An appellate court ruled Thursday morning that a criminal case against former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove can be reinstated.

Abelove faced two counts of official misconduct for how he handled the April 2016 police-involved shooting of Edson Thevenin in Troy, as well as a perjury charge for falsifying testimony in a separate case.

In June 2018, a state Supreme Court judge dismissed the perjury charge on the grounds that the special prosecutor lacked authority to prosecute Abelove’s perjury. The judge also ultimately threw out the misconduct counts because the case may have been tainted by that perjury charge.

The attorney general's office argued that it did have the authority to investigate the perjury charge under executive law, and that all charges should be reinstated.

Representatives for Abelove had no comment when reached Thursday.

Attorney General Letitia James issued a statement Thursday afternoon: “Today’s decision is a big win in our efforts to ensure that justice is served and that no person, including elected officials, is above the law. The grand jury found that former District Attorney Abelove abused his power and lied under oath in an attempt to sway a grand jury and impede our investigation – actions that are patently unlawful and unethical. We look forward to continuing this case and ensuring that justice is truly served.”