobs at one of the state's designated START-UP locations.

And as my colleague Larry Rulison reported last week, EYP appears to be one of the first companies in the region to apply for the tax breaks, as is CommerceHub, another firm that's already at SUNY's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering campus along Fuller Road.

You might remember that there was quite a bit of grumbling in 2010 when EYP took its 130 local workers from downtown Albany to the NanoCollege. Critics understandably fumed about a state-supported college luring a company that had long been one of downtown's important anchors.

"Are they in the real estate business or the research business?" then-Mayor Jerry Jennings asked of the NanoCollege. "They get all sorts of state breaks and incentives. We can't compete with that, and downtown landlords can't compete with that."

So here we are, just four years later, and the move from downtown has EYP nicely positioned to take advantage of the state's generous new tax program. What luck!

Meanwhile, EYP's old headquarters at 412 Broadway has been vacant ever since, in a downtown where nearly a quarter of office space is empty. The building is now being converted into apartments.

We don't know all that much about EYP's application with START-UP NY. It isn't publicly available, and EYP won't comment. That's unfortunate, because if a company is going to ask for tax breaks, I think it has an obligation to explain the benefits of such to the taxpaying public — you know, the poor slobs who will have to pay more to support the tax relief.

If that sounds overly negative, remember that a recent Rockefeller Institute report found that tax breaks for businesses cost the state $1.7 billion last year, and frequently fail to create jobs.

The jury is still out on START-UP NY, which remains a relatively new program. State officials say the program is generating intense interest from out-of-state companies — and New York certainly needs an influx.

Now, it's possible EYP intends to expand into an entirely new area. But in the legal ad it was required to run as part of the application, the company said its proposed area of business would be "comprehensive building design, research, and related consulting services."

That sounds an awful lot like what EYP already does. In fact, that's exactly the company describes itself in promotional materials.

Of course, EYP's application has yet to be approved, and it's possible the state may reject the request out of hand. It's unclear if the tax breaks would be limited to the company's future growth, but only the employees in newly created jobs would be eligible for the state income tax exemption. Still, the application raises questions, including this one: How would tax exemptions for EYP be fair to all of the region's other architecture firms?

There are several — such as CSArch in Albany and Architecture Plus in Troy — that do similar work, and every firm competes for talent. Why should one company be granted preferences over another? How will other firms attract the best college graduates if only EYP can offer employees an income tax exemption?

Sure, the other existing architecture firms could also apply for START-UP NY benefits. But they would have to move at least part of their business to one of the state's approved locations. EYP is already there.

The firm, by the way, seems to be doing pretty well. On its website, EYP touts 19 percent growth in 2013, when it opened six new offices across the country, including locations in Denver and Minneapolis. So why does it need tax exemptions now?

At the moment, that's a question EYP hasn't answered.

Troy

The 14-year-old stepdaughter of Adrian Thomas testified at his retrial Thursday in a barely audible voice but suddenly, as she left the stand, shouted obscenities at the man accused of killing his 4-month-old son.

The jury of nine men and seven women leaned forward trying to hear India Thomas, who was eight years old at the time, respond to questions about Matthew Dante Thomas' birth in May 2008 and his death that September.

Under questioning by Rensselaer County Assistant District Attorney Christa Book, the teen said she often had to care for Matthew and his twin brother, Malachai, when her mother, Wilhelmina Hicks, was out of the house at work. Adrian Thomas, 32, was unemployed and stayed home to watch the kids, prosecutors said.

"Who took care of the twins?" Book asked.

"I did," the teenager said.

"Did your stepfather ever offer to help?" Book asked.

"No," the girl said.

Defense attorney Stephen Coffey opted not to cross-examine the girl, who appeared very uneasy on the stand, and Judge Andrew Ceresia dismissed the witness. Then, as she passed the defense table, she yelled out a sexually laced obscenity at the defendant and ran from the courtroom wailing.

Ceresia told shocked jurors to ignore what the girl blurted out.

In earlier opening arguments, Book told jurors that Thomas allegedly ignored the twins and considered them a burden.

Book said jurors will hear from a career criminal who was in the county jail with Thomas during his first trial in 2009 and who told them that Thomas made admissions of guilt to him.

