John O'Hara (Brooklyn politician)
Encyclopedia
John Kennedy O'Hara is an American
lawyer
(disbarred
1997; reinstated 2009), active in Brooklyn
, New York politics as a political reformer opposed to Brooklyn's Democratic machine. He is also the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York State since Susan B. Anthony
was convicted for voting (before women had the right to vote) in 1872.
The son of working-class Irish American
s and the first in his family to go to college, O'Hara's interest in politics was clear even in childhood: at the age of seven he wrote to his congressman complaining that he didn't have the right to vote but was still required to pay sales tax on toys. At the age of 11 he worked on George McGovern
's campaign in the 1972 presidential election. At 16, his investigative reporting for his school newspaper resulted in the school principal being fired for lacking the appropriate license for his job.
As a teenager and young man, he was involved with Brooklyn's Reform Democrat
s against the Meade Esposito machine, but became disillusioned by 1984 as he saw them (in his view) turning into an alternative political machine under Jim Brennan. In 1990, after working his way through City University of New York School of Law
driving a taxi
, he passed the New York bar exam
, March 27, 1991 and became a Wall Street
attorney.
In the 1990s, he ran for office six times in primary election
s against Brennan Democrats, never winning but coming within a few hundred votes in a 1992 election for New York State Assembly
. Getting on the ballot so many times despite machine opposition was a feat in New York, a state which "for years produced fifty percent of all election litigation in the United States."
In 1996, O'Hara was charged under an almost completely disused law requiring that one's voting registration must be based on one's "fixed permanent and principal home": People v. O'Hara became the first-ever conviction under this law. For twelve months in 1992-1993, he lived in two apartments in Brooklyn. Both were in the same voting district. He had never voted more than once in any election. The charge was that he had claimed the wrong one for voting purposes.
Refusing any plea deal, after a mistrial and a reversal on appeal, O'Hara was convicted of a felony
in July 1999, sentenced to five years probation, an $20,000 fine, and 1,500 hours of community service picking up garbage. The case also resulted in his disbarment on November 10, 1997.
He continued to appeal his case, and continued campaigning on behalf of other anti-machine candidates, especially for judgeships. O'Hara-backed Peter Sweeney and Eileen Nadelson won judgeships in 2001 and several other insurgent candidates have won Brooklyn judgeships since then. An attempt was made to prosecute Nadelson for election fraud for false petitions; these turned out to be obviously false petitions by "a person or persons unknown to [her] campaign." Civil rights
lawyer Sandra Roper
, backed by O'Hara in a failed 2001 candidacy against District Attorney Hynes was prosecuted for what Christopher Ketcham says "most observers agree is an unfounded charge of grand larceny
". Roper's trial ended in a mistrial on November 8, 2004. A Brooklyn judge then dismissed the charges February 28, 2005.
On October 29, 2008, O'Hara's petition for re-admission to the bar was submitted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department to the Committee on Character And Fitness. The Full Committee on Character And Fitness for the Second, Tenth, Eleventh and Thirteenth districts, voted unanimously on June 29, 2009, to approve the subcommittee's recommendation that O'Hara's application for reinstatement be granted. On October 6, 2009, O'Hara was reinstated as an attorney by the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department. However, his conviction still stands.
In recommending O'Hara's reinstatement, the subcommittee of the Committee on Character And Fitness wrote, "Mr. O'Hara, accurately it appears, claims that the machine went gunning for him and pounced on his change of residency calling it election fraud. … Although the committee has grave doubts that Mr. O'Hara did anything that justified his criminal prosecution, even if Mr. O'Hara was guilty of the offense of which he was convicted, we believe Mr. O'Hara now has the requisite character and fitness to be reinstated as a member of the bar." In December 2009, the New York Daily News
urged a gubernatorial pardon to clear O'Hara's name, saying "It is beyond doubt that O'Hara was the victim of a criminal justice vendetta ginned up by enemies in the Brooklyn Democratic Party… At heart, the case was an example of selective and overzealous prosecution."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
(disbarred
Disbarment
Disbarment is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking his or her law license or admission to practice law...
1997; reinstated 2009), active in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York politics as a political reformer opposed to Brooklyn's Democratic machine. He is also the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York State since Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
was convicted for voting (before women had the right to vote) in 1872.
The son of working-class Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
s and the first in his family to go to college, O'Hara's interest in politics was clear even in childhood: at the age of seven he wrote to his congressman complaining that he didn't have the right to vote but was still required to pay sales tax on toys. At the age of 11 he worked on George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
's campaign in the 1972 presidential election. At 16, his investigative reporting for his school newspaper resulted in the school principal being fired for lacking the appropriate license for his job.
