Alexander resigns as head of state parole board

Updated: 12/20/08 07:43 AM

By Tom Precious
NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

ALBANY — George Alexander, a former Erie County probation commissioner, has resigned as the head of the state parole board and is expected to face criminal charges for allegedly keeping a county computer for his personal use before joining the state last year.

The investigation by state Inspector General Joseph Fisch found Alexander took the computer — a $1,700 Gateway laptop — from Erie County and it was not returned until special anti-theft tracing software located it in his home earlier this year.

Alexander resigned his state job, effective Friday, the inspector general reported.

Gov. David A. Paterson accepted his resignation and thanked him for his service to the state.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is expected to charge Alexander with theft of county assets, a misdemeanor, on Monday in Buffalo City Court, law enforcement sources said Friday.

“We hold all state employees to the highest standards of honesty and accountability,” Fisch said. “State resources are to be used for the public good, not personal gain.”

The computer was the property of Erie County and purchased by the county Department of Probation and Youth Detention Services. But it was paid for by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services for work on reducing juvenile violence in the county.

Alexander could not be reached to comment.

County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz said his office first started the investigation following a routine audit of equipment purchases. He said he believes officials in the county probation and sheriff’s department knew about the missing computer “and did nothing.”

“If it weren’t for an anonymous tipster, no one would have known,” he said of a call his office got this year.

The comptroller said the computer was bought directly by the Probation Department just two weeks before Alexander left his county job last year. He said the purchase was not made through the county’s main procurement office, meaning only the probation agency knew of it.

Poloncarz said when no action was taken against Alexander, he went to an aide to former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer. Shortly after, the state inspector general’s office got involved, he said.

The comptroller said he personally interviewed Alexander, who denied having the computer, and at one point said he had turned in a computer when he left the county, but mistakenly gave the agency one of his personal computers. Poloncarz said there was no record of the returned computer.

“It’s fair to say there are people in county government who knew about this and did nothing,” he said. He called it “disappointing” that the state’s parole chief got himself into this situation.

Alexander was paid $120,800 to run an office that oversees New York’s vast parole system, which grants release to prison inmates and monitors 25,000 people released each year on parole. The agency has 2,100 employees. He was appointed last year by Spitzer.

Alexander told investigators he did not know he had the computer, and said it turned out his son used it to access various networking and adult-related sites.

Felix Rosa, executive director of the parole board, will run the agency’s day-to-day affairs, said agency spokeswoman Heather Groll.

The case against Alexander was referred from the inspector general to Cuomo’s office in June.

Before heading Erie County’s Probation Department, Alexander served from 1993 to 2000 as deputy director in the Parole Violation Unit at the Division of Parole. He began his career as a parole officer. He has served on various boards, including the United Way of Buffalo. He has degrees from Medaille College and Buffalo State College.

When he was appointed last year, Alexander said, “This is an exciting time to review our approach to rehabilitating offenders and post-release supervision. We look forward to achieving more successes in integrating inmates back into the community while continuing to give great consideration to victims and victims’ families.”