NY State Lawyer Resigns from $104K Civil Service Job, Takes Plea in Hate-Crimes Case
A New York state government lawyer accused of making anonymous racial threats over the telephone to his black neighbors in Albany has resigned from his $104,000-a-year civil service job and taken a plea today in a hate-crimes case.
James Hennessey Jr., 58, faces a maximum sentence of one to three years when he is sentenced next month on two felony harassment counts for making menacing phone calls, the Albany Times Union reports.
Hennessey had been scheduled to go to trial Monday on 11 counts of second-degree aggravated harassment. The racist nature of what he said elevated the charges to felony hate crimes, the newspaper explains.
Update: Hennessey’s conviction was vacated in December 2014 because the hate-crime harassment statute was found to be unconstitutional in an unrelated case, according to an April 2016 appeals court decision in his bid for reinstatement to the bar.
Hennessey had previously sought to vacate his conviction on the ground that he suffers from a mental illness and was under the influence of psychotropic medications when he entered his guilty pleas. An appeals court said Hennessey should get a chance to prove his mental capacity was impaired and remanded the case in November 2013.
Updated on April 19, 2023, to include subsequent developments.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Gov’t Lawyer Charged with Hate Crimes re Claimed Anonymous Calls to Neighbors”
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyer Who Worked for NY State Is Charged with Hate Crimes”
