Police investigating SA charges

After ten long months of little progress, the case against the Student Association's executive board for election violations is suddenly moving forward on two fronts, one of which has already led to an investigation headed by University Police.

John Grela, director of Public Safety, confirmed that charges were filed Friday with University Police, and Investigator Daniel Jay is handling the situation.

"Based on whatever we turn up, we will proceed with any charges, campus or external," Grela said.

The charges of bribery, slander and perjury were originally filed almost a year ago with SA's Election & Credentials Committee, but SA has yet to make a ruling. According to SA President Dela Yador, a hearing on the case separate from the police investigation is scheduled for Feb. 1 to discuss the issue and possibly make a judgment.

Matthew Pelkey, whose student party originally filed the charges with the E&C Committee and now the police, said he was unaware of the SA hearing when he contacted Investigator Jay. Any SA decision, however, would not make a difference now, as either side is likely to appeal to the Student-wide Judiciary, to which Jay will present his findings.

All of the charges stem from last spring's SA election, during which one of Pelkey's running mates, Francisco Baiocchi, recorded a conversation with an opponent who offered Baiocchi a future job with SA on the condition he drop from the race. That opponent was Mazin Kased, of the Elevation '05 party that went on to sweep the election. Kased is now SA treasurer. Pelkey, Baiocchi, and Elizabeth Salzman were running for SUNY SA delegate positions.

Pelkey says that his primary hope at this point is that "whatever said remedies are available in the SA constitution, that those laws be applied to the candidates."

The consequence for such election violations includes either community service hours or expulsion from the election. And although the election was last March, Pelkey said he would still like to see Kased thrown out of office, if not along with the entire E-board of President Dela Yador and Vice President Sonia Kang.

"To just wipe it under the rug and ignore it while they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars is ludicrous," Pelkey said. "We're talking money here. This is a legitimate problem."

Because of the money involved, as well as SA's inaction on the issue, Pelkey said he is also considering a civil lawsuit, regardless of the police investigation's outcome. In such a lawsuit, Pelkey said he would seek that SA's nearly $80 mandatory fee be reimbursed for himself, Baiocchi, and Salzman because their due process was violated.

He would also seek that every discretionary dollar spent by this SA administration be reimbursed and redistributed to the undergraduate student body. Because Kased should never have been in office, Pelkey argues, money spent on everything from club activities to Fall Fest was spent illegitimately.

"It's not like they don't have the money there," he said. "They remodeled the office this summer. They spent money that doesn't need to be spent. Obviously, I don't want it to hurt clubs, but there has to be some sort of accountability."

Kased, who has denied any wrongdoing, said it would make no sense trying to get back the money already spent.

"I would feel bad to call whoever's planning the Linda Yalem run to tell them 'I have to take back the check I gave you,'" Kased said.

Pelkey said he understands such a move for total redistribution would probably not succeed and recognizes its impractical nature.

"Certainly I don't want to hurt clubs or students," Pelkey said. "That would be the opposite of everything we stood for when we first ran."

Re-emphasizing that he has no hard feelings for Pelkey, Yador said he simply wants the whole issue resolved and over with. As for the police investigation, Yador said: "If they're going to do a hearing at the same time as the E&C and the Assembly...it weakens our process definitely."

Pelkey would have gone right to the civil lawsuit, or even a criminal one, if he hadn't recently sought advice from a contact he has on the SUNY Board of Trustees. Pelkey declined to give the board member's name but said he was asked to submit the details and complaints of the SA case to SUNY staff member Andrew Edwards.

SUNY spokesman David Henahan said the issue never came before the board, but "conversations may occur about any number of subjects."

From there, Pelkey said he was advised to contact University Police, who, it turned out, had already been notified by UB's Dean of Students Barbara Ricotta. Ricotta said the SA case had come up in discussion and the Office of Student Affairs realized it still hadn't been resolved.

"I don't know why Matt didn't go to University Police in the first place," Ricotta said, "but I said if this hasn't been resolved and there is really is a bribery situation, then University Police should look into it and see if there's anything from there."

After 10 months of frustration, Pelkey said he is merely glad the case is moving somewhere, especially towards the Student-wide Judiciary. Last March, Pelkey tried to get the case into the judiciary's hands but was directed back to the E&C Committee.

"I got pushed around, and where I ended up and were I started were actually the same place," he said.

Pelkey acknowledged that some students might be tired of the drawn-out allegations, but this case, he said, is a chance for change and accountability.

Ricotta said she encourages the appropriate parties to take action, and that everyone's due process in this situation is long overdue.

"I don't know enough about the case," she said, "but the only opinion I do have is that it's taking too long to resolve."