I don’t know if they teach in school anymore about the trial of Peter Zenger, which established in 1735 colonial New York that truth is an absolute defense in a libel case. But this nearly 300-year-old case could come to bear in one of the more bizarre footnotes of the race for Ulster County district attorney between Mike Kavanagh and Manny Nneji.

Last Friday, the Freeman published a front-page story wherein the District Attorney’s Office accused the paper of attempting to manipulate the election with what the office said was the untimely publication of all-too-familiar allegations against the DA’s office.

“DA’s Office Takes Freeman to Task for Reporting,” the headline read, with reference to a murder indictment (reduced to manslaughter) in Saugerties almost exactly a year ago.

The DA’s office accused the daily of engaging in “persistent conduct of generating or publishing inaccurate narratives” (without offering any details), in slamming the paper for allegedly attempting to influence the outcome of the election with its Nov. 2 reporting of a hearing in county court that produced embarrassing facts against the DA’s office.

The story, published five days before the Nov. 7 election, reported how the DA’s office had exhumed the body of the victim in order to take tissue samples without alerting the defense — legally speaking, it’s called “discovery” — or for that matter, the victim’s family.

My first reaction in reading that story was, “Here we go again” — the failure of the DA’s office to turn over evidence to the defense in several cases being one of the cornerstones of Kavanagh’s (barely) failed campaign. The second was that this bombshell, coming that close to the election, could swing the outcome to Kavanagh.

Here, early voting, which accounted for almost a quarter of all votes cast in that election, might have come into play. Early voters — two-thirds of whom voted for Democrat Nneji — traded convenience for the possibility of receiving late-breaking information that might change their minds. With that vote in the bank, remaining voters might have swung the election to the Republican nominee.

I don’t know what the “DA’s Office” (nobody from that office was identified with the release of its letter to the media) hoped to accomplish after the election was all but official. But I think they were barking up the wrong tree in attacking the messenger for doing its job. And their side won!

For one thing, it wasn’t the paper or the defense that set that late hearing date, it was County Judge Bryan Rounds with the agreement of both sides. The order was issued on Aug. 2. Apparently, no one looked at the calendar last summer and said, “Geeze, isn’t Nov. 2 awfully close to Election Day?”

On the other hand, maybe they did. Wouldn’t it have been better for voters to have that information in hand before they cast ballots rather than after?

I don’t offer advice to the daily anymore, but I thought they handled it well. Rather than the usual “we stand by our story,” the paper chose to recount the record in detail. And none of the facts in the case were disputed.

Peter Zenger would have been very proud.

No Plea Deal in School Assault

As he approaches his fifth year on the bench, Judge Rounds is seen by many in the legal community as a strict constructionist. This does not render the first Democrat to be elected county judge since 1854 a hard-ass, just someone who follows the law.

Like his revered Republican predecessor Don Williams, Rounds is no rubber stamp when it comes to plea bargains brought into his court.

Case in point, as they say at the bar, is the vicious assault on a Kingston High School student last May that left the victim with possibly long-term brain damage. The oldest assailant (17) after pleading guilty to assault will go to state prison for at least seven years. A harsh sentence, perhaps for a teenager, but in the eyes of the court necessary given the premeditated viciousness of the attack. That this incident took place in the KHS cafeteria in full view of hundreds of students and was livestreamed to the controversial social media platform TikTok only adds to its infamy.

Turning to the 15-year-old defendant who, video evidence shows, was repeatedly kicking the victim in the head, the DA’s office recommended six months in a juvenile center and five years of probation.

Rounds, serving as judge and jury in this case, rejected that recommendation, again citing the nature of the crime. And well he might, but putting this kid away for a longer term might not serve the interest of justice.

Nonetheless, the judge’s decision sends a clear signal that for the youth of our community, there are consequences to their actions.

On Thanksgiving

Years and years ago when my eldest son was a precocious third-grader, I asked him to “write something about Thanksgiving” for my column. Ever the obedient child, he quickly produced his version of McDonald’s Friends, Food and Family slogan for that year.

“Without friends,” he wrote,” I’d have nobody to play with. Without food, I would starve. Without family, nobody would love me.”

Happy Thanksgiving to all.