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Between 1993 and 2000, Democratic Assessor candidate David P. Gordineer appeared in Copake Town Court to answer several criminal charges.
"I made a mistake, and I'll apologize to you or anybody," Mr. Phesay said in a phone interview October 29.
The candidate said he was sorry he had no memory of the matter when contacted the day before. He said his memory was refreshed after he looked over case-related documents faxed to him by The Independent.
"It's a thing of the past and I'm ashamed of it, but we need to move on and not get into mudslinging," he said.
Mr. Phesay pointed out that restitution was made in all three cases in which he misappropriated funds from people to whom he sold policies, and the matter, which was handled administratively, not criminally, is "ancient history."
Information about Mr. Phesay's past surfaced on the Internet when a Copake voter Googled the candidate's name and asked The Independent to look into what the voter had found.
According to a consent order dated July 14, 1999 and signed by both the deputy insurance commissioner of Pennsylvania, Helfried G. LeBlanc, and the respondent, Mr. Phesay, was a nonresident licensed insurance agent, whose employment with the Lutheran Brotherhood Insurance Company, now called Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, was terminated January 4, 1999 "because he misappropriated insurance funds from three policyholders."
Melissa Fox, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, described misappropriation of funds from insurance premium dollars as being "that person illegally kept the money."
Specifically, according to the consent order, the misappropriation occurred on four dates in 1998 starting on March 31, when Mr. Phesay took $9,615, and again on May 28, when he took $6,064.82, both "unauthorized loans" from the policy of a Chatham man.
On June 19, he misappropriated $20,000 in premium funds from the policy of a Hudson woman, and on September 1, he took an unauthorized loan of $8,200 from the policy of a Craryville woman.
Following an investigation by the insurance company, Mr. Phesay made restitution to the accounts of all three victims on April 26, 1999.
The Independent reached one of the victims by phone this week, and while he said he knew Mr. Phesay and had purchased a policy from him, he said he did not know anything about the misappropriation of any funds.
Ms. Fox, with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, said that all the officials from her department who had direct knowledge of the case have since retired, but she speculated that the victim contacted by The Independent may have had restitution made to him through the insurance company and did not receive anything directly from Mr. Phesay.
As a result of the matter, which was reported to Pennsylvania insurance regulators by the insurance company, Mr. Phesay's non-resident license as an insurance agent in the Keystone State was revoked.
Andy Mais, spokesman for the New York State Insurance Department, said Mr. Phesay had an insurance agent license in New York during the 1990s, but it expired. He said his department had been notified of Mr. Phesay's license revocation in Pennsylvania as a routine procedure.
Mr. Phesay said he had just become aware that town Democrats had seized on the insurance incidents and made it the subject of a postcard mailing in which they state: "The facts are clear. Ken Phesay is not an assessor with a clean record." The mailing implies that the Democratic candidate, Mr. Gordineer, has a clean record.
"He is far from being sweet and innocent," said Mr. Phesay, who provided The Independent with four Certificates of Disposition from Copake Town Court, all signed by Justice Brian J. Herman, which list nine charges brought against Mr. Gordineer between 1993 and 2000, all but four of which were dismissed.
In 1993, when he was 26, Mr. Gordineer was charged with driving while intoxicated. "I was young and foolish and used bad judgment," Mr. Gordineer told The Independent October 30. The charge was settled by conditional discharge.
In 1997, Mr. Gordineer was charged with resisting arrest. He said he and his wife had been out for dinner on their wedding anniversary and had left their children in the care of a babysitter.
He said his son had been playing with another boy, when a third child came over and beat up his son's playmate, knocked him to the ground and "molested" him.
When Mr. Gordineer arrived home from dinner to find the police there, he was apprised of the situation by the babysitter. He said he went over to where the police were and was told by them that the situation was "none of his business." He said he became angry and pushed the police officer, who sprayed him with mace. He subsequently paid a $100 fine.
In 1998, Mr. Gordineer was charged with second degree harassment for which he was fined $100. Mr. Gordineer said a relative who had a mental illness and who he had taken into his home to live, was having a "spell" during which he became "nasty with me and my children, and I had to defend myself and my children."
In 2000, Mr. Gordineer was charged with failure to obey a traffic control device. He said he had received his first speeding ticket, but the state trooper who issued the ticket suggested that he plead not guilty and he would reduce the charge. The charge was reduced to failure to obey a traffic control device and Mr. Gordineer paid a $70 fine.
"I'm just an average person," said Mr. Gordineer, "everybody makes mistakes."
To contact Diane Valden email dvalden@IndeNews.com.