"He said that Mr. Thomas told him Matthew was crying, so he tossed him up in the air and caught him and bounced him on a bed and the baby bounced off the bed and hit the floor," Book told jurors. "He said Mr. Thomas said it was OK because he had another one just like him at home."

Hicks, who was the first prosecution witness, said she found the infant blue and not breathing in his crib, and by the time she got him to Albany Medical Center Hospital, the news was not good.

"They told me he may not live," Hicks said.

Coffey argued the jailhouse witness, William Terry, was a desperate backup plan by prosecutors who have been denied the opportunity they had in the first trial to play police videotaped confession by Thomas.

Thomas was convicted in 2009 of second-degree murder after jurors decided he threw his son, Matthew Dante Thomas, on a bed on three separate days in September 2008, causing severe head injuries that caused brain swelling and death.

The defense in the retrial will again insist the baby died of sepsis, a blood infection.

A midlevel appellate court upheld Thomas' conviction, but the state Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The justices cited heavy-handed tactics used by investigators, who interrogated Thomas for almost nine hours.

Jurors will not see a police video of the interrogation.

"They called him because they know they don't have the science in this case," Coffey said of Terry.

The defense plans to call expert medical witnesses who will prove the infant died of a serious infection and not from abuse, Coffey said.

"I don't care about Mr. Terry and his lies; this case is about the medicine," Coffey said pounding his fist on the wooden lectern.

Testimony resumes Friday.

bgardinier@timesunion.com • 518-454-5696 • @BobGardinier

Bolton

Prominent home builder and philanthropist John Michaels did not suffer a heart attack or other catastrophic medical emergency before he crashed his 21-foot powerboat into the Lake George shoreline last Friday night, and he died of massive internal injuries after he was thrown from the vessel, according to the coroner who performed an autopsy.

Toxicology tests that will check for alcohol and drugs in the system of 57-year-old Michaels — principal of The Michaels Group, a married father of three and revered humanitarian who flew medical missions as a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight — could take up to four months to be completed, State Police said. Michaels was alone in the boat, and there is no criminal investigation, so the tests will not be expedited, State Police said.

"There was no sign of an aneurysm, stroke, heart attack or anything like that," said Tim Murphy, a Warren County coroner who performed the autopsy.

Friends and family members speculated Michaels might have suffered a sudden attack of a medical nature before the crash because of his boating expertise and his reputation as a careful boater known for being safety conscious, but the autopsy ruled that out.Murphy, a coroner for 12 years, said the crushing injuries sustained by Michaels resembled those he has seen in autopsies on victims of fatal car accidents.

State Police investigators will use computer models and simulation techniques similar in reconstructing fatal auto wrecks in an attempt to shed more light on the boat crash, said Trooper Mark Cepiel, a State Police spokesman.

"The events of the crash are being reviewed, and we're looking for a causal factor with our reconstruction," Cepiel said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a day after Michaels was commemorated at a funeral Mass at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Bolton Landing and buried in Bolton Rural Cemetery, investigators are no closer to understanding what caused Michaels to crash his boat into a tree and rocks at about 10 p.m. in Basin Bay near Cotton Point on the west side of the lake — about 100 yards from Michaels' own dock.

Earlier Friday night, Michaels and his wife, Sheila, drove the newly purchased Steiger Craft, a 21-foot center console sport fishing boat, to the private Lake George Club at Diamond Point, about four miles south of their home, where they dined with friends, according to friends.

After dinner, because it was raining, his wife got a ride home in their friends' car and Michaels drove the boat back home solo along a route he had traveled many times before. He rounded Cotton Point and a short time later, the loud crashing sound was close enough to his home to startle family members and neighbors, who rushed to the scene.

Witnesses said the boat's motor continued running at full throttle after the crash and its propeller churned a large, deep hole in the lake bottom — an indication the boat may have been set on autopilot.

State Police were the first responders and troopers tried unsuccessfully to revive Michaels by using an automated external defibrillator, or AED, in an attempt to restore a normal heart rhythm.

The coroner said Michaels was killed instantly from his injuries and was dead on arrival at Glens Falls Hospital.

