2 weeks Ago
The final push is on for candidates in the race for the Erie County district attorney’s office, with early voting now open and eight days until the election. Erie County District Attorney candidates James Gardner, left, and Mike Keane, the acting DA, right, participate in a debate at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute on Thursday, Oct.
24, 2024. Acting District Attorney Michael Keane, who took over at the end of March after John Flynn stepped down to take a position at a private law firm, is the endorsed Democrat and also appears on the Working Families Party line. His challenger, endorsed Republican James Gardner, is a confidential law clerk to Erie County Judge Kenneth Case.
He also appears on the Conservative party line. Candidates for Erie County District Attorney laid out their platforms and answered questions about their campaigns at the 40th annual St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute Political debate in the gymnasium at the Kenmore Avenue high school in the Town of Tonawanda.
Gardner, who lives in Buffalo with his wife Abby and their three children, has worked for Case since 2017 and was an assistant district attorney in Erie County from 2010 to 2017. He has said his time in the courts and DA’s office give him the unique experience of seeing the inner workings of the justice system from different perspectives. “I was in the office for seven years,” Gardner said.
“I know how it should run. I know how crimes should be prosecuted. I know how to manage lawyers.
And I had a fantastic experience under leadership that was very effective in managing that office.” Keane lives in Orchard Park with his wife, State Supreme Court Justice Lynn Wessel Keane, and their four children. He served as an assistant district attorney for Erie County from 1994 to 1999, before working as a defense lawyer and civil attorney at private firms.
After winning the office in 2016, Flynn recruited Keane to become his deputy district attorney, a role he held until Flynn’s resignation. He is a member of a South Buffalo family with a long history of public service. His father Richard Keane was a state Assembly member for more than two decades and served in public office for more than 30 years.
His uncle James Keane was a Buffalo Common Council member and deputy county executive under former County Executive Dennis Gorski. His brother Kevin Keane is a Buffalo City Court Judge. And many members in his extended family work as police officers, firefighters and nurses throughout the region.
Keane’s campaign has focused on his experience as a prosecutor and initiatives he has led as deputy and acting district attorney. He has also touted his endorsements from the labor community, with more than 20 unions, including those representing Buffalo police and firefighters, the New York State Police and the Amherst Police Department lining up to back him. “I am one that thinks collaboratively,” Keane said.
“I think you get the best ideas from the people that are in the trenches and our people are constantly coming with suggestions about how we can do things smarter, how can we work more efficiently.” Erie County District Attorney candidate and Acting DA Mike Keane and rival candidate James Gardner. Central to the race has been the revelation of Keane’s 1985 arrest for driving while intoxicated, assault and resisting arrest at the age of 21.
Keane was pulled over and injured an officer while trying to break free in the Albany suburb of Colonie while in his senior year at Siena College. He later pleaded the driving while intoxicated charge to driving while ability impaired, a moving violation. The other two charges were dismissed by a judge.
Sealed reports on the arrest were erroneously released to the Gardner campaign by a town of Colonie employee, according to a letter from the town attorney. The campaign gave those reports to WGRZ, which first reported the arrest. After the WGRZ report first aired, the Gardner campaign released ads blasting Keane as a criminal and photoshopping current photos of the Democrat to look like a mugshot.
Keane and his supporters have criticized the ad as dishonest and pointed to the fact that records that were meant to be sealed were released in error. Keane has repeatedly apologized for his actions and said he learned from his mistakes, highlighting his successful career as a prosecutor and attorney in the 39 years since the incident. “I have never been convicted of a crime, and to characterize that as me being a criminal is completely wrong,” Keane said.
“People that get accused of crimes have their charges dismissed.” Gardner has defended the advertisement, saying that it was truthful to describe Keane as a criminal, because he had committed the crimes he was arrested for, even if he wasn’t convicted. “I can’t control the fact that I don’t have a mugshot of Mr.
Keane when he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and felony assault of a police officer,” Gardner said. “I think the people, the voters, need to know. The voters have a right to know who it is that we’re talking about.
” The race has also included discussion of state laws and the issues that some of them have caused for prosecutors in recent years, a subject area where the candidates sometimes find agreement. Both Gardner and Keane have described the state’s bail reform law passed in 2020, which limits the crimes for which judges can set bail or hold people accused of crimes in custody without offering bail to most violent felonies and a handful of misdemeanors, as flawed. The law has been amended three times since it was first passed, giving more discretion to judges in setting bail or remanding defendants with each set of changes.
Keane has said repeatedly that his office and district attorneys across the state were not able to give input on the original law and have been lobbying for changes, many of which have been included in the passed amendments, since the law was first passed. “The bail statute certainly has some flaws,” Keane said. “They need to be addressed.
” Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane has outraised his opponent, James Gardner, but Gardner has outspent Keane. While Gardner has acknowledged that district attorneys play no direct role in setting the laws established by the state government, he has said that Keane has not done enough to lobby for changes to bail and discovery reform, and other criminal justice reforms that have come out of state government. He has also linked Keane’s Democrat and Working Families Party endorsements and the criminal justice reforms advocated by some members of those parties.
“There is an important function as the chief law enforcement officer to really advocate for better laws,” Gardner said. “And the problem is that, when you’re a member of the same political party as the legislature and the governor, it doesn’t behoove you to stick your head up and complain and criticize the laws that they pass.” In terms of running the office, Gardner has been critical of the handling of several cases in Keane’s time as deputy and acting district attorney.
He pointed to the case of Jamien Harris, who was accused of shooting and killing her 90-year-old grandmother. Case, Gardner’s boss, dismissed the murder charges because, he wrote in his decision, prosecutors failed to show new evidence after accepting a guilty plea on illegal weapons charges for Harris. Prosecutors argued that the DNA evidence they presented to the grand jury that indicted Harris met the standard of new evidence.
During a recent debate the candidates were also asked about the case of Ryan Stencel, a Lancaster man accused of driving under the influence and at high rates of speed prior to a crash that killed two women. The judge on that case dismissed the charges based on procedural issues. “That’s the sort of core competence that is lacking under this leadership,” Gardner said.
“It’s something that has to be addressed immediately.” Keane has defended the work of his attorneys and highlighted efforts to combine units within the office to make operations more efficient and effective. And he has highlighted the work his office does with victims of crimes, saying his office has worked hard to bring them justice.
“I think we have to return to looking at the rights of the victims, put the system more in balance as we fight for the victims every day, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Keane said. While the Keane campaign has significantly outraised the Gardner campaign, Gardner has spent more. According to the most recent Board of Elections records, Keane has raised $556,799 to Gardner’s $338,126.
Those figures include loans of $50,000 for Keane and $220,000 for Gardner to their own campaigns. Meanwhile, Gardner has spent $305,955 to Keane’s $184,447. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
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