John Kennedy O'Hara
Mr. O’Hara is a rare legal specimen, doubtless the only person you will ever meet convicted (in 1997) of the felonious crime “not voting from his principal address”. Having two addresses in the same voting district – one his, one his girlfriend’s – left him vulnerable to the charge of “filing a false registration” and “illegal voting”. While in the past all such cases in New York State have been bought into civil, not criminal, court and all have found for the defendant, such was not the case for Mr. O’Hara, who upon conviction not only faced jail time but also had his license to practice law revoked.
Why the special treatment for John Kennedy O’Hara?
It seems Mr. O’Hara, a life-long political junkie, had a foolish habit of running for office without first securing the pre-approval of his district’s Democratic political machine. Plus he was – and still is – an ardent “reformer”, openly expressing his idea on how to fix Brooklyn’s notoriously corrupt municipal, in his words “blow it up, burn it to the ground. Real reform means the system as it stands has to be annihilated”. (2)
He earned for himself a lifetime of hatred in local political circles, as he managed to get himself onto the ballot year after year despite New York State election laws specifically designed to prevent it. In the meat grinder that is New York City politics, Mr. O’Hara was bound to morph into a target: the citizen who became a little too civic-minded – and he did.
Now I grant, John O’Hara falls into the category of lunatic, as who in God’s name would wish to associate with the likes of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes & Pals, the vile denizens of Brooklyn political upper crust? Is there something wrong with Mr. O’Hara?
In his defense, while my Mom always imparted the wisdom of “show me your friends, show me yourself”, John O’Hara is most certainly not considered a friend in the type of circles Brooklyn’s powerful tend to muck about with, so that is a plus for him.
In addition, Mr. O’Hara freely admits his attraction to hanging about in the vicinity of such bottom feeders is a mental disease: “they haven’t found the medication for a guy like me” he relates, and I can doubtless second that motion, but here he is. And here we are.
As the State of New York Committee on Character and Fitness noted, “Mr. O’Hara, accurately it appears, claims the machine went gunning for him.” (3) Mr. O’Hara aroused such enmity from the machine as to have sent Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes onto a now 12 year long extra-legal jihad against him (battling through three trials and nine appeals) at a cost to the New York taxpayers of millions.
Upon review of the facts that committee unanimously agreed to fully reinstate Mr. O’Hara – still a convicted felon – as a practicing attorney and in addition, in a move as rare as a successful Mets baseball season, proclaimed Mr. O’Hara shouldn’t have been prosecuted in the first place.
Mr. O’Hara falls into that category of victim that may accurately be branded with the tag “there but for the grace of God go I”. If Mr. O’Hara can be prosecuted under such an idiotic, vague law then we all may be. He is far more than a victim – he’s a symbol, the embodiment of a worthy cause, that of an ordinary everyday man unfairly targeted by the rich and powerful for the crime of rocking a political boat.
When I queried him on my stated policy that entire classes of voters (government employees) should be forbidden to vote, he responded in a very libertarian manner that made me re-think my position, that we “shouldn’t excluded entire classes of people like that”. Mr. O’Hara seems to actually think about matters such as these, and maybe we should encourage such people to try for political office.
He makes a very convincing argument to a nihilist such as myself that politics is “too important for everyone to just walk away” and that to gain office is “the most important profession there is”. There is a good deal of truth in what he says and, more importantly, I would far prefer to live under a New York City with a John O’Hara as mayor than a Michael Bloomberg.
A spokesman for DA Hynes’s office replied to all the recent developments (such as an entire body of state lawyers going over to Mr. O’Hara’s side) with a curt reminder that Mr. O’Hara is still “a felon”. (4) While that is certainly correct it begs the question: justly so? An entire organization of Mr. Hynes’s peers has answered in the negative.
On October 6th, the Appellate Division of New York State’s Supreme Court directed the Clerk of the Court “to restore the name of John Kennedy O’Hara to the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law.” (5) An excellent beginning, yet there is one final step to take so justice may be done; and with the federal Supreme Court refusing to hear an appeal it is a step that only New York Governor Paterson can perform, spurred on by readers such as you.
I ask a small favor from you, reader, to please click that link and sign the petition on Mr. O’Hara’s behalf. If Mr. O’Hara can be tried and convicted under such an arcane, vaguely written law, we all can be. It is high time for the governor to pardon Mr. O’Hara, to remove the stain of this undeserved felony conviction, to see that finally, twelve long years after the fact, John Kennedy O’Hara’s stubborn fight for justice finally bears fruit – for all of us.
(1) Wolfe, Thomas, The Bonfire of the Vanities, (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987) p.360
(2) Harper’s Magazine, Meet The New Boss: Man Versus Machine Politics in Brooklyn, By Christopher Ketcham December 2004
(3) Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division – 2nd Department, Committee on Character and Fitness: In the Matter of John Kennedy O’Hara, May, 21, 2009: p.2
(4) The Brooklyn Paper, Finally! O’Hara Beats Hynes! By Will Yakowicz, October 16, 2009
(5) Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department: In the Matter of John Kennedy O’Hara, a disbarred attorney, October 6, 2009: p.2
C.J. Maloney lives and works in New York City. His first book (on Arthurdale, West Virginia during the New Deal) is to be released by John Wiley and Sons in February 2011.