"We're devastated that he was taken from us, and we're also curious about the cause," said Jonathan Lapper, a longtime friend of Michaels' and a Glens Falls attorney who represented The Michaels Group, which is based in Malta and has built more than 10,000 homes and 50 developments around the region since Michaels, his father James and brother David started the company in the 1980s.

"He was an excellent pilot, a careful boater and he knew that lake so well," Lapper said. "It doesn't make sense."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

Albany

University at Albany graduate student Matthew Grunert was surprised to find a terrorism investigator from the FBI at his doorstep last week, but he knew why the man was there.

The day before, around 5 p.m. on May 21, Grunert was filming outside State Police headquarters on the Harriman Campus for his YouTube channel "Albany Open Government" when members of the State Police detained and questioned him for 20 minutes about why he was videotaping the building.

His camera continued to roll throughout the interaction and captured the following exchange.

"What crime have I committed?" asked Grunert of Maj. Tim Munro, one of three troopers questioning him on a curb near the visitor parking lot.

"Haven't determined that yet," Munro said.

While filming in public places is legal, Munro and the other troopers disputed whether the area outside the building was public property. They were suspicious, since Grunert was "videotaping critical infrastructure after normal business hours ... including areas containing fuel tanks, evidence, communication infrastructure and security cameras," State Police spokeswoman Darcy Wells said via email.

"The Troopers involved acted appropriately and within the scope of their responsibilities. We are revisiting our policy on public access to some sections of our property," Wells wrote, although she declined to specify what areas are considered public.

Grunert provided police with his name and address, but repeatedly refused to provide picture identification, citing New York state law that people are not required to carry ID or show it to a police officer, though police can request a driver's license during a traffic stop. After running his name, police told Grunert he was free to go.

People across the country are being detained and sometimes taken into custody for taking pictures of governmental buildings and police, and in recent years the courts have upheld citizens' rights to do so.

Carlos Miller, a Miami-based former photojournalist, documents many of these incidents on his "Photography is Not a Crime" blog. He has inspired hundreds, including Grunert, to go out and film law enforcement. People often email their videos to Miller.

"It's constant, I get emails every day," said Miller, a former police reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News, San Bernardino Sun, and other newspapers. The blog also provides tips on how to interact with police.

Miller created his blog, which focuses on the First Amendment rights of photographers and the public, after he was arrested while on assignment for a local website called Category 305. The story was about gentrification and crime in a changing neighborhood, and police told Miller to stop taking pictures of them while he was standing on the sidewalk. He refused and was charged with nine misdemeanors, though eventually all the charges were dismissed.

Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said the bottom line is, people can film whatever they can observe in a public space.

"There are people that go out there to either bait police or see how they'll react," said Osterreicher, "but seeing somebody with a camera shouldn't immediately arouse suspicion."

Osterreicher worked as a journalist for 40 years, as a lawyer for NPPA for the past eight, and he has also been a reserve deputy sheriff in Erie County since 1976. Osterreicher has conducted trainings around the country with police departments about the right to film in public, and has also defended photographers in court.

After viewing Grunert's interaction with police, Osterreicher saw a bright side: "At least (police) never once told him to turn the camera off. And that's what I usually see, so that's a step in the right direction."

Most of the time when Grunert films police in Albany, nothing happens. "The majority of my videos are really, really boring, which is awesome," Grunert said. He has posted eight videos online, with footage ranging from a traffic stop in Guilderland to the outside of the James T. Foley Federal Courthouse in Albany.

Security guards in front of the courthouse erroneously told him videotaping was illegal. He continued filming, and eventually left without incident.

In 2010, the Federal Protective Service settled a lawsuit with the New York Civil Liberties Union with an agreement to inform its officers and employees in writing of the "public's general right to photograph the exterior of federal courthouses from publicly accessible spaces."

But unlike Grunert's interaction in front of the courthouse, his encounter with State Police didn't end outside the building.

The next day, on May 22, Investigator Matthew Gilbert, a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, showed up at Grunert's apartment in Albany to find out more about why he had been filming.

Grunert filmed and posted his interaction with Gilbert.

