Messer Drops Petition Fraud Lawsuit Against Stavisky

A source passed along a press release sent out by Queens Senate candidate John Messer’s campaign yesterday, which stated Messer had withdrawn a lawsuit alleging “widespread fraud and irregularities” in the petitioning of his Democratic primary challenger, State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky.

According to Messer’s release, he “voluntarily” withdrew the suit to remove Stavisky from the ballot after a Queens County Supreme Court judge, Peter O’Donoghue, indicated the court would not force Stavisky to testify in the fraud case.

“Though Senator Stavisky is a named party to the lawsuit, and under subpoena required to appear and testify, her appearance was not mandated or directed by the court,” Messer’s release stated. “Given this material legal development, Mr. Messer voluntarily withdrew the case.”

“Senator Stavisky chose not to appear or testify to refute, condemn or even explain the blatant acts of fraud (as evidenced in numerous affidavits provided) prevalent in her nominating petition.

“In light of the above, it became clear that to subpoena all 1,000 innocent community residents to prove this case would cause great hardship to many innocent citizens which is why we decided to let the voters decide the fate of Senator Stavisky.”

“We do hope that the Justice Department or local law enforcement will review this case in its entirety.”

Recall that Messer’s campaign made a big issue of the fact that the name of a dead woman was apparently signed on one of Stavisty’s petitions — although, it should be noted that the petition in question was not just for Stavisky, but for a number of Queens Democratic-backed candidates.

In response to Messer dropping the lawsuit, Stavisky’s campaign released the following statement:

This whole exercise was a waste of the court’s time, and taxpayer money.  Messer’s pathetic attempt at distracting voters from his shameful business record and Republican past will not soon be forgotten. Queens Democrats are quickly learning that that John Messer can’t be trusted.