By Jake Palmateer
Staff Writer
ONEONTA _ Jason Corrigan asked his roommates to keep an eye out for police days before he phoned in a fake burglary report to Otsego County 911 last fall, according to court documents.
City police said they were about to arrest the former mayoral candidate at the Milne Library on the State University College at Oneonta campus when Corrigan called 911 at 11:44 a.m.
Nov. 30 to report his apartment was being burglarized.
Oneonta police had two warrants: One involving second-degree aggravated harassment charges for allegedly leaving a threatening message on former Mayor Kim Muller's voicemail Nov. 3, the night of the election; and a second involving second-degree harassment and forcible touching charges for allegedly fondling and harassing a female SUNY Oneonta student.
During the 911 call, Corrigan, a senior at SUNY Oneonta, said he had received a text message from a roommate about the break-in, prompting his call, according to police.
Police previously said the 911 call prompted them to immediately respond to what they thought was a burglary-in-progress on Main Street and allowed Corrigan to evade arrest.
In a sworn deposition, Rafet Abdeljabbar, Corrigan's 20-year-old roommate, said he sent Corrigan a text message at about that time but could not recall what it was about.
"At no time did I text Jason Corrigan telling him that our apartment at 211 Main St. was being burglarized," Abdeljabbar said in the deposition.
In the deposition, which was taken Feb. 2, Abdeljabbar also said Corrigan had warned him and other roommates in the days before not to let police into their apartment if they came to the door.
Corrigan, 21, was arrested on the second-degree aggravated harassment, harassment and forcible touching charges Dec. 2 when he turned himself in at the police station.
He was arrested last week on a charge of falsely reporting an incident for the alleged fake 911 call.
Corrigan remains free on $500 bail, and his case remains adjourned until April 6, according to officials at Oneonta City Court. The original judge assigned to the case, Judge Lucy Bernier, recused herself in December, and that led to an original adjournment. Muller had worked on Bernier's re-election campaign.
Judge Richard McVinney, appointed to the second spot on the city court bench in January by Mayor Dick Miller, recused himself from the case Tuesday after a motion from Corrigan's attorney, Joseph Ermeti, court officials said. A judge from outside the area will be assigned to the case, they said.
In other court documents viewed Monday by The Daily Star, Muller said she felt threatened by a call Corrigan made to her.
In the expletive-laced message, a transcript of which was included in court records, a person identified as Corrigan threatens to "take" Muller's job for an e-mail she sent to former students.
"The extremely vulgar content of the message was alarming and disturbing to me. I fear that he may attempt to physically harm me or vandalize my property," Muller said in a sworn deposition.
Corrigan said Monday he does not recall what he said to Muller during the call and declined to comment any further on the case.
Muller, a Democrat who also worked on Miller's mayoral campaign, said Monday she wanted the "facts to speak for themselves" and said there was a pattern of behavior by Corrigan leading up to the post-election call. She declined to comment further on the case.
Dick Miller, an independent running on the Democratic line, took 50.2 percent of the vote during the mayoral election, while Erik Miller, a 35-year-old Republican and city alderman, won 41.6 percent. Corrigan took 8.2 percent on his independent party line. Dick Miller won the Democratic primary over Corrigan with 77 percent of the vote.
In a previous e-mail to The Daily Star, Corrigan said he was being targeted by the police for exposing the city "elite."
