“I don’t apologize for the review request or the action I take to help people when they come to our office,”
Buckingham said in an interview with the Variety.
“When I received the request, I specifically ordered a review and also ordered that the review be done the same as it would be for anyone else,” Buckingham said, when asked if former Corrections Commissioner, and now the governor’s special assistant for political affairs, Dolores SN. Aldan requested his office last month to review the case of her husband.
When asked about the propriety of his action and Mrs. Aldan’s request, Buckingham said: “It could raise questions. That is why I was very clear that the standard of review should be no better and no worse than what would be applied to anyone else.”
Asked if then-Assistant Attorney General George Hasselback consulted him prior to Mr. Aldan’s change of plea, the AG said: “On the record, I decline to comment on internal case reviews.”
Buckingham said Hasselback became acting prosecutor when the plea agreement was accepted by the court in Nov. 2009.
“The chief prosecutor is supervised by the attorney general,” he added.
Last January, former Rep. Rosemond B. Santos became the chief prosecutor
A Republican, Santos lost her re-election bid but deserted her party and supported the governor in the runoff election.
In her declaration of counsel, Santos said she “communicated” with Hasselback “that he should withdraw the motion” to set aside the plea agreement and reinstitute criminal charges against Mr. Aldan.
In his motion, Hasselback said: “Despite receiving the benefit of a favorable plea agreement that included the dismissal of multiple felony charges, [Mr. Aldan] has failed to fulfill the most important condition imposed upon him by the plea agreement” — the surrender of the handgun.
According to Buckingham, “Part of my job is to serve all members of the commonwealth. At about the same time a private person came to me asking for help with a defendant. This was not a special person but I took the time to review his situation and passed along his request to the involved prosecutor — just the same as I did with the Aldan case.”
Buckingham said he also helped an individual who sought assistance in connection with a case in federal court.
He said the individual had “difficulties in writing.”
He then recorded the statement of the person, and copied it on compact disc.
When asked about the status of the complaint of Mr. Aldan’s victim against the former corrections commissioner, Buckingham said: “I have no further comment at this time.”
