TROY – Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove is portrayed as lying to a county grand jury in 2017 to protect himself from being prosecuted for official misconduct in his probe of a 2016 fatal police shooting incident, according to motions filed by the state attorney general’s office.

Abelove testified before the grand jury that in an earlier 2015 Troy fatal police shooting case that the officer involved did not waive his immunity to being prosecuted, but that did not happen, the attorney general's motions state.

“The evidence also established that Abelove had been present in the grand jury room during this prior immunity waiver. And the evidence further demonstrated that the prior immunity waiver should have been memorable to Abelove because it was preceded by significant discussions with which Abelove was an engaged participant,” the motions state.

The attorney general wants to reinstate a felony perjury count and two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct against Abelove that were dismissed by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Jonathan D. Nichols in June, acting on defense motions. The misconduct charges resulted from Abelove allegedly withholding evidence from the grand jury and not seeking a waiver of immunity from Sgt. Randall French, who was the only person who could be charged in the deadly shooting of drunken driving suspect Edson Thevenin.

Nichols released the prosecution and defense motions at the request of the Times Union. Abelove’s case file was sealed in June after Nichols dismissed the charges. Nichols would have to decide to reinstate charges for the case to continue.

Abelove’s unresolved criminal case was an issue in this season's district attorney’s race. Democratic challenger Mary Pat Donnelly defeated Abelove, a Republican in a 55-45 percent spread on Nov. 6.

Nichols had ruled that indicting Abelove for perjury went beyond Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 163 appointing the special prosecutor to investigate Abelove’s handling of the April 22, 2016 grand jury probe into the Thevenin shooting. Nichols also found that the perjury charge was "so inextricably intertwined” with the misconduct counts that it damaged Abelove’s credibility with the grand jurors.

The attorney general argues that Abelove’s alleged perjured testimony is part of its investigation of the Thevenin grand jury.

“Having already abused the process before one grand jury to benefit French, Abelove perjured himself in front of another grand jury to benefit himself by preventing the grand jury from properly analyzing the very prosecutorial misconduct that the Governor had directed the special prosecutor to investigate," the attorney general's June 27 motion papers state. "Such perjury cannot be characterized as merely 'incidental' to the misdeeds under investigation. To the contrary, such perjury perpetuated Abelove’s failure to discharge lawfully the responsibilities inherent in his office.”

Dismissing the official misconduct charges based on Abelove’s "own falsehoods to the grand jury would undermine the essential truthseeking function of grand jury secrecy,” according to the motions from the Office of Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

Abelove’s attorney, William J. Dreyer of Dreyer Boyajian responded on Sept. 17 that the attorney general’s motion is without merit and rehashes previous arguments.