"Just like to talk about yesterday, that's all," says Gilbert, explaining to Grunert he wants to learn more about "your occupation, your likes, dislikes, things like that" and whether he is "part of the sovereign citizen nation."

Grunert tells Gilbert the same thing he told police the previous day: "I am a journalist gathering content for a story."

"What kind of story?" Gilbert asks.

"Right now, you're the story," Grunert says.

Grunert is a 22-year-old student and is just a couple months away from earning his master's degree in computer science. He said he is deeply interested in the law, holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, is a past president of the UAlbany Criminal Justice Association, and has engaged his interests by publicly testing the First Amendment.

Grunert tells Gilbert he is not a sovereign citizen, but that's one of the only questions he answers. Instead, he repeatedly invokes his "Fifth Amendment right to remain silent."

Gilbert eventually leaves Grunert's doorstep.

The next day, however, Grunert said Gilbert tracked down his mother at the church where she volunteers in his hometown of Chaumont in Jefferson County, about 200 miles from Albany, and interviewed her.

His mother declined an interview request for this story.

"He tried to get her to tell him I was untrustworthy in some way," Grunert said. "I'm being treated like a criminal when I didn't do anything wrong."

State Police spokeswoman Wells wrote in a statement that, "All of his actions, including his refusal to provide any identification resulted in a follow up investigation in an attempt to determine this individual's motivations."

Grunert has now filed a Freedom of Information Law request for information pertaining to him, the incident, and also any State Police trainings on citizens recording in public.

Amanda Cox, a spokesperson for the FBI, said the agency doesn't comment on investigations, "whether they exist or not."

asanto@timesunion.com • 518-454-5008 • @alysiasanto

Troy

The city is planning an emergency demolition of 3278 6th Ave. on Monday after a partial building collapse there earlier in the month.

Michael Morris, a city spokesman, said the building is a threat to public safety.

Morris said a letter was sent Tuesday to the owner of the dilapidated 6th Avenue building, Mordechai Kaplinsky of New Jersey, but Kaplinsky has not responded.

The collapse damaged the Troy Bike Rescue headquarters next door at 3280 6th Ave., and founder Andrew Lynn said the volunteer bike repair and refurbishment shop is closed indefinitely, as advised by the city, until the collapsing building is dealt with.

Troy Bike Rescue's annual fundraiser takes place on Saturday, but because of the damage the organization has relocated the event to the Sanctuary for Independent Media at 3361 6th Ave.

Lynn said the city has been aware of the disrepair of Kaplinsky's building since last year, but has been slow to act.

"It is really hard to get any info from the city of Troy," he said. "All we know is we are closed indefinitely."

Lynn said he is holding the city responsible for fixing the damages to Troy Bike Rescue.

Morris said Lynn's claim is currently an internal legal matter.

Lynn said Troy Bike Rescue posted fliers around the community on Tuesday to alert area residents of the emergency demolition.

"We fliered the immediate neighborhood because as of last week we were informed of an emergency demolition and others should be notified," Lynn said.

Morris said code inspectors went to the building in June 2013 and found it to be noncompliant, but it was not repaired when city officials returned in September 2013.

Morris said the city is contacting demolition contractors for bids to take down the building.

Prior to the building's demolition, people in the surrounding area will be notified to temporarily evacuate, Morris said. The street will likely also be closed or reduced to one-lane traffic, he said.

The city used an emergency demolition on Aug. 5, 2013, at 4-6-8-10 King St. that raised concerns of potential asbestos contamination when Bombers Burrito Bar at 2 King St. was not evacuated. The City Council is conducting hearings regarding safety concerns about the razing of the dilapidated King Street buildings.

Nick Niedzwiadek • 518-454-5420

Albany

An Albany man who was jailed for 47 days after a state parole officer accused him of failing a drug test three years ago was maliciously prosecuted and may be entitled to financial damages, a state judge ruled this week.

Records and testimony in the case also reveal that state parole supervisors routinely ignore the results of laboratory drug tests performed on parolees, who are often locked up on the basis of pre-screening drug tests because of the possibility that lab samples are mishandled.

