Jason Golub’s Lawyer Goes Nuclear

[JK: Much of this story draws on the excellent article by Saratogian Reporter Emma Ralls’ November 26, 2024, article.]

Former Saratoga Springs Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub pleaded not guilty before Judge Jeffrey Wait in City Court on Tuesday, November 26, 2024. Golub was charged with professional misconduct, a misdemeanor. He is alleged to have used city employees to do work at his home. He was represented by Karl Sleight.

Normally, these arraignments are dull affairs. The defendant pleads not guilty, and the judge schedules the parties for a more substantive hearing.

Not this time. Sleight claimed that the issues came from the city’s Human Resources (HR) department. He asked Judge Wait to approve a subpoena for the report. Sleight contended that based on “preliminary disclosures,” he would seek access to Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll’s personal and city cell phones. According to the Saratogian article, he “wanted to put the District Attorney’s office on notice that as part of discovery, he would like a search ‘through the normal portals’ for information that might be relevant on both phones.”

The following quote is from Ralls’ article, but Sleight successfully managed to have similar quotes appear in the Daily Gazette, the Times Union, WAMC, and on several television news reports:

“The more we look at this, the real question here is, what was the motivation for charges?” Sleight stated. “As I said from the beginning, this case involved eight minutes, a jug of Drano and a clogged sink. My question is, what motivated someone to try to charge an attorney of the stature of my client, months after the event, with this charge?

“We’ll get to the bottom of it. It starts today.”

With Perry Mason-like drama, he announced:

“I think the motivation of this case will become apparent in due time,” Sleight said. “I think when that happens there will be a reckoning.”

Sound and Fury But Little In The Way Of A Legal Defense

I have spoken to numerous attorneys about the relevance of Sleight’s drama to an actual legal defense. They observed that unless he can find evidence that Coll was behind the clogging of Golub’s drain, Coll is wholly irrelevant to this case.

Nothing Sleight said addressed the inconvenient and undeniable fact that city employees in city trucks using city-purchased chemicals worked on Golub’s private home, something Sleight has previously admitted happened.

Where Is Sleight Getting His Facts?

As noted in an earlier post, notwithstanding Sleight’s false bravura claims, the action did not involve “eight minutes” of one employee’s time. The abuse involved two employees, not one. It involved not one but two trips to Golub’s home. And it wasn’t one can of Drano but the container of an expensive chemical purchased by the city.

So What Is Sleight Doing?

Again, I have discussed this with a number of attorneys who offered some insight. The facts in this case and the related penal code are so manifest that Sleight has little to work with. The best they could offer is that Sleight is using the media to minimize the damage to Golub’s reputation by diverting the public’s attention with a sensational story that there is some kind of conspiracy to destroy his client.

Maybe Sleight can muddy the waters, but eventually, the legal system, not the media, will become the actual field of battle, and the scope of Golub’s culpability will finally be decided.