The battle continues in the race for Broome County District Attorney as current D.A. Michael Korchak is accusing Paul Battisti of fear-mongering. 

That comes after Battisti held a press conference this morning and presented documents that Korchak's office dismissed 7,000 cases over a two-year period, saying this puts public safety at risk. 

Battisti says the documents were the result of a FOIL request.

Korchak says those statistics include charges dismissed in satisfaction. "That individual is indicted on a ten count indictment. He or she pleads guilty to one charge and goes to prison for 10 to 20 years. Nine charges are dismissed. It's called dismissed in satisfaction."

This isn't the first time the two have faced off. Korchak was elected D.A. back in 2019, running as a Libertarian after losing the Republican primary to Battisti. 

Battisti, surrounded by members of law enforcement and other Republican elected officials, like Binghamton mayor Jared Kraham.

"I think it's egregious that cases aren't being prosecuted," he said. "When you're elected district attorney, you're protected to ensure justice occurs. And justice is not always a conviction that you're doing what the district attorney must do. The ethical obligation is not always what's popular. It's always got to be what's right."

Korchak responded, "This is just another example of, I guess, the extent that they will go to try and mislead the public. You know, you got to consider the source. This is all political on their point. And those that support Mr. Battista are doing so for political purposes. But I'm a prosecutor. I'm not a politician. I've never been a politician."

Korchak went on to say that Broome County's rate of dismissed cases falls below the state average. 

In a statement, Battisti responded to Korchak, saying "Mike Korchak is again distracting from the facts instead of admitting that he failed to prosecute thousands of serious cases. His claim that these numbers are inflated is wrong. The facts are the facts - and they show Mr. Korchak's incompetence as D.A. Beyond his blatant disregard for the facts, it's appalling that Mr. Korchak held his campaign press conference today in his taxpayer-funded county office, and that he compelled one of his taxpayer-funded employees to serve as a prop. It's clearly unethical and appears to directly violate the Public Officers Law."

The Republican primary is on June 27th.