Key Players, Criminally Convicted, of the Dutchess County Corrupted Paroli Sr., Regime.

January 28, 2000

Lover tells of sex, tapes and murder, police contend
POUGHKEEPSIE: Court papers for a murder case against a former town water superintendent and his lover describe lesbian sex for hire, videotaped sex in a town facility, kickbacks, and murder.

The Associated Press

A sordid tale of paid lesbian sex acts in the town's water pumping station has unfolded in the case of a woman who was shot to death while leaving choir practice last October.
 

Susan Fassett, 48, was shot Oct. 28 as she was leaving a church in Pleasant Valley.
Dawn Silvernail, 50, of Earlton in Greene County, and Fred Andros, 60, were indicted on second-degree murder charges in the case earlier this month.
 

In papers filed in Dutchess County Court Wednesday, Silvernail is quoted by State Police as saying she was a longtime friend and former lover of Andros, whom she met during citizens' band radio conversations in 1977.
 

She said each had consoled the other during their respective marital difficulties over the past 20 years.
 

She said that Andros paid her to have sex with Fassett on several occasions last year – then coerced her into shooting the other woman.
 

Silvernail told police Andros had approached her last spring and told her Fassett was interested in having sex with another woman. After first rejecting the idea, Silvernail said she eventually agreed to do it for money. She said Andros paid her $350 the first time she "participated in lesbian acts while (Andros) videotaped them" inside a town water pumping station.
 

Silvernail said she was paid about $1,200 for "four or five" similar encounters over the next several months.
 

Last fall, Silvernail told police, Andros again approached her and told her he wanted "a big favor." He said he "wanted Fassett dead" because she was "causing problems for him and 'the big guy' in the Town of Poughkeepsie corruption case."
 

That was an apparent reference to a kickback scandal involving several town officials, including Andros, the former town water superintendent. Andros admitted to federal authorities last spring he had delivered a cash bribe to county Elections Commissioner William Paroli Sr., the former town and county GOP chairman.
 

Andros pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge of conspiracy May 27, 1999, and was to be sentenced in June 2000. He had been expected to be a key witness in the case against Paroli.
 

Silvernail is quoted in the court documents as saying Andros told her that he feared Fassett was about to give federal authorities information "that was going to blow his deal with the Feds."
 

A grand jury is continuing to hear evidence in the case, and District Attorney William Grady said additional charges may be lodged against both defendants in the next few weeks.
 

Silvernail, who has been in jail without bail since her arrest Dec. 28, is due back in court Feb. 28 for further discussions of her case with county prosecutors, defense lawyer D. James O'Neil, and Judge Thomas J. Dolan.
 

O'Neil said Wednesday he planned to file a motion at that court session challenging the validity of Silvernail's statements.
 

Andros shot himself in the face Dec. 29 when State Police arrived at his Town of Poughkeepsie home to execute a search warrant. He is recovering from the gunshot wound at Westchester County Medical Center and has not yet been arraigned on the murder indictment.

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