A New York State grand jury indicted Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove on Friday, Dec. 1, for allegedly concealing key evidence in the 2016 police-involved shooting of an unarmed black man. This is the first time in state history that a district attorney has been indicted.

Abelove pleaded not guilty to two counts of official misconduct and one count of perjury in connection with the 2016 case where Troy Police Officer Randall French killed the man after a traffic stop ended in a high-speed chase. French fired off eight shots killing 37-year-old victim Edson Thevenin. After the shooting, top officials in the city of Troy all agreed on the same story: Thevenin tried to run over French during the traffic stop.

“As we allege, District Attorney Abelove’s actions violated the law and undermined a criminal investigation,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “The Governor’s Executive Order was designed to restore public confidence in our criminal justice system — yet the actions we detail today only served to further erode that confidence.”

Schneiderman invoked Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2015 Executive Order which requires the attorney general to investigate and prosecute cases where police have killed unarmed citizens.

According to Injustice Today, Abelove was not forthcoming about the details of the case when Schneiderman's Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit requested documents pertaining to the shooting. Instead, Abelove gave an intentionally truncated version of the case details that led to French being cleared of any wrongdoing less than a week after the incident occurred. He convened a grand jury despite Schneiderman's request not to.

At the time of the shooting, two eyewitnesses claimed that the officer wasn't in imminent danger when he fired his weapon through the windshield of Thevenin's vehicle. There is also cell phone footage that undermines Abelove's account of the shooting. Other evidence missing was the autopsy report on Thevenin that had not been completed prior to the grand jury convening.

Abelove additionally granted French immunity for his testimony, preventing authorities from retrying him, The New York Post reports. The decision after the shooting forced Schneiderman to question Abelove's intentions altogether.

Despite the mounting pressure to step down, Abelove proclaims his innocence and will continue to serve as district attorney.

New York District Attorney indicted

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