Ulster County Press Article No. 1

MORE TROUBLE IN A SMALL TOWN
Rochester officials allegedly accuse Historic Preservation Commission applicant of porn link
by Melissa Lajara
Ulster County Press — January 31, 2007

Manuela Mihailescu, an applicant for a position on the Town of Rochester Historic Preservation Commission, said that allegations that she is involved with an adult Web site are being used to keep her off a board she would otherwise be qualified to serve on.

She said that in an interview with town board members and Supervisor Pam Duke last week, she was accused of involvement in online pornography. "lt's nothing further from the truth," Mihailescu said. "I was shocked."

So shocked and distressed, she said, that after the discussion, she ran out of the board meeting, got in her car and smacked into another vehicle in the town hall's parking lot.

Reached late last week, Duke would only confirm that the board set up the interview with Mihailescu. She would not comment further or confirm the chain of events that took place during the interview, saying that it was all in executive session. "Thats the bottom line," Duke said.

No other town board members returned calls requesting comment, but board member Francis Gray said Mihailescu and her husband Jon Dogar-Marinesco, who together own the historic DeWitt Dutch Barn on Route 209 in Kerhonkson, are "liars."

Gray also declined to comment on the details of the interview citing the legal restrictions of executive sessions. "We are doing this job as the people elected us to do it" he said.
Mihailescu and her husband believe the allegations are a personal attack, the result of bad blood and an ongoing political dispute within the town's citizenry that involves a Web site for the Rochester Republicans group. Dogar-Marinesco is the site's Webmaster.

The Rochester Republicans Web site made the news in February when Democratic Councilman Alex Miller and Duke, also a Democrat, found nails in their driveways. In a July meeting of the Town Board, Miller alleged the group incited the attacks, although Rochester Republicans President Carl Chipman has consistently denounced such actions. It was never proven that the group had anything to do with the vandalism. Dogar-Marinesco admits his Web site is aggressive and strongly worded, but said his intent is to "rile people up."

According to Mihailescu, the report alleging her involvement with the pornographic Web site was brought to the board by Gray She said she asked to see the report and accompanying photographs, and eventually was permitted to look. "Tens of small photos on a page, all showing sexual acts, private parts, ejaculation," Mibailescu said. None of them, she said, involved her in any way.

Mihailescu said she then asked that the search be replicated for her, and said Duke was unable to do so on her laptop computer The search engine Gray claimed to have used, Mihailescu said, was Yahoo!

Mihailescu and Dogar-Marinesco, who was not present at his wife's interview, both said they believe that the search may have been hasty. They think their accusers found parts of Mihailescu's name embedded in hidden aspects of adult Web sites, like in meta-tags, but noted that such sites often index thousands of words to help put them at the top of search results for seemingly unrelated terms.

According to Mihailescu, Councilman Miller postponed the vote on het appointment to the Rochester Historic Preservation Commission because the information presented would have resulted in her application being denied.

Mihailescu said she's distraught and having trouble focusing on anything else since the interview.

But whether or not she gets on the Historic Preservation Commission, she said she's going to continue to be a presence. She said its mainly because she is intensely interested in history and believes her marketing background would be useful there. She and her husband live in the old Gazlay Brick House and are now involved in the grant-funded renovation of their Dutch Barn on Route 209 in Kerhonkson.