Hearing adjourned in New Scotland murder case; motion to dismiss charges pending

Attorneys appeared Wednesday in Albany County Court for a murder case that received national attention in April, when a man from New Scotland was found stabbed to death in his home.

Jacob Klein, 41, is accused of murdering Philip Rabadi, 35, the husband of a woman police said Klein had been in a relationship with in the past. The case captured the attention of the Capital Region after the graphic murder on April 13^th.

Klein’s Manhattan-based defense attorney, Mark Bederow, said Wednesday the appearance was a chance to update the court on where the defense and prosecution stand.

In recent weeks, attorneys have been going back and forth after Bederow filed a motion to dismiss the second-degree murder indictment against Klein.

Klein is accused stabbing and killing Rabadi at his New Scotland home. Rabadi was found bound and stabbed in his garage after he failed to show up to work at St. Peter’s, where he worked as a physician assistant alongside his wife, Elana Radin. Klein and Radin had been in a relationship years ago, police told NewsChannel 13 in the spring.

Bederow argued the indictment is defective. The motion to dismiss said the grand jury was exposed to a deluge of “extrajudicial” information from law enforcement after the murder, that never was part of the court case.

“Part of our motion to dismiss, we argued that the comments made by the [Albany County] sheriff at a press conference back in April, during an interview with Fox News and other outlets, made during a grand jury proceeding, were inappropriate, given that there was a grand jury proceeding going on,” Bederow said Wednesday.

Bederow also referenced Apple’s involvement in criminal charges filed, then dropped, against former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“He has a history of doing that, as he did in the Governor Cuomo case,” Bederow said.

The motion also says the Albany County District Attorney had a responsibility to stop the sheriff from making such comments about the case, and that the D.A. should not have let information leak that was biased against Klein. 

In a reply, the D.A.’s office concluded there were “no errors at all” during the grand jury proceeding.

Sheriff Craig Apple told NewsChannel 13 Wednesday that Bederow is fighting for his client.

“But the public still has the right to know what’s going on,” Sheriff Apple said.   

Apple said at the time of the murder that video from neighbors’ cameras helped build the case against Klein. He was arrested in Virginia, the state where he lived, two days after the murder.  

Klein has ties to Albany. He attended Albany Academy.

Klein did not appear before the judge Wednesday. NewsChannel 13 reached out to give him the opportunity to speak about the case. He declined the request.

NewsChannel 13 has also closely followed how Rabadi’s family has honored his memory and his commitment to serve his community as a physician assistant. As of Wednesday, a fund created to help future physician assistants had raised more than $88,000.