GUILDERLAND — Former Albany County Legislator Brian Scavo, 62, of Albany, opted for a bench trial in Guilderland Town Court on June 20 in his violation-level charges of harassment, and was found guilty by Judge Richard Sherwood.

Scavo’s claim to fame as a legislator was for anti-harassment legislation. He sponsored a bill that made cyberbullying a misdemeanor and that was passed in 2010 before being struck down several years later in the state’s highest court as unconstitutional. He told The Enterprise after the court proceeding that he is thinking about running for the legislature again.

Scavo was found guilty on Tuesday of repeatedly approaching a young woman victim — a stranger to him — in Crossgates Mall between February and December 2015, asking her name and phone number, trying to give her his phone number, offering her chocolate and candy, and inviting her to dinner; one of the two counts was for following — for moving in closer and following her when she tried to walk away.

The second violation was for engaging in a course of conduct that alarms or seriously annoys another person and that serves no legitimate purpose.

The Enterprise is withholding the young woman’s name because she has no culpability in the charges.

After the proceeding, Scavo told The Enterprise, “All criminal actions on this have been dismissed,” referring to the initial misdemeanor harassment charge. The violation harassment charges, he said, were brought against him simply to protect the police department from accusations of false arrest.

At the close of the trial, after finding Scavo guilty, Sherwood imposed a two-year no-contact order of protection.

After the proceeding, while talking with The Enterprise, Scavo said that the young woman “felt” he had been waiting for her outside the gym in Crossgates Mall; he denied waiting for her, and questioned whether her feeling was sufficient cause to bring a charge. The violation complaints do not mention anything about waiting for her at the mall; this allegation was part of the initial misdemeanor arrest report.

In court Scavo claimed he is a power walker who often walked five miles within the safe environment of the mall and that, as a friendly person who was running for the legislature during part of the period in question, he spoke to everyone and asked many people out to dinner, without any romantic intent. He noted that he has not been to Crossgates Mall in years and that he now walks in Colonie Center.

“I say hello to everyone. If you cross my path, I’m going to say hello to you,” Scavo testified.

He testified that he had asked the young woman to dinner a few times and said, “Who wants to eat alone? I like to eat dinner with people, that’s how I am.” He said on the stand that he had also asked people including his own attorney and Guilderland Police First Sergeant Michael Minette to dinner in the past and quipped, “I hope you’re not going to charge me with something.”

Although the victim testified she did not know him apart from being approached by him on various occasions in the mall, Scavo testified, “Sure, I consider her a friend. I saw her a few times.”  

Brenda Ellman, who was in court for the trial as a good friend and supporter of Scavo, said afterwards, hyperbolically, “So now if a man asks a woman four times to go to dinner, he’s going to go to jail?” In fact, Scavo was faced only with fines and not with the possibility of jail time.

Assistant District Attorney Collin D’Arcy presented two witnesses: Joseph Turoski, now a New York State Trooper and then the Guilderland police officer who conducted the arrest, and the young woman.

Scavo was the only witness called by his attorney, Mark Duncan of Albany. At various points in Scavo’s testimony, Duncan made a cutting motion toward his own throat, apparently asking Scavo to stop. Once was when Scavo began complaining about arresting officer Turoski and calling him a “rookie cop.” Another time was when Scavo began detailing what he called his “investigation,” into whether the victim had ever made any complaints against him in locations including Rensselaer County, Ravena, and Colonie.

In addition, his friend Ellman was reprimanded once by the judge for doing the same thing.

After the proceeding, Turoski said that he was not allowed to comment.

The young woman did not know Scavo before he approached her for the first time in Crossgates Mall, asking her name and phone number, where she was from, and asking her on a date, she said on the stand.

She estimated that Scavo approached her four or five times in total. She answered his questions, to be polite, she said, but always told him she had a boyfriend and turned down his advances. When she would try to walk away, he would come in a little closer and continue to persist, which she said made her “pretty uncomfortable” each time.

Asked by D’Arcy if she had ever told him to go away, the victim said on the stand, “Unfortunately, no. I was just trying to be nice. I didn’t want to be rude to him.”

The last time, Dec. 19, 2015, she went straight to mall security to report him, she testified, in hopes that he would “just leave me alone.” Scavo was arrested a week later, on Dec. 26, initially charged with misdemeanor harassment.

The misdemeanor charge requires that a victim feel afraid for his or her safety, which the young woman in this case did not, and so that charge was dropped, the judge heard. Scavo was then charged with the two counts of second-degree harassment.

Turoski said that, while Scavo had been sitting in the police substation in the mall as he and First Sergeant Michael Minette completed paperwork pertaining to his arrest, Scavo asked the officer numerous times if there were, in Turoski’s words, “anything he could do to work this out.”

Duncan said in court that the original misdemeanor charge had stated that Scavo had engaged in this behavior four or five times in total, and noted that the victim’s two violation complaints said the behavior had been done weekly over a period of 11 months. That’s a jump, Duncan said, from a handful to about 40 times, questioning both the woman and Turoski about the discrepancy.

They both said, separately, on the stand that the word “weekly” because shortly before the victim went to the police, Scavo had been approaching her more frequently — twice in December and once in late November or early December.

Sherwood didn’t hesitate for even a beat before declaring Scavo guilty of both charges. He fined him $200 and a $125 surcharge, on each of the two counts, for a total of $650. Scavo, who said in court that he is currently working as a car salesman, asked for time to pay the fines.

“Violation bench trials are unusual,” said Jennifer Stephens, clerk to the justices. “We do not have many at all.”

Scavo, for his part, said he was considering bringing civil charges against the town.