Ballot fraud testimony interrupted by family death | News

TROY - The trial is being put on hold following the death of the mother of one of the two defendants.

Testimony was supposed to resume at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, but Ed McDonough was just then leaving the nursing home where his 81-year-old mother, Marion, had died about two hours earlier.

Her death was not unexpected; according to his attorney, she had Alzheimer’s, but still, the trial, understandably will be affected as the family lays her to rest.

His attorney says McDonough had spent the last 72 hours at his mother's bedside.

“Well, I think that, while everyone is being considerate, I think they also want to get this case to the jury,” said Brian Premo, McDonough’s attorney.

Two hours later Former City Councilman John Brown resumed his testimony, Brown with a plea deal of just six months in jail for forging ballots and then lying about it to the grand jury.

Brown said last fall he decided “the gig was up. I was caught. I had no reason to continue lying.” He testified he brought the absentee ballots to McDonough, who is the Democratic elections commissioner.

But McDonough's attorney hammered away at Brown, accusing him of lying to get out from under more than three hundred felonies.

Brown said little about Michael LoPorto, the co-defendant in this trial involving voter fraud in the 2009 Working Families Party primary.

As for McDonough, the special prosecutor must convince the jury that brown was lying then but not now.

“Once the people were able to gain the evidence that was very persuasive of his guilt, he came forward and admitted his guilt,” said Special Prosecutor Trey Smith. “So, ultimately it will be a decision for the jury as to whether or not to believe him.”

Judge George Pulver will not hold trial Wednesday so that Edward McDonough and his family can make funeral arrangements for his mother. Then, it resumes on Thursday morning when former City Clerk William McInerney, who also has a plea deal, is expected to take the witness stand, then, half a day of testimony on Friday morning, allowing McDonough the afternoon off, his mom's wake expected to take place that afternoon and night.