Cheektowaga, NY (WBEN) A former Assemblymember admits she violated the state's code of ethics when she had an affair with one of her staffers.
Angela Wozniak admitted to JCOPE she violated Public Officers Law by making certain personnel decisions related to her Director of Legislation, Elias Farah after having engaged in a brief consensual sexual relationship. In September of 2016, Farah commenced a civil lawsuit against Wozniak, JCOPE investigators say the relationship between Wozniak and Farah began consensually in 2015. Farah said he tried to break things off, but Wozniak resisted. The investigators said Wozniak ended the sexual component of her relationship with Farah after she told her husband of the affair. Investigators determined Wozniak banned Farah from working in the district office and Wozniak falsely disparaged him.
"The ethics committee unanimously agrees that Assembly Member Wozniak retaliated against her director of legislation by tarnishing his reputation to the person who had recommended him, and through her counsel identifying him by name to the press as the complaining party, as well as making other statements to the press that are reasonably likely to harm the director of legislation's reputation in express violation of the ethics committee's explicit notice to refrain from any breach of confidentiality," said investigators..
State of New York Assembly, Carl Heastie, the State of New York and others in New York State Supreme Court in Erie County; this lawsuit remains pending.
Wozniak was elected to replace former Assembly Member Dennis Gabryszak after he resigned from office amid investigations into his own sexual misconduct in the work place. In 2015, JCOPE issued a Substantial Basis Investigation Report with findings against Gabryszak for inappropriate sexually-charged conduct and improperly using State resources for a re-election campaign. The LEC ultimately fined Gabryszak $100,000 in the wake of that investigation report.
A former aide to Gabryszak recently settled her civil lawsuit with New York State for $125,000. Lawsuits brought by four other former aides are still pending.
Meanwhile, a former state Senate staffer also admitted to violations of the Public Officers Law. Christopher Savage, the former acting Chief of Staff to former State Senator Marc Panepinto, admitted to violating Public Officers by trying to dissuade a witness from cooperating with a Commission investigation into allegations that Panepinto made unwanted verbal and sexual advances toward her.
Savage admitted that at Panepinto's direction, he approached the witness, who was a former employee in Panepinto's office, with a job offer arranged by Panepinto or other compensation to induce her to refuse to participate in JCOPE's investigation. JCOPE's investigation had been deferred pending the federal criminal investigation into Panepinto's conduct. S
avage cooperated with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Western New York which led to Panepinto's June 2018 guilty plea to a misdemeanor for his conduct.
After the resolution of the criminal case, Panepinto settled with JCOPE and the LEC in February 2019, paying a $10,000 fine.
