Former Gov. David A. Paterson of New York will not be charged with perjury in connection with accusations that he lied to the State Commission on Public Integrity about taking free World Series tickets from the New York Yankees while he was in office.
The Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, who had been investigating the episode, informed Mr. Paterson’s lawyer on Wednesday that his office had decided not to pursue criminal charges.
An inquiry last year by the commission found that Mr. Paterson had violated state ethics law by soliciting and accepting free tickets to the first game of the 2009 World Series from the Yankees, who have a wide range of matters before the state.
The commission and an independent counsel, Judith S. Kaye, the former chief judge of the State Court of Appeals, found that Mr. Paterson had misled ethics officials when he suggested in sworn testimony that he had intended all along to pay for the tickets, which were worth $425 apiece.
In a letter, Mr. Soares did not challenge the findings by the earlier inquiries, but said their conclusions were based only on the standard that there was a “reasonably likely” chance that Mr. Paterson intentionally lied in his testimony.
“By contrast, a criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for which contemplates a far more exacting analysis than that required of either the P.I.C. or the independent counsel,” Mr. Soares wrote. “We have determined that such a standard cannot be met in this case.”
Mr. Soares’s letter, which was reported by The Daily News on Saturday, was released by Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for Mr. Soares.
The decision effectively puts an end to the most significant outstanding legal problem from the tumultuous administration of Mr. Paterson, a Democrat who assumed office upon the resignation of Eliot Spitzer and decided not to seek election last year to a full term.
In February, Mr. Paterson paid a $62,125 fine to the commission for accepting the tickets, a penalty imposed in the last month of his administration.
Last year, the commission asked Mr. Soares and the state attorney general’s office to consider whether Mr. Paterson had committed perjury.
The attorney general at the time, Andrew M. Cuomo, who succeeded Mr. Paterson as governor, turned the matter over to Ms. Kaye. She found in August that Mr. Paterson had been “inaccurate and misleading” when he testified under oath about the tickets, but she left it to Mr. Soares to determine whether Mr. Paterson should face criminal charges.
Mr. Paterson, for his part, has kept a low profile since leaving office.
He has started lecturing at New York University, where he will teach courses in government this fall, and he was a guest host for the New York sports talk radio station WFAN-AM in March.
Last weekend, he delivered the commencement address at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks.
In his speech, Mr. Paterson told the graduates not to “be deterred by setbacks.”