TROY – A felony drunken driving trial in Rensselaer County Court ended abruptly with a plea deal after the public defender said prosecutors failed to share complete information about the arresting city police officer's conduct in an unrelated traffic stop when he worked for another law enforcement agency.

The prosecution downplayed as a “hiccup” the 2015 incident in which Officer Philip J. Milano, working then as a deputy for the Albany County Sheriff's Office, apparently issued a ticket for an infraction that never happened.

“We’ve had a number of issues arise today,” Judge Debra Young said from the bench after emerging from a nearly 30-minute conference in chambers with prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The result was was Alexander Lewis pleading to misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child for a sentence of a $75 fine and a one-year conditional discharge. Lewis, 35, faced up to four years in prison if he had been convicted of felony aggravated driving while intoxicated or felony first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle for a July 16, 2019 traffic stop in Troy.

Lewis’ felony jury trial was in its fourth day when Assistant Public Defender William Roberts launched a heated attack against the manner in which Assistant District Attorney Nick Dorando portrayed Milano’s previous employment as a road patrol deputy with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office in 2015.

Roberts made a motion for a mistrial citing prosecutorial misconduct and raised issues about remarks Dorando made during his opening statement in Lewis’ DWI trial. Roberts made his arguments before he was to resume cross-examination of Milano.

“I had serious concerns relative to the way documents in the case were presented,” Roberts said afterward.

At issue were two letters, one from September 2019 written by Dorando describing an Oct. 11, 2015 traffic stop by Milano in Westerlo and another written by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office in May 2016 about the incident involving a ticket Milano issued to a driver for not signaling soon enough for a turn. Roberts said Dorando knew of the Albany County DA office letter because it had been sent to him by Assistant Conflict Defender Joseph Ahearn.

The Albany DA's office letter said Milano issued a traffic ticket for insufficient turn signal and a sheriff’s internal investigation “found the violation did not in fact occur.”

“Deputy Milano was found to have created and sworn to materially false documents that were intended to support a fictitious violation which he knew or should have known to be false. Deputy Milano was subsequently removed from road-patrol and re-assigned to transportation,” the Albany DA's letter stated.

Dorando’s letter said the sheriff’s investigation “opined that the violation for which Milano issued a ticket did not occur…” and that Milano faced charges brought by the department that “he created and swore to materially false documents that were intended to support a fictitious violation which he knew or should have known to be false.” The letter said that Milano didn’t admit guilt and requested reassignment to the transportation detail for six months.

Roberts had Ahearn in the courtroom prepared to testify when the deal was reached. Dorando and Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Hauf declined to comment.

Milano joined the Troy police force in May 2016, about five months after the Albany County Sheriff’s Office reassigned him from the road patrol to prisoner transport.

“We have no concerns whatsoever” Deputy Chief Dan DeWolf said regarding Milano’s disciplinary issues while he wa an Albany County deputy.

“Officer Milano does a fabulous job and that hiccup way back when with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office is way too overstated. We’re extremely happy with his performance at the Troy Police Department,” DeWolf said.