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State Police Boss Corbitt

New York - The experts say that witness intimidation is most common in domestic violence and in organized crime.

So maybe we should not be shocked that the head of the New York State Police sounded like a mob boss when he tried to explain why his troopers contacted a woman who had filed court papers saying she was assaulted by the governor’s closest aide.

“We just gave her options,” Superintendent Harry Corbitt said.

Corbitt might as well have said they gave Sherr-una Booker an offer she couldn’t refuse. Here is how she translated her “options.”

“The state troopers kept calling me and harassing me to drop the charges and I wouldn’t,” she said in Bronx Family Court.

Corbitt tries to pass it off as just routine.

“It’s typical if it involves anything that might involve a media event,” he told The New York Times.

In truth, the troopers had neither immediate jurisdiction nor the remotest justification for calling Booker.

That Corbitt would tell these lies suggests he was either complicit in an effort to tamper with a witness or subsequently sought to cover it up.

If this is so, he should not only be fired, he should be arrested.

Section 215.10 of the New York State Penal Code states: “A person is guilty of tampering with a witness when, knowing that a person is or is about to be called as a witness in an action or proceeding, he wrongfully induces or attempts to induce such person to absent himself.”

The fact that Corbitt still has his job suggests Gov. Paterson may be complicit himself.

Consider not only that Paterson himself spoke to Booker, but the timing of the conversation.

Up to that point, Booker had resisted what she described to the court as repeated attempts by the state police to dissuade her from securing a full order of protection against David Johnson, her then-boyfriend and the governor’s closest aide.

Johnson had managed to delay things by refusing to accept service of the papers, but as long as Booker kept appearing in court, the referee would keep extending the temporary order. The case would be dismissed in just one circumstance.

“The only time is when the victim doesn’t come to court,” a senior family court official noted Friday.

The day before Booker was due for yet another court appearance, Paterson either called her or spoke to her after an associate asked her to call him.

“If you need me, I’m here for you,” he reportedly told her.

Just like the state police were there for her, giving her “options.”

Now it was the governor himself.

The next day, Booker failed to appear.

The case was dismissed.

If Paterson is in fact complicit, he also should be arrested, whether or not he resigns.

One irony is that the case never would have made it to Family Court were it not for the “Fair Access to Family Court” bill Paterson signed into law in 2008.

Until then, New York was the only state where a person could seek a Family Court order of protection only against a past or present spouse or someone with whom she shared a child. The new measure allowed for any “intimate partners.”

“With this new law, many more people than ever before will be afforded the chance to live safe lives,” Paterson said on signing it.

Instead of being turned away when she arrived at Bronx Family Court in November, Booker was directed to the seventh floor, where an orange sign reads “Petition Room Line Forms Here,” followed by a pink one reading “Please Wait Here Until Called.”

When Booker’s turn came, a clerk in room 7-70 gave her an 11-page instruction booklet with a raspberry-colored cover, along with a double-sided form to fill out. The clerk entered the information into the computer, and Booker proceeded to the intake part, where she was granted a temporary order of protection pending service of the papers on Johnson.

“If the respondent comes to your home, call the police,” a sheet instructed her.

Only, it was the police who called Booker; not the NYPD, but state troopers commanded by Corbitt.

The governor also called. He should resign immediately along with Corbitt.

The question is whether they should both also be arrested.

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