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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore denied allegations stemming from a published report that she used her position to get her live-in housekeeper welfare benefits.
"I've done nothing wrong in any respect," DiFiore wrote in a statement on the district attorney website. "The person quoted in this illegally leaked email has a well known political agenda that she has been carrying on against me for at least a decade and this appears to be more of the same."
The New York Post reported Tuesday that the county Department of Social Services had been investigating how DiFiore's maid, Marina Buchanan, was approved for welfare benefits after being denied three times before.
"Because of confidentiality of social service records, we wouldn't even confirm whether this person ever got social service benefits," said Donna Greene, deputy communications director for the county. "And if there's an investigation we wouldn't confirm it."
The New York Post report cites a series of internal emails sent from Dhyalma Vazquez, a county anti-fraud investigator and chair of the Yonkers Independence Party, to Kevin McGuire, commissioner of the Department of Social Services. In one email quoted in the report, Vazquez writes this was a "political favor" and that the housekeeper's application was reopened improperly.
"The issue is there are confidentiality rules that apply to people that may or may not be on social services, and rules of confidentiality apply to any investigation, if it does exist," Greene said.
Comments (10)
It is clear that this is a Vendetta against the DA. Let the cat fight end and let the issues be dealt with in a Court of Law.
Who needs a DA doing favors for her Maid to get free Welfare benefits that she was not entitled to?
Who needs a DA who lets career criminals back out on the street to committ more crimes against
the people of Westchester just so she could boost her political career through using that very same career criminal/junkie to get information of other crimes?
She allowed this guy to rob peoples homes by putting him back out on the street.
Thats right, you never out a C.I. but you let him back out to commit more crimes?
All just to boost ones political career at any cost.
Its time the people of Westchester County voted out all career politicians and had just one decent
candidate run for DA for a change. We are sick and tired of the bs and the Police Cover ups and
the political favors being done.
Its time everyone be held accountable for their own actions and the heck with the immunity bs laws. DA's and County attorneys should not be entitled to immunity when they break that sworn oath that they were sworn to uphold. No one is above the law.
We need to set the bar up higher and hold public officials accountable, aspecially when they are in a position of trust and break that trust by breaking the law that they were sworn to uphold !!!
Thats a real joke that she was appointed to chair the new state ethic's board?
Thats like putting the fox in the hen-house with noone around to monitor her.
From the DA's office to the County attorneys office, they are all a bunch of liars.
@Compare the two: You write that Vazquez is a "lunatic". Same word was used to describe Albert Einstein. Watchdogs like Vazquez are needed to keep politicians on the up-and-up, no matter what her agenda is. Corruption is running rampant here in NY in case you hadn't noticed.
You write that DA DiFiore is "fair, highly principled ... guided by the facts and evidence of any case ..." Many attorneys who practice in Westchester would disagree with you. People like you think because someone has a 'title' that makes them all-good. Wrong! Just look at ex-NYS comptroller Alan Hevesi, ex-NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, ex-NYS Senator Vincent Liebel who currently resides in prison.
I have no sympathy for the DA ever since she ran as a Republican and switched to Democrat after winning. But the real scandal here is Ms. Vazquez's behavior and the Post's shoddy reporting.
The County Attorney should investigate how Social Services could assign an investigator with such an overt, personal vendetta, and how her emails happened to get leaked to the press?
With even a cursory investigation, the Post would have learned that you can earn $200 a week while receiving Social Security Disability benefits.
If they were looking for a great story, the Westchester Independence Party's "no-show" jobs and "shakedown" gala dinners orchestrated by Ms. Vazquez and her infamous boss, Dr. Giulio Cavallo, are the stuff of legend!
The master of Police cover ups here in Westchester County !
If this alleged nut case Vazquez is correct with her facts does it make them less true?
This is not the first time someone with the credentials of Janet DiFiore has felt that they are above the law. What about her predecessor Jeanine Piro? Or the esteemed former Comptroller Alan Hevasi? In light of all the "highly principled" leaders in jail today I tend to believe Ms Vasquez before Ms. DiFiore because she knows what a scoundrel smells like by belonging to the Westchester County Independence Party chaired by Guilio Cavallo
Dhyalma Vazquez needs to get a life! She has been on this hate-filled rant for many years now. She screams like and banshee and makes crazy, self-serving statements. She is regarded as a lunatic. Leaking confidential Social Service documents is a crime and Dhyalma Vazquez know it.
Janet DiFiore, on the other hand, has proven herself to be a fair, highly principled and straight-shooting prosecutor who is guided by the facts and evidence of any case, rather than the politics, public passions, or public relations. DiFiore is a former judge and has amicable relations with those on both sides of the political aisle.
Just compare the two.
It is amazing that she chairs the new state ethics board. As the saying goes "it takes one to know one".