Hours after the attack last week, Mr. Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York whose criticism of Democratic-led changes to the bail statute was a key issue in his campaign, said on Twitter that he expected the man arrested in the attack, David Yakubonis, has been released. He then spoke at length when his prediction came true, stressing in press conferences and television appearances how Mr. Giacomboni’s release without bail exemplified the problems with the bail law. But almost immediately, the involvement of Mr. Zeldin’s political allies raised questions about the incident. Many Democrats seized on the relationship between the candidate and Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley, who just this week was listed on Mr. Zeldin’s website as a campaign co-chair. They noted that the sheriff who brought the charge against Mr. Jakubonis, Todd K. Baxter of Monroe County, was also a staunch opponent of the bail law. And finally, they wondered why Mr. Giakoubonis had been charged with attempted second-degree assault, a charge that does not qualify for bail, effectively guaranteeing that he would be released from prison as Mr. Zeldin had predicted. “I have no idea why a prosecutor wouldn’t charge the most serious offense,” said Charles D. Lavin, a Democrat who serves as chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and is a former criminal defense attorney. “Here is a situation where someone assaults an elected official with a gun. Could — as some suggest — the indictment was drafted in such a way as to allow Zeldin to challenge bail laws in New York state? I do not know that.” State Rep. Demond Meeks, D-Rochester, went even further, saying he was surprised at the “lighter” charge given Ms. Doorley’s reputation as an “aggressive” prosecutor, and said the case was “definitely a political ploy.” No evidence has emerged to suggest the charge was chosen to secure Mr Jakubonis’ release, reinforcing Mr Zeldin’s campaign message. Several Monroe County criminal attorneys say the charge was appropriate given the facts of the July 21 attack. And in an interview, the sheriff’s office investigator who filed the charge, Jeffrey Branagan, said there has been no word from the district attorney’s office other than to tell him the charge was not eligible for bail. A sheriff’s office spokesman, Sergeant Mike Zamiara, said Tuesday that the sheriff’s office was “aware of some controversy surrounding this case.” He insisted, however, that “the sheriff’s office doesn’t have a dog in this fight and we don’t want to be in it. There was no attempt to influence anything here.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Zeldin’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The episode began at a campaign stop near Rochester on Thursday when a man, identified by police as Mr. Jakubonis, approached Mr. Zeldin as he was giving a speech. In the video of the meeting, Mr. Jakubonis appeared to put his left hand on the candidate’s shoulder and then move his right hand, which was gripping a pointed plastic key ring shaped like a cat’s head, in the direction of Mr. Zeldin’s chest. , saying “You’re done,” several times. Mr. Zeldin appeared to hold him easily and the man quickly fell to the ground, taking the candidate with him. Mr. Jakubonis was charged by the Baxter Sheriff’s Office later that evening. Mr. Zeldin was unharmed. Sheriff Baxter has been outspoken in his opposition to changes to the state’s bail law, which went into effect in early 2020 and has since been amended twice. Democrats passed the changes, which prevented people from being jailed for relatively minor crimes. (More serious crimes, including violent crimes, remain eligible for bail.) Opponents of the law said the changes led to an increase in crime, but the data did not show that, and researchers say that since the law coincided with the start of the pandemic, it will be years before it can be fully implemented. be determined. But with some criminal charges on the rise, more people have been charged, released and rearrested, providing ammunition for critics of the law. In November 2019, Sheriff Baxter wrote an opinion piece calling on the state to repeal the statute before it goes into effect and arguing that “the public will be shocked at the negative impact this law will have on the safety of our communities.” And the day after Mr. Jakubonis’ attack, the sheriff announced on Twitter that he had cleared his calendar to discuss “fixing” criminal justice reforms with any interested state legislators. Mr. Branagan said he had not spoken to the sheriff before determining what charge to bring against Mr. Jakubonis. He said he had driven to the scene of the attack and had interviewed Mr. Zeldin as well as some of his employees about what had happened. He had not previously spoken to Mr. Zeldin, a congressman representing Suffolk County on Long Island, and said he did not know who the candidate was. After completing his investigation, Mr. Branagan made three calls to the DA’s office. The first two were to Perry Duckles, Ms Doorley’s deputy, whom Mr Branagan informed he planned to press charges of attempted second-degree assault. At the time of their second call, Mr. Duckles had just been told that two police officers had been shot in Rochester. So he asked Mr. Branagan to direct further conversations about the case to Matthew Schwartz, the chief of the district attorney’s major crimes unit. During a conversation with Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Branagan confirmed with Mr. Schwartz that the charge was not eligible for bail. Mr. Branagan said it was not unusual in Monroe County for the sheriff’s office to file such charges without a prosecutor present, and criminal court attorneys agreed. However, the prosecutor’s ties to Mr. Zeldin have come under scrutiny in Mr. Giacuboni’s case. Calli Marianetti, a spokeswoman for Ms. Doorley, said the district attorney was not personally involved in any conversation about the charge against Mr. Jakubonis and, as of Friday, decided to withdraw from the case. (Mr. Zeldin, on Monday, claimed that Ms. Doorley had stepped down in an “immediate decision” after the attack, according to the Albany Times Union.) Ms. Doorley, Mr. Duckles and Mr. Schwartz were not available for comment. Ms. Marianetti added that Ms. Doorley had stopped advising Mr. Zeldin’s campaign in the spring. He said that because there was never any paperwork formalizing Ms Doorley’s role, there was no “official withdrawal” from the campaign. In an emailed statement later Thursday, Ms. Doorley’s office said she informed Mr. Zeldin of her decision not to become involved in his campaign on April 28. Defense lawyers and former prosecutors practicing in Monroe County said the attempted assault charge was appropriate given the specifics of Mr. Jakubonis’ attack on Mr. Zeldin and that they saw nothing overtly suspicious about the circumstances in which it was filed . Jill Paperno, who worked as a public defender in Monroe County for 35 years before leaving for private practice in the spring, said the attempted assault charge made sense given that the pointed key ring Mr. Jakubonis was holding did not appear capable of causing the “serious bodily injury” that would be required to charge a higher degree of assault. (In New York, serious bodily injury means that there is a substantial risk of death or the possibility of disfigurement or damage to a bodily organ.) Donald M. Thompson, a partner at Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin in Rochester and a criminal defense attorney, agreed that the charge accurately reflected the allegations, that it was not particularly lenient and that it was not unusual for the two agencies to discuss the charge in advance . Asked whether it might have been orchestrated to benefit Mr. Zeldin, Mr. Thompson was thoughtful. “As a political thought, could this have happened?” he said. “I think we can’t rule it out. Is there any evidence for this? Not that I know of. But surely people so inclined in that direction could make that argument. Because we can’t pull back the curtain, you can’t say, that’s why it happened or that’s not why it happened.” Mr. Jakubonis has since been charged federally with assaulting a member of Congress using a dangerous weapon. He has been in federal custody since Saturday. A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