As a teenager and young man, he was involved with Brooklyn's Reform Democrat
Reform Democrat
Reform Democrats in the United States are members of the Democratic Party who are opposed to the Democratic political machines of their respective cities, counties, or states or to analogous machine politics at a national level. The term is usually used in contrast with machine-affiliated Regular...
s against the Meade Esposito machine, but became disillusioned by 1984 as he saw them (in his view) turning into an alternative political machine under Jim Brennan. In 1990, after working his way through City University of New York School of Law
City University of New York School of Law
CUNY School of Law is a law school in New York City, founded in 1983.In 1981, CUNY hired Charles Halpern to be its founding Dean. This law school was established as a public interest law school. The curriculum integrates clinical teaching methods with traditional areas of legal study.In Spring of...
driving a taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
, he passed the New York bar exam
Bar examination
A bar examination is an examination conducted at regular intervals to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction.-Brazil:...
, March 27, 1991 and became a Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
attorney.
In the 1990s, he ran for office six times in primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s against Brennan Democrats, never winning but coming within a few hundred votes in a 1992 election for New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
. Getting on the ballot so many times despite machine opposition was a feat in New York, a state which "for years produced fifty percent of all election litigation in the United States."
In 1996, O'Hara was charged under an almost completely disused law requiring that one's voting registration must be based on one's "fixed permanent and principal home": People v. O'Hara became the first-ever conviction under this law. For twelve months in 1992-1993, he lived in two apartments in Brooklyn. Both were in the same voting district. He had never voted more than once in any election. The charge was that he had claimed the wrong one for voting purposes.
Refusing any plea deal, after a mistrial and a reversal on appeal, O'Hara was convicted of a felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
in July 1999, sentenced to five years probation, an $20,000 fine, and 1,500 hours of community service picking up garbage. The case also resulted in his disbarment on November 10, 1997.
He continued to appeal his case, and continued campaigning on behalf of other anti-machine candidates, especially for judgeships. O'Hara-backed Peter Sweeney and Eileen Nadelson won judgeships in 2001 and several other insurgent candidates have won Brooklyn judgeships since then. An attempt was made to prosecute Nadelson for election fraud for false petitions; these turned out to be obviously false petitions by "a person or persons unknown to [her] campaign." Civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
lawyer Sandra Roper
Sandra Roper
Sandra Roper is an American civil rights lawyer and failed 2001 candidate for district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. An opponent of the Jim Brennan political machine and a political associate of John O'Hara, she is being prosecuted for what Christopher Ketcham says "most observers agree is an...
, backed by O'Hara in a failed 2001 candidacy against District Attorney Hynes was prosecuted for what Christopher Ketcham says "most observers agree is an unfounded charge of grand larceny
Grand Larceny
Grand Larceny is a 1987 thriller film directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Marilu Henner, Ian McShane, Omar Sharif and Louis Jourdan.-Plot summary:...
". Roper's trial ended in a mistrial on November 8, 2004. A Brooklyn judge then dismissed the charges February 28, 2005.
On October 29, 2008, O'Hara's petition for re-admission to the bar was submitted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department to the Committee on Character And Fitness. The Full Committee on Character And Fitness for the Second, Tenth, Eleventh and Thirteenth districts, voted unanimously on June 29, 2009, to approve the subcommittee's recommendation that O'Hara's application for reinstatement be granted. On October 6, 2009, O'Hara was reinstated as an attorney by the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department. However, his conviction still stands.
In recommending O'Hara's reinstatement, the subcommittee of the Committee on Character And Fitness wrote, "Mr. O'Hara, accurately it appears, claims that the machine went gunning for him and pounced on his change of residency calling it election fraud. … Although the committee has grave doubts that Mr. O'Hara did anything that justified his criminal prosecution, even if Mr. O'Hara was guilty of the offense of which he was convicted, we believe Mr. O'Hara now has the requisite character and fitness to be reinstated as a member of the bar." In December 2009, the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
urged a gubernatorial pardon to clear O'Hara's name, saying "It is beyond doubt that O'Hara was the victim of a criminal justice vendetta ginned up by enemies in the Brooklyn Democratic Party… At heart, the case was an example of selective and overzealous prosecution."
External links
- "No. 78 People v. John O'Hara", the official notice of O'Hara's April 4, 2001 appeal hearing.
- http://www.freejohnohara.com/, a support site for O'Hara during his case; includes various relevant newspaper articles and legal documents