TROY — Eight days after Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove lost his 2018 bid for re-election, he emailed copies of sealed records in a politically charged criminal case to his private email account, according to documents obtained by the Times Union.

Abelove sent the files to his Gmail account nearly two years after a judge — citing concerns about the appearance of political motives — removed the district attorney as the prosecutor in the case of three men suspected of leaking a 911 call made by the wife of an Abelove political ally. State Supreme Court Justice Richard M. Koweek subsequently dropped the charges in October 2017 and imposed a sealing order that shielded records in the case from public view.

The 19 emails related to the sealed records that Abelove emailed on Nov. 14, 2018, included the arrest and booking records of the three defendants; correspondence with the special prosecutor who replaced Abelove, Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka; as well as defense motions and court orders including the final sealing order.

After Koweek's order, the files were removed from the county clerk's office where they had previously been available for public viewing. State criminal procedure law states that once a case is dismissed, related files and records in “any court, police agency, or prosecutor's office shall be sealed and not made available to any person or public or private agency.”

Abelove, now in private practice, declined to speak to the Times Union when contacted about the matter last week.

The sealed records were tied to an investigation of the leak of a 911 call made in July 2015 by Melissa Gordon, whose husband, Republican city councilman and Abelove political ally Jim Gordon, was at the time running for Troy mayor against Democrat Patrick Madden.

In the recording — obtained by the Times Union, which reported its contents in October 2015 — Melissa Gordon can be heard telling a dispatcher, "My husband held me down. ... I just want him to leave." Jim Gordon, who was not arrested, later described the episode as "just an argument — it wasn't anything serious."

The couple filed a complaint with Troy police. The investigation targeted Ronald Fountain, a retired Troy detective; Gary Gordon, a former district attorney's investigator (no relation to Jim and Melissa Gordon); and Shane Hug, a former assistant district attorney. After Abelove presented the matter to a Rensselaer County grand jury, the three were indicted in October 2016 on charges that accused them of conspiring to steal a copy of the 911 recording from Troy police.

But six months later, Judge Koweek of Columbia County dismissed that case, ruling that Abelove’s office had improperly instructed the grand jurors. Czajka, the special prosecutor, declined to present it to another grand jury.

The leak-related files were among 264 emails and documents Abelove sent to himself during the last two months of his single term as district attorney following his November 2018 defeat by Democrat Mary Pat Donnelly. The emails were released to the Times Union in response to a Freedom of Information Law request to Rensselaer County seven months ago. The county withheld 61 records, including files detailing the content of the 911 call and another email the county argued was sealed under grand jury confidentiality rules.

The defendants and their attorneys were angered when they learned of Abelove’s emails.

“I am disturbed that a man with no moral scruples now has my personal information including my Social Security number," Hug said after reviewing the emails. Gary Gordon said it displayed Abelove's "malice."

Attorney Joseph Ahearn, who represented Fountain, stated that Abelove's action “violates the terms of the sealing order issued in 2017. I have never seen anyone intentionally violate a sealing order — including a prosecutor, police officers or any other person.”

In an odd twist, Abelove in the spring of 2019 filed a FOIL request with the city of Troy seeking police department files regarding the investigation of the 911 leak case — a request that would have sought the very records Abelove had sent to himself just a few months earlier.

The city rejected Abelove’s request. Troy Corporation Counsel James Caruso told the former prosecutor in a June 28, 2019, letter that as district attorney he would have had “actual, or at a minimum, constructive knowledge” of the sealing order. " ... The fact remains that the Court Sealing Notice does exist and the Troy Police Department is barred from releasing those records to you.”

The state District Attorneys Association would not comment on the specifics of the matter, but said it expects prosecutors to obey the law. A spokeswoman for Donnelly, who took office as district attorney in January 2019, declined to comment.

Abelove has personal experience with sealing orders — as a criminal defendant.

Court records in a pending criminal case against him were briefly sealed in June 2018 after acting state Supreme Court Justice Jonathan D. Nichols of Columbia County tossed out an indictment that accused Abelove of lying to a grand jury about his handling of the investigation of the April 2016 fatal police shooting of drunken-driving suspect Edson Thevenin during a traffic stop in Troy. Abelove allowed the officer who shot Thevenin, Sgt. Randall French, to testify without waiving his right to immunity, a move that effectively barred anyone from bringing charges against the officer.

The state attorney general’s office appealed Nichols decision, and the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court reinstated the charges against the former prosecutor. Abelove’s attorneys recently asked the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, to reverse that decision.

Among the other emails Abelove sent to his private account were copies of his correspondence with Grant Garramone, co-chairman of the district attorneys association's Forfeiture Law Advisory Group and a longtime member of the Oneida County district attorney’s office.

Abelove asked in a Nov. 19, 2018, exchange if forfeiture funds from criminal cases received by the district attorney’s office could be used "to pay private attorney’s fees for the defense of an action that directly relates to the DA’s job duties.”

Garramone said the rules prohibited the payment of costs associated with lawsuits.

Abelove responded, “It’s not for a lawsuit. It’s the criminal case that the AG brought against me which has been dismissed. Does that make a difference?”

Garramone said the answer was still no.

Abelove also sent himself a copy of a Jan. 7, 2015, email he sent to his prosecutors immediately after taking office that outlined the way he expected them to act.

“Assistant District Attorneys shall adhere to the ethical requirements and guidelines of the legal profession in New York State, to include those promulgated by the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York,” Abelove wrote.

“At no time should any member of the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office engage in conduct that jeopardizes the integrity of either the prosecutorial process or this office," he wrote. "Any questions regarding this guidance should be brought to my attention.”