District Attorney Joel Abelove tells the press, incorrectly and deliberately, that the NY State Attorney General’s Office would not be getting involved despite the fact that the Attorney General’s office had investigators present beginning hours after the shooting occurred. Executive Order 147, signed by Governor Cuomo in 2015, appoints the NY State Attorney General as Special Prosecutor in cases where law enforcement officers are involved in the death of a civilian.
"Details were shared with the attorney general's office by me personally and by members of the Troy Police Department in my presence and it was relayed to me by [Assistant Attorney General Paul] Clyne that the attorney general as of this juncture is not going to be claiming jurisdiction in this case based on the executive order signed last year by the governor," Abelove said.
In fact, the Attorney General's Office had requested, on the scene during the morning of April 17th, that they would like files and all information related to the case. The attorney general's office follows up with a hand delivered letter dated April 19, formally requesting radio transmissions and any video related to the case as well as medical reports on the injured officer and witness statements.
Abelove’s office is already attempting to block the Attorney General’s office from taking over jurisdiction in the case. D.A. Abelove's animus towards Executive Order 147 is well-known. An opinion piece criticizing Executive Order 147, written by D.A. Joel Abelove, was published in the Times Union in August 2015. It specifically questions who will have jurisdiction and how to define a weapon in the case of a police murder of a civilian. 1