The decision was issued by state Court of Claims Judge Francis T. Collins, who found that an Albany parole officer, Kerri Hughes, gave "false and misleading" testimony when she withheld the results of a laboratory drug test during a 2011 parole hearing. A laboratory test indicated the parolee, Danny B. Green, tested negative for cocaine. But Hughes and parole supervisors later withheld the results from a hearing officer, instead relying on an E-Z Cup urine test that Hughes testified showed Green had tested positive for drugs.

In Collin's ruling this week, which followed a trial in December, he noted that Hughes failed to tell a parole hearing officer that a week before the hearing she received the results of the lab test indicating Green had no drugs in his system. Hughes testified that Green allegedly admitted to using cocaine and had failed a screening test administered in the office. Green denied that he had used cocaine and refused to sign a form admitting any drug use.

"The court finds the testimony of parole Officer Hughes, specifically her failure to disclose the existence of a second, negative drug test result, in response to a direct question by the hearing officer, so misleading with regard to a material element of the proceeding as to be comparable to fraud or perjury," Collins wrote in a 14-page decision.

While incarcerated for nearly two months, Green was fired from two jobs and has struggled to recover, according to his attorney, Lee C. Kindlon of Albany. Green was convicted of six robbery charges in 1991 and sentenced to state prison for a term of 7 to 21 years. He was released on parole in 1997. He was returned to prison in 2004 for a parole violation and released a second time in 2007.

"He was doing everything we asked parolees to do," Kindon said. "He had a job. He had a home. He had a family. He had put his life together."

The parole violation case against Green unraveled when he discovered the drug test in a stack of papers regarding his case that were delivered to him at the Albany County jail. Armed with the negative drug test, Green eventually filed his own written request to be released from jail, which was granted by a state Supreme Court justice.

"They really sat on those results for as long as they possibly could before they had to turn them over and it was like, 'Oh, by the way, here's some other paperwork,' " Kindlon said. "They destroyed his whole life and they lied to do it."

Kindlon said Green may be entitled to more than $100,000 if it can be shown in a follow-up trial that he lost that much in potential earnings after being fired from his jobs as a telephone marketer and drug counselor.

Susan Jeffords, a parole revocation specialist, testified at Green's Court of Claims trial last December that she lifted the warrant and dropped prosecution of his case after receiving a copy of the lab drug test from Hughes.

Tom Mailey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which oversees parole officers, declined to comment.

Hughes testified that not all drug samples taken from parolees are sent to a laboratory for follow-up testing.

Salvatore Casamassima, a senior parole officer in Albany who oversaw the handling of Green's case, testified that lab results for drug tests performed on parolees are not considered reliable by his agency. He said the longstanding practice has been to rely on pre-screen drug tests, such as E-Z Cup Drug Test, which is administered and read by parole officers.

"When we send urines to the lab, they get tainted, destroyed, whatever ... I'm not a scientist," Casamassima testified. "To get a proper sample to the lab, it needs to be refrigerated. We don't have a refrigerator. We give it to the mailman. By the time it gets ... to the lab, it's already, either weak, and I don't know what the words are I'm trying to find here, but it gets weaker. We do not go by that."

Casamassima, who has been a parole officer for nearly 30 years, said the agency does not have a policy requiring officers to rely on laboratory drug test results.

When questioned by Kindlon whether the lab tests would be more accurate than the on-site field test, Casamassima said: "Like I says, I'm not a medical technician..."

Members of the Albany County League of Women Voters feel like they are witnessing a power grab.

They say the Albany County Legislature's nine-member Special Charter Review Committee is systematically weakening the county executive's governing authority, and not surprisingly, County Executive Dan McCoy agrees.

Over the past month, the legislative committee has met to review the work of the Charter Review Commission, an 11-member panel appointed last year to make recommendations about the charter, which is basically the county's constitution.

The charter is such a mess that lawyers and others in county government can't even agree on what it says, and as a result, it's being overhauled.

The commission took great care not to tip the balance of power in either the legislature's or executive's favor, though now that the decision-making control is in the hands of legislators, there's been a chipping away at the executive branch. "It's a shame," said Ann Brandon, a member of the league since 1961. She has a long history of working for an improved charter.

