Former Manhattan Assemblyman Micah Kellner today lost his final effort to overturn former Speaker Sheldon Silver’s sanctions of him for allegedly sexually harassing staffers, with the former judge appointed to review his case throwing out the fallen pol’s claims that he was denied due process.
Former Appeals Court Justice Howard Levine, appointed to review the case, dismissed Mr. Kellner’s claims he had not been given adequate opportunity to testify in his own defense and that the ex-speaker’s decision to strip him of his committee chairmanship and slash his staff unfairly stigmatized him. Mr. Silver sanctioned Mr. Kellner on the advice of the Committee on Ethics and Guidance for allegedly inappropriately touching and talking to interns between 2009 and 2013—and again last year after Mr. Kellner retained another intern in violation of Mr. Silver’s orders.
“As the hearing officer on this appeal, the sanction imposed did not shock my sense of fairness in any way,” Mr. Levine wrote in his decision.
Assembly rules do not allow Mr. Kellner to appeal again.
The accusations led to Mr. Kellner losing his bid to become councilman from the Upper East Side to Benjamin Kallos in 2013, and he announced last year he would not seek his seat again. Voters elected Rebecca Seawright to represent the district last November, though Mr. Kellner won the obscure, unpaid position of Democratic state committeeman.
He has denied any interest in making a political comeback.
Mr. Kellner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
