Donald Rodgers, Suffolk's County's commissioner of information technology, was arrested Thursday and charged with official misconduct and offering a false instrument for filing, according to District Attorney Thomas Spota.
Rodgers, 60, is accused of failing to disclose his position as president of his own computer firm as well as the revenue his company earned in 2012, Spota said.
By law, all non-county business and non-county earnings must be detailed on a commissioner’s county financial disclosure statement, which is then filed with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics, Spota said.
The offering a false instrument for filing charge is a felony.
Rodgers, who surrendered at his Centereach home Thursday morning, is also charged with two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct. Spota said the first count stems from Rodgers lying to the Suffolk County Legislature during questioning by lawmakers about whether he had signed an agreement with the Microsoft Corporation.
“Rodgers said no and in fact he had signed it and lied to conceal this fact," Spota said in a statement.
Rodgers is also charged with official misconduct for "compelling" one of his subordinates in the IT department to create a fake requisition number, Spota said.
"He wanted to place the number on an official Letter of Intent to purchase $5 million of computer licenses with Microsoft and Dell corporations,” Spota said of Rodgers, who pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday and was released on his own recognizance.
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