John Kennedy O’Hara, who was disbarred 12 years ago after being convicted for election law violations, was reinstated last week by the Appellate Division, Second Department, on the unanimous recommendation of the 25-member Character and Fitness Committee in Brooklyn. The full committee based its recommendation on a report assembled by a two-member subcommittee that had raised “grave doubts” about Mr. O’Hara’s conviction.
A political operative who, according to the subcommittee report, had frequently and successfully challenged the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Mr. O’Hara was sentenced after his third trial to 1,000 hours of community service and fined $20,000. Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, called the subcommittee’s concerns about the validity of the conviction “surprising since the conviction was upheld by both state and federal courts.”
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