The September 2020 trial of Joel Abelove for perjury and misconduct brought to light the proceedings from the 2017 grand jury called by the Office of the Attorney General. On September 21 and 22, 2020, Abelove's 2017 testimony was read into the record by the prosecution.
Below are two embedded audio files. These are the first and the last part of this testimony, totaling about 2.5 hours of the approximately six hours of testimony.
Monday September 21, 2020 audio file: The Abelove trial continued. After a morning witness took the stand, the rest of the day was spent reading Abelove's Grand Jury Testimony.
In this recording, the prosecution is heard reading the documents of the trial where Abelove testified. Former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove was in the room following a transcript of his grand jury testimony while Deputy Chief Jennifer Sommers and Deputy Chief Nicholas Viorst read it into the court record. Viorst read Abelove's testimony and Sommers read her own parts. This is just the first hour plus of the reading.
In this file, you will hear that Abelove allowed Troy police Sergeant Randall French to testify with immunity before the earlier 2016 grand jury because he believed the sergeant’s fatal shooting of Edson Thevenin in 2016 was justified.
"You believe the shooting was justified?" asked Sommers.
"Correct." Abelove answered.
Tuesday, September 22, 2020 audio file: The Abelove trial continued and so did the reading of Abelove's Grand Jury testimony.
This is the last part of this testimony. In this recording, you hear the prosecution reading the documents of the trial where Abelove testified.
Former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove was in the room following a transcript of his grand jury testimony while Deputy Chief Jennifer Sommers and Deputy Chief Nicholas Viorst read it into the court record. Viorst read Abelove's testimony and Sommers read Viorst's.