Nobody who has followed district attorney’s career should have believed he would prosecute forcible touching case

ALBANY — If we could give David Soares a belated Christmas gift, it would have to be a box filled with a virtue Albany County’s district attorney lacks: courage.

If that sounds harsh, consider: When has Soares been willing to go after a big fish? When has he prosecuted someone whose power and influence presents a risk to his own?

Soares’ office is just a few blocks from a state Capitol where corruption has at times been blatant. Yet Soares, a Democrat first elected in 2004, has never shown any interest in ruffling state political feathers, even as other prosecutors have charged and convicted lawmaker after lawmaker.

NXIVM was headquartered in Colonie, yet Soares never cared to confront the cultish organization, despite ample evidence — including abundant reporting by this newspaper Instead, he allowed senior NXIVM loyalist Kristin Keeffe to work at his office in her attempt to bring a case against one of the group’s enemies. It was federal prosecutors in Brooklyn who ultimately filed racketeering, sex trafficking, and child exploitation charges against leaders of the group.

Soares likewise failed to get grand juries to indict the police officer who shot Ellazar Williams in the back in 2018, despite video evidence showing that the teenager was fleeing; the four officers whose needless aggression with Tasers led to the death of a mentally ill Dontay Ivy on a chilly night in Arbor Hill received similar treatment.

The pattern is clear. If a case promises to be difficult or controversial, you can bet Soares will crumble and a trial will be avoided. So, it was no surprise to learn this week that he’d decided against prosecuting Andrew Cuomo on a charge that the former governor groped Brittany Commisso in the Executive Mansion.