John Kennedy O'Hara (born c. 1961) is an American lawyer, active in Brooklyn, New York politics. He is also the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York State since Susan B. Anthony was convicted for voting (before women had the right to vote) in 1872. His conviction was overturned on Thursday, January 12, 2017. On February 23, 2017, O'Hara filed a malicious prosecution lawsuit for $25 million against disgraced ex-Brooklyn D. A. Charles "Joe" Hynes.

The son of working-class Irish Americans and the first in his family to go to college, O'Hara's interest in politics was clear even in childhood: at the age of seven he wrote to his congressman complaining that he didn't have the right to vote but was still required to pay sales tax on toys. At the age of 11 he worked on George McGovern's campaign in the 1972 presidential election. At 16, his investigative reporting for his school newspaper resulted in the school principal being fired for lacking the appropriate license for his job.

As a teenager and young man, he was involved with Brooklyn's Reform Democrats against the Meade Esposito machine.

In the 1990s, he ran for office six times in primary election never winning but coming within a few hundred votes in a 1992 election for New York State Assembly.

In 1996, O'Hara was charged with running for office and voting from a false address. In fact, O'Hara had voted from his girlfriend's apartment, in which approximately half of his time was spent. He was convicted because their former landlord falsely testified that the apartment was uninhabitable. The discovery of O'Hara's voting habits was used by incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes to prosecute O'Hara for voting in a place other than his "principle and permanent residence". Refusing any plea deal, after a mistrial and a reversal on appeal, O'Hara was convicted of a felony in July 1999, sentenced to five years probation, a $20,000 fine and 1,500 hours of community service cleaning a park. O'Hara-backed Peter Sweeney and Eileen Nadelson won judgeships in 2001 and several other insurgent candidates have won Brooklyn judgeships since then. Civil rights lawyer Sandra Roper, backed by O'Hara in a failed 2001 candidacy against District Attorney Hynes, was prosecuted for what Christopher Ketcham says "most observers agree is an unfounded charge of grand larceny". A Brooklyn judge dismissed the charges February 28, 2005.

Notes

References

  • PDF available on Ketcham's personal site.
  • "No. 78 People v. John O'Hara", the official notice of O'Hara's April 4, 2001, appeal hearing.
  • http://www.freejohnohara.com/, a support site for O'Hara during his case; includes various relevant newspaper articles and legal documents