January 13, 2014
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| Eric Stevenson |
Eric A. Stevenson, a New York assemblyman, was convicted on Monday of taking more than $20,000 in bribes in return for helping four businessmen build an adult day care center in his South Bronx district.
A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated for roughly 90 minutes before returning a verdict finding Mr. Stevenson, 47, guilty of charges that included bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and extortion.
The conviction of Mr. Stevenson, a Democrat in his second term, automatically vacates his 79th District Assembly seat, an Assembly spokesman said.
Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court said Mr. Stevenson would be sentenced on May 20. Prosecutors said he faced a maximum sentence of 20 years on each of two counts and lesser maximums on the others.
After the verdict was delivered, Mr. Stevenson, standing in the courthouse lobby, said: “I want to reserve my thoughts and my feelings. I don’t feel down. We’ll see what the future brings.”
The weeklong trial was the first arising out of an Albany corruption scandal that erupted last April when, on the same day that the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced charges against Mr. Stevenson, it also revealed that another Democratic assemblyman, who turned out to be Nelson L. Castro, had resigned his office and was cooperating with the authorities.
That same week, Mr. Bharara announced charges against Malcolm A. Smith, a Democratic state senator accused of trying to bribe his way onto the ballot to run for mayor of New York. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Stevenson “brazenly betrayed the public that elected him,” Mr. Bharara said on Monday. “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.”
Prosecutors have filed papers seeking forfeiture of any pension money related to Mr. Stevenson’s service in the Assembly.
The prosecution’s case rested largely on the testimony of Sigfredo Gonzalez, a Bronx political operative who ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for the 79th District Assembly seat. He began cooperating with the authorities after he was caught trying to bribe Mr. Castro, who was already helping the government.Prosecutors indicated that the most audacious aspect of the scheme was when
Mr. Stevenson agreed to introduce legislation that would place a three-year moratorium on competing centers opening in the city. The measure would have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the businessmen, who have all since pleaded guilty to conspiracy, the prosecutors said.
Mr. Stevenson’s lawyer, Muhammad Ibn Bashir, focused his attack on Mr. Gonzalez and his questionable past, which included admissions that Mr. Gonzalez had pleaded guilty to crimes including participating in an insurance scheme and lying to government.
“Just look at him. Look at his history,” Mr. Bashir said in his summation, adding, “He has never respected the boundaries of the law.”
But the prosecutors, Paul M. Krieger and Brian A. Jacobs, said Mr. Gonzalez’s testimony was corroborated by video and audio recordings made secretly of his conversations with Mr. Stevenson, which were played at trial, in which testimony began last Tuesday.
Mr. Stevenson could be heard on the recordings using code words to discuss money, expressing concern at being found out and even making threats against those who might seek to expose him, prosecutors said.
In meetings about a year ago, Mr. Stevenson asked Mr. Gonzalez whether the businessmen were “putting together a nice little package for me.” He also told Mr. Gonzalez, “I want a blessing in place, man.”
At one point, he cautioned Mr. Gonzalez, “Be careful of no mistakes, man, those recorders and all those things, man.” And: “Make no paper trail or nothing.”
“Are these the words of an assemblyman just doing his job?” Mr. Krieger argued during his summation. “Absolutely not,” he continued. “Stevenson was doing everything he could to cover up his paper trail, to cover up his relationship with the businessmen.”
