Tributes continue rolling in for Assemblyman Bill Nojay. The Conservative Pittsford Republican took his own life at Riverside Cemetery Friday.
Nojay had appeared on WHAM 1180’s Bob Lonsberry show the day before his death, giving no indication anything was out of the ordinary. But the Pittsford Republican was apparently about to be charged by federal prosecutors with embezzling funds from a $1.8 million escrow account belonging to one of his law clients.
Several sources have said Nojay was to turn himself in to federal authorities Friday morning. Instead he went to the cemetery and shot himself at his family’s plot, in view of a Rochester police officer directed there by a 911 call asking police to check on a person’s welfare.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it is “not in a position to release any information at this time” about any investigation involving Bill Nojay. But the “Democrat and Chronicle” says it learned from Rochester architect Carlton DeWolff that Nojay was to be charged with allegedly taking funds from an escrow account that Nojay managed on his behalf. Nojay was DeWolff’s lawyer and business partner.
The money was for a medical complex DeWolff was designing in Jordan.
Nojay and DeWolff were involved in the program manager contract for the massive Rochester School Modernization Project. The FBI was looking into aspects of that project, which may have led them to the missing funds in the unrelated account.