An attorney for former state Senator George Maziarz said Friday he was filing two motions for dismissal in Albany County Court. The long-time Niagara County Republican power-broker is accused of funneling campaign funds through the county committee to pay a former Senate staffer who had been accused Maziarz of sexual harassment.

The first motion called for dismissal because the defense believes there were witness statements that should've been presented to the grand jury that indicted Maziarz.

"The law in New York State is if there is information out there and if the prosecutor knows about it and if it might tend to induce a grand jury not to indict, that prosecutor is duty bound to present that evidence to a grand jury and to appropriately instruct the grand jury as to its significance,"  said defense attorney Joseph LaTona.  

In the second motion, attorneys argued the case should be dismissed because there were internal emails from the New York State Board of Elections questioning whether using a pass-through entity was even a crime.

"I think it's extremely significant when you have one or more attorneys for the alleged victim indicating doubt in their mind that a crime had even occurred," LaTona said.

He said the defense didn't know about these emails until shortly before the originally scheduled trial date in August.

"I'm not over-confident," LaTona said. "I'm hopeful."

If the motions are denied, the trial is scheduled to start in February. 

"Mr. Maziarz's previous motion to dismis was swiftly rejected by the court," said Amy Spitalnick, a press secretary for for the state Attorney General's office. "We will oppose this motion in a formal filing wth the court." 

The Attorney General's office had not received any motion filed on behalf of Maziarz as of close of business Friday.