Oust Councilman Over Sex Abuse

Queens City Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher March 17 resigned his job and pleaded guilty to forcibly touching and sexually abusing a 52-year-old women whom he met in a bar last July and brought to his Middle Village office, where the crimes occurred.

DENNIS P. GALLAGHER: An ignominious exit.

Claimed She Consented

Mr. Gallagher, who as part of a plea that will spare him a jail sentence agreed to enroll in an alcohol treatment program, had originally been charged with rape but the case was tossed by a Queens Supreme Court Justice in January because of prosecutorial misconduct in questioning Mr. Gallagher before a grand jury. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown was in the process of preparing evidence to be submitted to a new grand jury when the plea deal was reached.

Mr. Gallagher previously acknowledged having sex with his victim but had insisted that it was consensual.

The DA said in a statement that "justice has been served - and the victim in this case has been spared the trauma and humiliation of having to publicly testify at subsequent court proceedings. The defendant's admitted actions are particularly troubling because they involve a public official who had a special responsibility to uphold and obey the law."

The disgraced Councilman will leave office April 18, and a special election will be conducted for a replacement. The likely Democratic nominee is Elizabeth Crowley, an educator whose cousin is U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, while the two Republicans expected to seek their party's nomination include Tom Ognibene, who previously held the seat and was Mr. Gallagher's boss before he was forced to step down after 10 years in office because of the city's Term Limits Law.