NIAGARA COUNTY: To avoid conflicts, Violante to resign

By Jill Terreri/terrerij@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

March 19, 2007 09:06 pm

— The only candidate for Niagara County district attorney is leaving his public defender post to avoid legal conflicts.
Michael Violante has served as Niagara County’s public defender since 2004, but is stepping down March 30 because should he win the race for district attorney in November, he wouldn’t be able to prosecute any case that was defended by the public defender’s office when he was in charge of it.
David Farrugia, who has worked as a part-time assistant public defender since 1981, is expected to be tapped to replace Violante at tonight’s Legislature meeting.
Farrugia is an attorney in private practice in the City of Lockport.
He said he had never considered becoming the chief public defender.
“The thought never crossed my mind until Mike mentioned it,” he said.
Duties of the public defender include making personnel changes, assigning cases and handing the office’s financial matters.
If Violante takes office in January, there will be nine months in which cases pending in the public defender’s office can be resolved.
Violante said he doesn’t have a problem going from defender to prosecutor.
“No one knows the system better than me,” he said.
If a case needed to be prosecuted and the district attorney had handled the case while he or she was a public defender, a special prosecutor would need to be brought in to handle it.
Niagara County Democrats have not yet recruited a candidate to run against Violante, a Republican.
Violante plans to go to a part-time attorney position in the Department of Social Services where he will be responsible for working to secure child support payments from delinquent parents.
Violante took the job in Social Services to avoid losing health insurance benefits and to ensure his continuity in the state retirement system.
In addition to his term as chief public defender, he worked for the office for five years in the 1970s.
Violante’s salary for his part-time work as public defender was $37,808.