According to a newscast this evening from CBS6 in Albany, former Hudson Alderman Quintin Cross has been granted the opportunity to post $15,000 cash bail and $30,000 bond, in relation to charges that he and and an accomplice burgled City Hall last March.
This development comes, according to the station’s interview with District Attorney Paul Czajka, after the Hudson Police Department failed to provide his office with evidence requested by Cross's defense attorney Susan Tipograph—making it impossible for the D.A.’s office to comply, Czajka says. As a result, he evidently felt he could not contest the bail request. It is not yet clear if Cross has managed to post that bail, though local rumors are rampant that a political ally has done so for both accused men.
The report further notes that Hudson police initially told the station Cross had been questioned and released, as the HPD did not believe he was the culprit, before later issuing an arrest warrant. Cross went missing for six weeks after his police interview, before turning himself in and securing representation by Tipograph.
The video from Channel 6 is online here. Cross, who previously was jailed after being convicted of stealing from the City of Hudson while an Aldeman using an unauthorized credit card, is seen in pinstripes entering the courtroom and exchanging nods with former Hudson Democratic Chair Linda Mussmann of Time and Space Limited (TSL), a friend of Tipograph.
The station says it attempted to reach HPD Chief Ellis Richardson for his side of the story, without success.
UPDATE: The Register-Star has some additional details here, including that “Richardson and Detective John Funk were summoned to the courthouse with their evidence file...” Czajka in this account “takes responsibility” for the omissions, while Tipograph demands an explanation of why the D.A.’s office “failed to exercise due diligence and/or the HPD intentionally or recklessly withheld these materials.”
