By Lindsay Tigar
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A top aide to Gov. David Paterson embroiled in high-profile scandals surrounding the governor’s office ignored a subpoena from a state ethics commission requiring him to testify about how tickets were obtained for a World Series game that he and Paterson attended last year, the commission’s chairman said in a statement Tuesday.
Paterson’s senior aide, David Johnson, was issued the subpoena through the governor’s legal counsel to testify before the Commission on Public Integrity on Feb. 24, the New York Times reported.
The subpoena arrived a week before the commission issued a report charging that Paterson violated state ethics laws by accepting free tickets from the Yankees, and that the governor lied under oath when he told the commission he planned on paying for them, the Times said.
Johnson and his lawyers claim they were never informed the document contained a subpoena and that the document was never opened.
One of the administration’s attorneys said that Johnson “was ready, willing and able to testify” prior to the commission’s report and that when the error was discovered, the lawyer immediately contacted the commission to make arrangements for him to testify, the Times reported.
Johnson is at the center of another scandal involving the governor’s office after a woman accused him of domestic violence related to incident that occurred on Halloween night last year.
Paterson is also being investigated for allegedly asking a state worker to make the incident “go away,” leading public officials to call for his resignation.
