ALBANY — The lawyer appointed last year as a special prosecutor in Albany County to review accusations of criminal wrongdoing by the state Department of Transportation in the Schoharie limo crash is nearing the end of his investigation.
P.J. Blanchfield, an attorney in private practice in Albany, says he was named to serve as a special prosecutor after the Albany County District Attorney’s Office received a complaint from Ronald Barton, a former DOT inspector from Otego. Barton had been an outspoken critic of the DOT and its actions in the years and months leading up to the 2018 crash in which 20 people died.
A special prosecutor was automatically named because District Attorney Lee Kindlon had a conflict. He represented the owner of the limo, Nauman Hussain, at his 2023 manslaughter trial…