well-documented history<\/a> of dishonesty in his various unsuccessful campaigns for public office,\u201d Hevesi said in a statement. \u201cHe is a lifelong Republican, who has consistently run as a Republican, and lost as a Republican. But this year, Mr. Rinaldi changed his party designation to Democrat to challenge me in the primary, which is inherently against his well-documented anti-Democratic views. As a result of that move, he is literally the only person in New York who had the motive, not to mention the means and opportunity, to commit this criminal act.\u201d<\/p>\nHevesi swore out the criminal complaint a week after learning that paperwork had been filed by mail to change his registration from the Democratic Party to the Working Families Party, making him ineligible to run for the Democratic primary in June. Hevesi knew the paperwork had not been filed by him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs alleged, Mr. Rinaldi is now suspected of attempting to defraud voters in the 28th Assembly District by committing forgery and falsely filing paperwork to register as a Working Families Party voter,\u201d Hevesi said. \u201cThis change would have made me ineligible to run on the Democratic line had the Working Families Party not discovered the fraud, allowing me to take steps to correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rinaldi says he has been falsely accused.
\n![\"Rinaldi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hevesi-criminal-complaint-opponent-rinaldi02.webp.jpeg\")
Rinaldi vehemently denies Hevesi\u2019s claims and blames vulnerabilities in the election system that allow voter registration to be changed by mail.Courtesy of Rinaldi\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI had absolutely no involvement in any change to Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi\u2019s voter registration, and neither did anyone acting on my behalf,\u201d Rinaldi told QNS in an email. \u201cWhat this situation highlights is a serious vulnerability in our election system. If a voter registration could be changed by mail, without identification, and even apparent errors, that should concern every New Yorker. Instead of speculation, the focus should be on ensuring the integrity and security of the system so this cannot happen to anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the Queens District Attorney\u2019s office said, \u201cWe do not disclose the existence or non-existence of an investigation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Hevesi attacked Rinaldi\u2019s reputation for dirty tricks in previous campaigns.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Rinaldi has built his political reputation on lies, deceptions, and unquestionably unethical behavior. Knowing he could never win based on any merit, throughout his past campaigns, he has repeatedly lied to the voters, gotten caught, and been defeated at the ballot box,\u201d Hevesi said. \u201cBut now he has apparently crossed the line from George Santos-style fabulism into criminal fraud and forgery, and it is time for him to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rinaldi ran against Hevesi two years ago as a Republican and explained why he switched to the Democratic party to challenge him in the primary.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this was never about part labels, it\u2019s about whether you stand with the political establishment or with the people you\u2019re supposed to represent,\u201d Rinaldi said. \u201cThe establishment wants to frame everything in terms of party because that\u2019s how they maintain control, but voters aren\u2019t living their best lives based on party lines. They\u2019re focused on real issues like cost of living, safety, and whether anyone is actually listening to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that too often, those concerns come second to party interests and insiders.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI made this decision because I want to be in a position where I can represent the people in this district honestly and directly, without being boxed in by a system that prioritizes the establishment over the public,\u201d Rinaldi said. \u201cI\u2019m not here to represent a party machine, I\u2019m here to represent the voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hevesi is a lifelong resident of the district he has represented since 2005 which includes constituents in Forest Hills, Rego Park, Ridgewood, Richmond Hill, Middle Village, Glendale and Kew Gardens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am, and always have been a Democrat, and would never change parties,\u201d Hevesi said. \u201cI have already taken steps to restore my actual enrollment, and I look forward to running for re-election as a Democrat with the support of the Working Families Party and appearing on both the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. Mr. Rinaldi, on the other hand, has a lifelong record of blatant dishonesty, and is now facing an investigation for being a criminal perpetrator of fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hevesi thanked the Working Families Party for their diligence in discovering the fraud, Chairman Gregory Meeks and the Queens County Democratic Party for their swift actions to help resolve it, and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and her office for their professionalism before taking a final shot at Rinaldi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf convicted, as I believe he will be, he must pay the price for his actions, and I plan to ask the courts to permanently ban him from running for office and abusing our political system further,\u201d Hevesi concluded. \u201cI look forward to the results of the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi accused primary opponent Johnathan Rinaldi of committing fraud and forgery in an illegal effort to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[76021,4866,76022,31101,396,76023,9,24,63,122,76024,5193,11229,124,123,17934],"class_list":{"0":"post-189546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-assemblymember-andrew-hevesi","9":"tag-democratic-primary","10":"tag-electoral-chicanery","11":"tag-forgery","12":"tag-fraud","13":"tag-jonathan-rinaldi","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-queens-county-democratic-party","19":"tag-queens-district-attorney-melinda-katz","20":"tag-queens-district-attorneys-office","21":"tag-queens-headlines","22":"tag-queens-news","23":"tag-working-families-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Assemblymember](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hevesi-criminal-complaint-opponent-rinaldi01.webp.jpeg\")
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