Stevenson Convicted Of All Corruption Charges
After less than two hours of deliberating, a jury convicted Assemblyman Eric Stevenson of all federal corruption charges Monday afternoon.
Stevenson was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for writing favorable legislation of adult day homes.
The verdict under a felony conviction forces the Bronx Democrat from the Assembly.
With Sunday’s resignation of Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak following a series of sexual harassment allegations leveled against him, there are now 11 vacancies in the state Legislature and nine alone in the Assembly.
The Stevenson case first surfaced in April, part of a spate of unrelated scandals to hit Albany.
In a twist, the case also involved then-Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who had been charged with election fraud in his district.
It was revealed that Castro’s entire time in office was as a cooperating witness for federal prosecutors, and the lawmaker secretly wore a recording device to help cooperate in the corruption probe.
“As a unanimous jury swiftly found, Assemblyman Stevenson brazenly betrayed the public that elected him,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara “Graft and greed are intolerable in Albany, and we will go to trial as often as we have to until government in New York is cleaned up.”
Print article | This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on January 13, 2014 at 5:40 pm, and is filed under Albany. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
-
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com VJ Machiavelli
-
BusterBrown