Sanitary District 1 attorney disqualified, in court March 28

After the Feb. 1 court hearing, Sanitary District 1 is still without a winner  in the election for commissioner between Gabriel Boxer and Gwynette Campbell, which took place in July to determine who would complete the remaining four years of Lino Viola’s five-year term after he stepped down in April.

Boxer, a Hewlett resident, gathered 395 votes to Campbell, an Inwood resident, who received 288 votes. Days after the election, both parties went to court to address the issue of who issued and reviewed the absentee ballot applications and whether they should proceed counting the roughly 900 absentee ballots.

“Likely a sham election from day one,” Boxer said, calling Feb. 1, “a huge day in court.”

Nat Swergold, who was representing both the sanitary district and Campbell, was disqualified from doing that because of a possible conflict of interest.  He potentially was a witness during the election, the judge ruled. Swergold represented the district for more than 50 years.

“We raised questions,” John Ciampoli said, who represents Boxer. “I’m grateful that the court granted our motion for disqualification of the council. I think it is wrong for one attorney to be representing the election authorities and the candidate at the same time and the court recognized that.”

In a previous court hearing, Swergold said he would make available evidence of redacted copies of the absentee ballot applications and sealed envelopes containing the absentee ballots with signatures. Redacted copies block out sensitive information.

Ciampoli said he has since reviewed those pieces of information and said that the signatures did not match the ones on file when someone registered to vote.

Boxer took to social media on a local Five Towns Facebook group on the latest about the ongoing court case. “Why take such an extraordinary step to remove a lawyer?” he posted. “Because amongst other issues, the judge said that Swergold is a potential witness in the investigation over irregularities in the conduct of the election.”

Boxer calls on Campbell to step down. But Ciampoli is optimistic the court will declare his client as the winner in court under two scenarios.

“Certify the results on the basis of the voting machines and who voted in person,” Ciampoli said. “Or do the whole election over under court supervision. At the end of the day, under those two scenarios, I think Gabriel Boxer wins.”

Swergold has previously said that there were no election irregularities. However, Ciampoli thinks otherwise.

“I’ve just begun to scratch the surface,” Ciampoli said. “I have evidence that they did nothing to check the absentee ballot applications before they issued a ballot.”

Boxer said a similar case was adjudicated upstate. A Rensselaer County Board of Elections commissioner, Jason Schofield, 43, of Troy, admitted to applying for ballots using other people’s personal information. He is expecting to face five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and post-imprisonment supervised release of up to three years.

Swergold refused to respond to the Herald’s questions.

The next court date is March 28.

Established in 1929 by the Hempstead Town Board, Sanitary District 1 collects more than 50,000 residents’ recycling and trash at various commercial and institutional properties in the Five Towns and portions of Lynbrook and Green Acres.

Have an opinion on the Sanitary District 1 legal wrangling? Send letter to jbessen@liherald.com.