FRAUD LAWSUIT MOVING FORWARD.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: ANDREW TILGHMAN Staff writer

A $4 million lawsuit against a high-ranking state Health Department official accused of using her former job at a not-for-profit group to collect under-the-table ``consulting fees'' can go to trial, a judge has ruled.

Susan Peerless of Albany, who left her post as executive director in 1998, is fending off a lawsuit filed against her by the Empire State Association of Adult Homes, a trade group that represents more than 250 assisted-living homes for the elderly.

Peerless, now a special assistant to Health Commissioner Antonia Novello, allegedly accepted illegal consulting fees from a company trying to do business …