Albany

The state attorney general's office has obtained authorization for a grand jury to investigate Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove's controversial handling of the April 2016 fatal shooting of a DWI suspect by a Troy police officer.

The office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which began investigating the shooting last year, obtained approval last week to convene the Rensselaer County grand jury on Sept. 20, according to a copy of a court order signed last week by a state Supreme Court justice in Albany.

It marks the first grand jury investigation of a sitting district attorney by Schneiderman's office since Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order in 2015 giving the attorney general authority to intervene in cases in which unarmed civilians are killed during confrontations with police.

The Times Union reported last year that Abelove did not require Troy police Sgt. Randall French, who fatally shot the DWI suspect, to sign an immunity from prosecution when he testified before the grand jury that cleared him five days after the shooting. The decision by Abelove to not have the officer sign an immunity waiver raised questions about the validity of the grand jury's determination to clear the police officer — because the panel could not have voted to indict him without a waiver.

In February, Cuomo issued an executive order giving Schneiderman's office explicit authority to investigate Abelove's handling of the case.

Edson Thevenin, 37, was shot multiple times as he fled a DWI arrest in April 2016. Troy police officials said they believed that Thevenin was armed — with a vehicle — and that he drove forward and pinned French's legs against his police cruiser before the officer opened fire. Two civilian witnesses, who did not testify in the grand jury, told investigators they did not believe French was in imminent danger when he opened fire.

"DA Abelove is confident that this grand jury will reach the same conclusion the prior grand jury reached which was that Sgt. French used appropriate force to protect his own life," said John W. Bailey, who is Abelove's private attorney.

The tension between Abelove and Schneiderman's office boiled over five months ago when investigators with the attorney general's office confronted the district attorney as he arrived for work and used a search warrant to seize his mobile phone from his hand. Weeks later, the investigators used another search warrant to obtain digital files of Abelove's work-related emails from Rensselaer County.

At the time when the records were seized, Bailey said "we are confident that there is nothing in his emails which would support allegations of inappropriate let alone criminal activity."

The search warrant applications documenting the investigators' probable cause to believe the electronic records contain evidence of a crime remain sealed. The investigation has focused on whether Abelove interfered with the attorney general's jurisdiction last year when he quickly presented the fatal shooting case to a grand jury that cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu