DA finds no crime in ACORN video

NEW YORK – ACORN employees caught on video apparently advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend to lie about her profession and launder her earnings did not commit a crime, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said Monday.

The office began its investigation Sept. 15, the day after the video was released online by conservative activists Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe, who posed as an outlaw couple seeking help buying a house. It was one in a series of videos that sparked a national scandal and helped drive the 40-year-old organization to near ruin.

“We are gratified that the district attorney, after a thorough investigation, found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by ACORN,” said a statement by Jean Sassine, a spokeswoman for the New York Communities for Change, the organization that has replaced ACORN’s Brooklyn operation.

Several of ACORN’s local offices have disbanded and resumed operations under new names.