February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
O’Hara, who has been waging a campaign to return to the bar after being convicted of voter fraud, had his license to practice returned on the basis of a decision from a five member panel of the Supreme Court of the State of New York’s appellate division,
The unanimous decision ordered “that I be reinstated to practice immediately,” O’Hara told the Echo.
Now O’Hara is looking for a full pardon from Governor David Paterson who has been presented with a petition urging such a move. The petition has been signed by a variety of prominent people, not least actors Sean Penn and Chris Noth.
O’Hara waged a tenacious battle against his 1999 conviction for voting fraud. He was banned from voting in his native Brooklyn because he voted from his girlfriend’s address and not his own home some distance away, during elections in 1992 and ’93.
O’Hara, who ran as a candidate himself, argued that this address, though not his permanent one, was not a false one.
As a result of his voting, O’Hara ended up as a convicted felon. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, fined $20,000, disbarred from his law practice and sentenced to perform 1,500 hours of community service.
O’Hara believed from the outset that his case had set a precedent, one that potentially allowed for frivolous or vindictive prosecution of other citizens, specifically for voting while not pledging to one address for a specific period of time.
Prior to being given back his law license, O’Hara paid his fine, completed his community serve and is again allowed to vote.