In the '70s, the league pushed for the county to establish an elected county executive. Prior to that, there wasn't one.

"It was a weak charter for the county executive, but that's all we could get passed," Brandon said.

Then, in the '90s, Mike Hoblock ran for county executive on the platform that called for striking a better balance of power. He won, and the county charter was amended to reflect those views, including such powers as the ability to appoint his own department heads with legislative approval.

Brandon feels some of what the league worked for is now slipping away. Here's a rundown of just some of the changes being made to the charter that Brandon and the league find alarming:

Lowering the number of votes needed to override a county executive veto from 26 votes to 24 (adopted April 22).

Shifting the appointment of the health commissioner from the county executive to the legislature (adopted May 13).

Requiring the county executive get legislative approval before firing any department heads (vote is pending).

"I'll be reduced to cutting ribbons and kissing babies in my next term," said McCoy. "And that's what they want at the end of the day."

Mikey Mackey, a legislator who is panel chair, sees it differently. "I'm shocked at how powerful the county executive is in Albany County. ... There is a feeling that perhaps not that much power should be concentrated in the hands of one person."

The legislative committee has also tossed some of the commission's more substantial recommendations that have nothing to do with the county executive, including that the county keep the elected coroners system rather than make the suggested switch to medical examiners (adopted May 7) and that the county keep political appointments of public defenders, rather than take up the recommendation that they switch to a merit-based selection process (adopted May 29).

The committee has not yet make a decision about the most controversial recommendation: reducing the size of Albany's largest-in-the-state legislature from 39 members to 25, though lawmakers have spoken strongly against it.

Mackey said while the committee is voting up or down on the commission's changes, items could still be amended by the full legislature. "What we're doing is not the last word."

In the end, Brandon and others from the league fear the commission's work was all in vain. They've considered a proposal made to them by McCoy: to go out and gather enough signatures (10,000) to give voters the chance to vote on the commission's original recommendations, without any legislative interference.

Getting that many signatures is a huge task the league is not willing to undertake, and as Brandon points out, the public has much more immediate concerns:

"There's the casinos, the oil trains, so many things people are thinking about, and this is almost like political science as opposed to practical politics. ... It's too bad because this document is the document that we live by."

Colonie

A motorist who was stopped for speeding on Friday morning abandoned his pickup truck and eluded police despite an intensive two-hour manhunt that involved a State Police helicopter and a dog, Colonie police said.

The incident led to an hourlong lockout at three nearby elementary schools as a precaution, police said. The suspect had not been caught by late afternoon and two of the schools requested police guards at dismissal after a homeowner's false report of seeing the fugitive, police said.

The incident began at 8:09 a.m. when a man driving a green Dodge pickup with a cap was clocked driving 76 mph in the 45 mph zone on Route 2 by Investigator Neil Leach, said Lt. Robert Winn, a police spokesman.

The truck was pulled over at the intersection of Route 2 and Delatour Road, but sped away when Leach approached, turning west onto Watervliet Shaker Road, Winn said. The high-speed pursuit on narrow and congested suburban streets during the morning rush hour was called off for safety reasons, Winn said.

A Colonie police officer on patrol spotted the pickup being driven erratically and in the wrong lane on Fiddlers Lane toward Route 9, but the driver again eluded police, Winn said.

At 8:42 a.m., a grounds crew worker at a nearby home spotted the pickup stopped on Old Niskayuna Road. The driver said he was out of gas, but the worker became suspicious and called police, Winn said.

The driver was gone when officers arrived at the scene and they began searching the expansive grounds and mansions along Old Niskayuna Road, aided by a canine unit and the helicopter, Winn said.

The search was unsuccessful, but police believe they know the identity of the suspect — a white man in his 40s, with brown hair, wearing a white T-shirt, a gray or blue ball cap and jeans whose driver's license had been revoked due to a charge of driving while intoxicated. Police would not say how they learned the suspect's identity.

The hourlong lockout was lifted at all three schools at 9:54 a.m., Winn said.

There was no indication that the man had a weapon or intended harm, Winn said. More information will be released pending an arrest, Winn said.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl