Senator Rubén Díaz Insists upon Accountability for Theft by the “Politically Correct”

For Immediate Release
February 15, 2011

New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz (D-Bronx) has issued the following statement in response to news reports of a forensic audit conducted for NARAL Pro Choice New York that has alleged financial misconduct dating back to 2008 by Kelli Conlin, its former president who stepped down recently from her post.

“I am calling for the New York State Attorney General’s office to recuse itself from all  investigation or prosecution for Kelli Conlin’s or NARAL’s theft of corporate funds.  The close, personal and political relationship between Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Kelli Conlin during his campaign for Attorney General makes his entire office suspect of gross conflict-of-interest which would prevent it from properly investigating and prosecuting any wrongdoing by Ms. Conlin and NARAL.

The Schneiderman family’s long involvement with NARAL (Irwin Scheniderman has been on NARAL’s board) and Eric Schneiderman’s close relationship with Ms. Conlin makes the proximity of the disclosure of these allegations to his recent election raise questions that Eric Schneiderman could have known about these developing allegations – which were not investigated overnight.

Be that as it may, the proper course of action at this point will be to have a neutral prosecutorial office, such as the US Attorney’s Office, to investigate and prosecute if appropriate.

After the investigation is entirely removed from the jurisdiction of the NYS Attorney General’s office, in the event there is proof of wrong doing, I will be interested in seeing that the US Attorney’s office brings the full weight of its resources down upon Ms. Conlin and her NARAL confederates to the same degree that it was dropped upon former Senator Pedro Espada and those investigated and indicted for similar allegations of wrongdoings.

Considering the extent of allegations of personal enrichment at the expense of a political advocacy group, Ms. Conlin, if found responsible, should be certainly as vilified as Pedro Espada has been for his alleged crimes.”