City of Peekskill Councilman Robert Scott, arrested for filing false petition documents in 2023 that included the signatures of three dead people, accepted a guilty plea at White Plains City Court on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Scott pled guilty to a misdemeanor for obstruction of governmental administration in the second degree and violation of disorderly conduct. The conditions of the plea require that he commit to 250 hours of community service within 365 days. The plea deal does not require him to step down from his seat on the Peekskill Common Council. His term expires on Dec. 31, 2025.

If the conditions are met, Scott can withdraw his guilty plea to charges of government obstruction at a sentencing in a year. An interim date for Scott to show his community service progress was scheduled for April 10, 2026.

“There is much work to be done,” White Plains City Court Judge Hon. Eric Press said to Scott during the proceeding.

Scott’s attorney told a judge on Feb. 19, 2025, that the District Attorney’s office would now accept a guilty plea to a misdemeanor, along with community service, to resolve the case. The plea agreement would not require Scott to step down as a council member.

By accepting the misdemeanor conviction, Scott gives up his right to a trial, gives up his right to appeal to the disorderly conduct charges, which are non-conditional, and acknowledges the plea will be used against him in future procedures.

The conviction required Scott to admit that in April 2023 he “intentionally obstructed, impaired or perverted the administration of law or other governmental function by means of an independently unlawful act, and so caused a public inconvenience with no legitimate purpose.”

Scott initially took issue with this description, resulting in Scott and his attorney, Mayo Bartlett, stepping out of the court to discuss. After about 30 minutes, the case was reopened and Scott accepted the conditions.

Both Scott and his attorney declined to comment.

Before Scott went to a grand jury for his case, he told the Peekskill Herald on July 8, “All I can do is stay positive, stay focused on what’s important to me, which is my family, my work, and my community.”

At this writing, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to an inquiry regarding the lack of conditions requiring Scott to step down from his position on the Common Council.

Misdemeanor complaint states Scott signed all attestations

Scott was arrested on April 16, 2024, and charged with filing designating petitions containing forged signatures for a seat on the Westchester County Board of Legislators in the June 2023 Democratic Primary election. 

In a published report in 2023, Scott denied forging signatures on his petitions and said that he was stunned to learn that his petition included the names of people who had not signed, including three dead people.

But in a Sept. 26 misdemeanor complaint, Michael Garcia, an investigator with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, said that Scott informed him that he personally signed the attestations of each of the individuals designating petitions.

Garcia wrote that Scott committed obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct on April 10, 2023, at the then Westchester County Board of Elections Office at 25 Quarropas Street in the City of White Plains.

A commissioner from the county Board of Elections informed Garcia that Scott filed a 37-page document, consisting of 37 designating petitions, purported to contain the signatures of duly enrolled voters of the Democratic Party entitled to vote in the June 27, 2023, primary election in support of Scott’s candidacy for the office of County Legislator, District 1.

However, the investigation from the district’s attorney’s office determined that Scott’s designating petition submission contained false information, including the names of eight individuals who said they did not sign those petitions.

That was despite a statement of witness on each of Scott’s 37 designating petitions attesting “each of the individuals whose names are subscribed to this petition sheet containing (fill in number)… signatures, subscribed the same in my presence on the dates above indicated and identified himself or herself to be the individual who signed this sheet.”

The statement of witness also read, “I understand that this statement will be accepted for all purposes as the equivalent of an affidavit and, if it contains a material false statement, shall subject me to the same penalties as if I had been duly sworn.”

(The complaint did not make any reference to the names of people who were deceased, as previously mentioned by prosecutors. Garcia wrote he did not include every fact known to him and set forth only the facts he believed were sufficient to establish the necessary foundation for the misdemeanor complaint.)

City officials hold their tongues for now

The Peekskill Herald reached both City of Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie and Councilman Ramon Fernandez for comment, but both declined due to not having more information, they said.

Westchester County Legislator Colin Smith, the incumbent who Scott challenged back in 2023, did not respond for comment at this writing.

Both McKenzie and Fernandez, as well as Scott, were the center of a heated conversation in January relating to a so-called “double standard” regarding Scott’s then allegations and a censure vote on Fernandez.

Councilman Fernandez was censured by the Peekskill Common Council on Jan. 27 over him allegedly using his official position to get traffic tickets dismissed for a family friend in 2018 by Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald Johnson, who was forced to retire last year. The Board of Ethics ultimately dismissed a complaint from the council on the allegations due to the statute of limitations expiring two months before it was referred to the board.

Fernandez then claimed it was “political retaliation,” referring to the fact that he is running against McKenzie in the race for mayor this upcoming November. One Peekskill resident in attendance, Leesther Brown, described the move as a “double standard” due to Scott not facing a similar censure vote.

During that January meeting, Brown inquired why McKenzie hadn’t asked Scott to step down, as she had to Fernandez. McKenzie replied that Scott’s case was then still in court and that the law of the land says a person is innocent until proven guilty.

Brown then claimed that two of the people who had their names falsely written on the petitions were family members of hers who had never been in Scott’s juice shop or been visited at their homes by Scott.

“It’s about time,” Brown said to the Herald of Scott’s guilty plea. “He broke the trust of the community by doing what he did. He was wrong. He should step down. He should absolutely step down, just like anyone else should.”

In addition to Scott’s, several other petitions have recently faced scrutiny from the Peekskill Democratic City Committee (PDCC) and Board of Elections. 

Elena Muniz-Walker and Garrett Dowd, who are running for the council under the Republican line, had their petitions for an independent line removed from the November ballot after challenges from the PDCC chair. 

A challenge was also made over Councilman Ramon Fernandez’s petitions for mayor after he was short of just one valid signature to be on the ballot. Attorneys for both Fernandez and PDCC ultimately agreed to a stipulation declaring Fernandez’s nominating petition valid and directed the board to include Fernandez’s name.

[Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16, to clarify the wording that describes Robert Scott’s conviction.]

[Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 3:04 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 14, to alter the headline so the guilty plea by Robert Scott is more precisely stated.]

[Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 10:55 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, to correct the date of Robert Scott’s arrest, which took place on April 16, 2024.]