Judge sets trial date in D'Angelo election fraud case

Rick Pfeiffer -, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read

Jun. 21—LOCKPORT — The oft-delayed election fraud case of former Niagara Falls attorney and political operative Nicholas D'Angelo has now been scheduled for a trial.

But not until 2025.

During a hearing Friday in Lockport, Erie County-based State Supreme Court Justice Debra Givens told the attorneys in the case she wanted to "set a trial date" and suggested "sometime in October." Defense attorney Brian Melber told the justice that he had a murder trial in U.S. District Court in Buffalo scheduled at that time.

After some consultation with Assistant Niagara County District Attorney Robert Zucco, Givens set a trial start date for March 3, 2025. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Givens also said she would issue final rulings on defense motions challenging the "sufficiency" of instructions given to a Niagara County grand jury by prosecutors and an allegation of a conflict between the Niagara County District Attorney's Office and an Erie County District Attorney's Office special prosecutor, prior to the trial date.

Friday's hearing before Givens had originally been set for early May, but was postponed when Melber told Givens that he had been too busy trying a case in federal court to file necessary motions in D'Angelo's case.

Zucco has repeatedly told Givens, and D'Angelo's defense attorneys, that he is ready for trial, but that "a plea offer is available" to their client. The plea offer would reportedly call for D'Angelo to plead guilty to a single count of attempted first-degree tampering with public records, an E-class felony.

D'Angelo had been expected to agree to the plea deal in January. However, that plea hearing was postponed and defense attorney Jessica Kulpit later rejected the offer, saying D'Angelo was not willing to take a "felony plea."

D'Angelo, 30, is currently serving 10 years of sex offender probation, after being released on Nov. 3 from the Niagara County jail, where he was incarcerated for six months after pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual act and two counts of third-degree rape in a plea deal with special prosecutors from the Erie County District Attorney's Office.

The election fraud case is related to his sex offense case. D'Angelo has pleaded not guilty to an indictment that charges him with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts following a New York State Police Special Investigations Unit (SIU) probe that determined "that D'Angelo forged records and used a victim's identity to make a false campaign contribution."

The Gazette has learned that the identity theft victim is the husband of the sex crimes case special prosecutor, Erie County Assistant District Attorney Lynette Reda. The alleged fraud was uncovered by campaign officials working on the 2021 election of City Court Judge Janelle Faso, who said they discovered what appeared to be a mailed election contribution from Sam Reda.

Both the sex offense case and the election fraud case have been overseen by Givens.

In addition to D'Angelo's jail term and sex offender probation sentence, Givens has also designated him as a Level 3 sex offender, with a special designation as a "violent sexual offender." The risk level 3 designation means an offender is at a high risk to re-offend and a threat to public safety.

D'Angelo had a previous sex offense conviction in 2009 while he was a student at Niagara Falls High School. However, he was given youthful offender status in that case and the record of those proceedings has sealed.

He served a term of probation for that conviction.

Givens previously told D'Angelo that if he violated the terms of his sex offender probation, she would re-sentence him to up to 44 years in prison.

D'Angelo was charged in November 2020 in a 12-count indictment that accused him of multiple rapes and sex crimes, one of which involved an underage girl. He pleaded guilty to a superseding 8-count indictment.