If prosecutors for Albany County District Attorney David Soares did not already know the risks of joking around on social media, they sure do now.

Two assistant district attorneys were recently suspended — and one later quit her job — after they posed for a Facebook post their boss certainly did not "like," so to speak.

Assistant District Attorneys Chantelle Cleary and Carmen Warner were working out at a local gym when they pretended, as a joke, to punch each other in sensitive areas of their bodies, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

A photo was taken. It went on Facebook. The district attorney saw it.

Soares suspended both lawyers for a week. Warner subsequently quit her job, sources told Law Beat. The district attorney's office does not comment on personnel matters.

Warner is set to work for the Bistone law firm in Ravena, DA's office spokeswoman Cecilia Walsh said. Her last day is to be Friday.

Soares addressed office employees about the perils of putting embarrassing posts on social media given their positions, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Cleary has prosecuted sex crimes and animal cruelty cases, while Warner previously prosecuted sex crimes cases but was most recently prosecuting street crimes. Both are graduates of Albany Law School. Neither could be reached.

In an emailed response to an inquiry from Law Beat, Soares, through his spokeswoman, said of Warner: "We thank her for her years of public service to the citizens of Albany County and wish her well on her new venture."

United only so far

Scotia shop owner Donald Andrews and Schenectady County prosecutors put on a united front Monday against James Slater, the police informant who framed Andrews in a drug bust last year.

Slater was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in prison for his perjury before a grand jury.

But when it came to assessing the role police played in the wrongful bust, their views were considerably different.

Andrews clearly blames the Schenectady County Sheriff's Office, which used Slater as an informant, for the raid of his Mohawk Avenue smoke shop last year.

In his victim impact statement, Andrews told Judge Polly Hoye the police did not believe him when he said he did not know what was going on.

Andrews told the court: "Who knows how many potential customers I lost because James Slater — and the Schenectady County Sheriff's Office — tried to ruin my life?"

By contrast, Assistant District Attorney William Sanderson cast police as another victim. His remarks on the subject came after Slater bemoaned the pressure of being an informant and suggested he was forced into the frame job.

Sanderson stressed it was Slater behind the frame.

"It's not the sheriff's department who set Mr. Andrews up. It was Mr. Slater — and yes, he duped the sheriff's department in the process," Sanderson said. "And he duped this office, the DA's office, as well until, thank God for Mr. Andrews' old surveillance tape that brought forth the truth here."

Sanderson apologized to Andrews for his ordeal and whatever role prosecutors played before the "truth was found."

Outside court, Andrews said nothing critical about the DA's office, but did not spare police.

"I really feel like the Schenectady County sheriff's department, they played a role in what happened so they need some type of discipline," he said. "Something needs to happen to the officers and everybody else that signed the warrant and let all this stuff go down."

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU