The man whose Cobleskill trustee candidacy last year sparked a criminal investigation has pleaded guilty, the Schoharie County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday.
In a media release, the office said Robert LaPietra pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of second-degree falsifying business records, which are class A misdemeanors. The plea deal was in satisfaction of a consolidated three-count indictment charging felony first-degree falsifying business records.
LaPietra, who won his trustee bid in November, was arrested Sept. 8 and originally charged with 13 counts of second-degree perjury and 13 counts of offering a false instrument for filing.
In the plea, the release said, LaPietra admitted he was not a resident of the village of Cobleskill and that he had not witnessed all of the signatures as stated on his nominating petitions filed with the Board of Elections.
LaPietra's status as trustee was unclear Tuesday, but New York state law governing village officers reads, in part: "No person, if elected or appointed to such office, shall be eligible to continue to serve therein, who is not a citizen of the United States of America, at least 18 years of age, and a resident of the village."
LaPietra's actual residences are in Morris and the state of Florida, the release said. On his election petition, his address was listed as 784 E. Main St., Cobleskill.
The building listed as LaPietra's home in the village is a commercial property owned by his son. The upper floors of the building had been converted into apartments, Schoharie County Sheriff John Bates previously said.
In September, Bates said law enforcement received complaints that individuals associated with LaPietra were encouraging people to sign the petitions regardless of whether they were village residents.
Under state election law, a candidate must live in the community where he or she is running for office. Signatures on that candidate's nominating petitions must also come from residents of that jurisdiction.
On Tuesday, the district attorney's office said LaPietra was allowed to plead guilty to the reduced charges "because he admitted his criminal acts and because of the difficulty of dealing with highly technical issues involving election law."
The district attorney's office said that difficulty was the fault of state election law, and "if the Board of Elections was empowered by law to verify a candidate's residency, then issues such as these would be eliminated."
Sentencing has been set for July 15.
