Tom Ognibene's ad in the latest Queens Courier asks residents to “re-elect” him to the City Council in the June 3 special election.  read more »

Democratic City Council candidate Elizabeth Crowley, who is running against Anthony Como and others for the seat vacated by Republican Dennis Gallagher, is going after the pet-owner's vote.

Michael Bloomberg just announced that the special election to fill the City Council seat vacated by Republican Dennis Gallagher, who pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct, will be on June 3. The winner of that election will serve until the end of the year. Another election will be held in November to choose a candidate to fill out the remainder of Gallagher's term--until the end of 2009.

But whoever wins on June 3 is likely to hold onto the seat in in November.  read more »

From The Sun:

Council member Dennis Gallagher of Queens has plead guilty to "forcibly touching and sexually abusing" a 52 year-old woman, and will resign from the City Council, according to the Queens District Attorney. Mr. Gallagher will also undergo treatment for alcohol abuse.

More here.

This Presidents' Day, City Council members Dennis Gallagher and Joe Addabbo expressed their respect in a pair of ads that appeared in the February 14 edition of the The Queens Ledger.  read more »

The judge handling the grand jury hearing in the rape case against Dennis Gallagher, Sheri Roman, today dismissed the grand jury, saying in her ruling that the assistant district attorney handling the case was “improper” and caused not only “a risk of prejudice” to the grand jury, but “created actual prejudice.”

District Attorney Richard Brown said he would bring the case before another grand jury.

Gallagher’s lawyer, unsurprisingly, told me he hoped Brown could be persuaded otherwise since, “there never was a rape to begin with.”

A spokesman for Brown could not immediately tell me how many times in the previous year a judge had made a similar ruling.

Here’s an excerpt from Judge Roman's decision, which Gallagher's lawyer emailed to me:  read more »

Kate Lucadamo got word that Dennis Gallagher has been cleared of rape charges.

Gallagher's district office said they're not commenting just yet. But the lawyer who initially handled the matter for the Gallagher, Stephen R. Malher, told me just now, "I would estimate that two-thirds of the questions asked [in front of the grand jury] were totally improper. They had nothing to do and had nothing to do with the issues facing the guy and no one could survive that."

He added, “Now [Queens] D.A. Brown, he has to decide whether to represent the case to the jury, which he has the right to do.”

Malher said he thinks that's unlikely to happen.

A spokesman for the Queens D.A. said a statement is expected in the next half hour.

The unofficial results for the three positions there, according to the city Board of Elections, are:

John Haggerty-320

Marguerite Adams-319

Matt Hunter-258

Bart Bruno-235

Richard Metzger-290

Dennis Gallagher-207

It’s little bit of a blow for organization Republicans, some of whom hoped Gallagher could run to keep the state Senate seat there in Republicans hands. And the top voter-getter in this obscure race was John Haggerty, who, along with his brother, Bart, have been waging a years-long war against county leaders Phil Ragusa and his predecessor, Serph Maltese.

(I’m still waiting to get results on Gallagher’s re-election bid for his County Committee position).

While Ragusa won his race for State County Committee (which functions the same as being a district leader in other counties), another Maltese ally was knocked off the ballot and another is trailing by 28 votes.

Marguerite Adams – executive vice president of the Queens GOP and a senior member of the state committee – is trailing in her State County Committee race to Haggerty ally Virginia Donnelly by 28 votes, according to Bart Haggerty.

Another Maltese ally, Karyn Peterson, was knocked off the ballot and replaced by Janice Bar, Haggerty said.

The City Council just voted 37 to 0 to temporarily remove Councilman Dennis Gallagher from his committees and leadership post following his indictment on rape charges. Another committee is meeting now at 250 Broadway to consider other possible sanctions, which could include removing Gallagher from office (although that seems unlikely since his criminal case is ongoing).

At a press conference before the vote, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that Gallagher had asked to be removed from his positions.

A reader passed along this email that was sent to City Council members a few minutes ago:

Dear Council Members:
Please be advised of the following: Addition

Monday, August 6, 2007

Addition
Committee on Standards and Ethics 12:00 p.m.
Agenda to be announced
Hearing Room – 250 Broadway, 14th Floor

Inez Dickens, Chairperson

The meeting, according to the reader, will deal with Dennis Gallagher's indictment on rape charges. A list of the committee members, who probably will have a much better idea about what happens now, is here.