News: Former Suffolk Legislator Sentenced
(Long Island, N.Y.) A former Suffolk County attorney/legislator was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison today at the Suffolk County Court in Riverhead. The ex-legislator had served from 1993 to 2003 representing Westhampton Beach. He faced five to fifteen years for his crime.
He had been convicted of second-degree grand larceny and insurance fraud for stealing a minimum of $853,000 in insurance money. The money was supposed to be used to rebuild his Westhampton Beach home that was destroyed by fire in November of 2008. He faced one to three years for the insurance fraud charges and will serve both sentences consecutively.
Bail had been set at $500,000 cash and $1 million bond at the Suffolk County jail. The prosecutor involved with the case claimed that bail should have been revoked because the former legislator would be a serious flight risk. The defense argued that since he had health issues and five children in the area, he wouldn’t pose a risk.
The trial was held over four weeks with a twelve member jury at Arthur M. Cromarty Courthouse. As a large part of his defense, he claimed he didn’t know how the insurance check ended up in his bank account. Nonetheless, the prosecution tried to paint him as a broke and desperate man facing foreclosure on many fronts at the time the check was deposited into his account.
The case made headlines when Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy was subpoenaed to testify at the trial for the defense. The defendant wanted Levy to testify about his relations with the prosecution’s star witness, in order to also show that the county executive had campaign donations at stake. The subpoena was later squashed and the county executive never took the stand.
The attorney and former legislator testified in his own defense and used phone records as concrete sources of evidence. He claimed that specific locations of cell phone towers proved he couldn’t have been in the places he was accused of being. He said it also proved that he didn’t have the conversations the prosecution accused him of having. One conversation, according to the prosecution’s key witness, said that the defendant spoke of the nature of his crime and highlighted the intention of forging the check and depositing it into his account.
This is one of many Long Island high-profile grand larceny cases to make recent headlines. Many Long Islanders are skeptical of the original fire that caused the former-legislator to obtain the insurance check. While many were shocked and dismayed over the allegations, reports have accused him of spending a career in the public eye while practicing manipulation and fraud.
Though he was acquitted of second-degree forgery and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, he faces another trial in a separate incident of fraud. Reports surfaced claiming he has been a key player tied to a stacking scheme of mortgage fraud for $80 million. In the trial that led to today’s sentencing, Countrywide Home Loans Incorporated, the company that dealt with the home’s reconstruction, said they never received the insurance check in the wake of the fire.
The former legislator worked his way through college and law school by taking up odd jobs and working as an electrician. He began practicing as an attorney in 1978 and had graduated from Westhampton Beach High School in 1971. He attended Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Albany, and Fordham Law School. He served as an assistant coach for the Hampton Youth Athletic League. In an ironic twist of events, the former-legislator previously worked in a law firm as a commercial litigator dealing with complex securities and fraud cases.
