N.Y. state Senate ‘law and order’ candidate Brian Fox has rap sheet that includes jail time for drunk driving

A Republican state Senate candidate in Brooklyn who’s campaigning on a “law and order” platform has a criminal history in New Jersey that includes spending time behind bars over a drunk driving incident, according to a Daily News review of court records.

Brian Fox, who’s challenging Democratic state Sen. Andrew Gounardes in next Tuesday’s election, was sentenced to 10 days in jail in 2011 after being caught driving with a suspended license in Princeton, N.J., court records show. The relatively stiff penalty was doled out because Fox’s license had originally been suspended about a year prior due to a guilty plea to a charge of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to records.

In addition to a suspended license, Fox’s DUI sentence included undergoing a 12-hour Intoxicated Driving Program class and paying $764 in fines.

Records also show Fox copped twice in 2009 to speeding violations in the Garden State, where he lived at the time. In one of those incidents, he drove 65 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone.

Between his various vehicle-related offenses, Fox coughed up $2,651 in fines, according to court papers.

Fox’s legal troubles also include a December 2010 arrest on a contempt charge stemming from an alleged violation of a domestic violence-related restraining order, records reveal. He never entered a plea to that charge, and the matter was referred to family court, where it was “disposed,” although records do not reflect the exact outcome of the case.

Fox campaign spokesman Bill O’Reilly said the contempt charge against his boss got dismissed in family court because he was never served with the restraining order.

“Just an unfortunate breakup,” said O’Reilly, who declined to elaborate on why the restraining order was issued in the first place, though he stressed that Fox “did nothing wrong.”

Of the other charges, O’Reilly said, “Mr. Fox learned a hard lesson as a young man.”

”His experience taught him the importance of personal accountability, a practice he speaks about with young people wherever he goes,” O’Reilly said. “Mr. Fox is running for the Senate to bring that very same accountability to an Albany legislature that has clearly lost its way, particularly on matters of criminal justice. The people want change.”

Fox is running against Gounardes to represent the 26th state Senate District, which includes Bay Ridge and Sunset Park.

The Republican state Senate hopeful’s New Jersey rap sheet is contrasted by his hardline public safety message on the campaign trail in Brooklyn this year.

Fox, who holds endorsements from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and the NYPD Lieutenants Benevolent Association, has painted himself as a pro-police conservative while accusing Gounardes of doing “nothing to help stop crime.”

“More then [sic] ever we need to restore Law and Order, we have to hold our local elected officials accountable,” Fox wrote on Twitter this spring.

Despite his own driving-related run-ins with the law, Fox also took aim at Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan this summer over the Democratic city lawmaker’s record of speeding violations.

“Do you denounce the reckless speeding violations your colleague @JustinBrannan has committed who additionally has a combined 60+ speeding ans [sic] vehicle violations?” Fox, who unsuccessfully challenged Brannan for his Bay Ridge Council seat last year, tweeted at Gounardes on Aug. 18 in response to a post from the senator raising concern about street safety.

Gounardes, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2018, said the contrast between Fox’s record and rhetoric is par for the course for the GOP.

“It’s shocking, but not surprising, that the Republican Party is supporting someone with a criminal record to run for office not once, but twice in southern Brooklyn. The hypocrisy is appalling,” Gounardes said. “Republicans beat their chest stoking fear over law and order. Meanwhile, the only crime wave are the candidates they are running for office.”

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