30/11/2011 - 0h19min
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Even to those accustomed to the sins of New York politicians, the latest trial and tribulations of Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. may have hit a new low.
Mr. Boyland, 41, who comes from one of Brooklyn’s most prominent political families, was arrested on Tuesday on federal bribery charges in the borough; the arrest comes nearly nine months after he was arrested on similar but separate bribery charges in Manhattan.
In the new case, prosecutors said Mr. Boyland had the temerity to continue to commit bribery — they say he solicited more than $250,000 in bribes — even after he had been charged in the Manhattan case.
And in a twist, Mr. Boyland intended to use some of the bribe money to pay for lawyers who were representing him in the Manhattan bribery case, prosecutors said; in one case, he solicited $7,000 in cash bribes to “solidify some attorneys,” as he put it in a phone call that was secretly recorded by the government.
Mr. Boyland was acquitted on Nov. 10 in the Manhattan case, and left the courthouse that day triumphant, declaring he was looking forward to returning to his work as an assemblyman. That case was largely circumstantial and the jury never heard Mr. Boyland’s voice, for example, on secretly recorded phone calls.
His voice is all over the new case, the authorities say.
Last April, for example, just weeks after he had been released on bond in the earlier case, Mr. Boyland was secretly recorded by the authorities as he solicited a $250,000 bribe from two undercover agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an Atlantic City hotel suite. In that conversation, he talks about his need to “stay clean” and work through a “bag man,” a criminal complaint shows.
He also says that he prefers personal meetings to phone calls, according to the complaint. “I stopped talking on the phone a while ago,” he said, adding, “especially with what we’re talking about.”
The complaint quotes Mr. Boyland as telling the undercover agents, who were posing as investors interested in real estate projects in Brooklyn, that he needs $250,000 to cover his “legal fees for this legal thing that I have,” a clear reference to the Manhattan bribery case.
“I have a good attorney — I just can’t pay him,” Mr. Boyland says with a laugh, according to the complaint. “I have to get clear of these ... charges, but I have to come back in a bigger sense. That, that’s what has to happen.”
Mr. Boyland was arrested at his home in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, an official said; later in the day, he appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, wearing a blue jogging suit and sneakers. His demeanor was calm.
Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack released him on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond and ordered him not to leave the state.
“We’re sorry to have to be here again,” his lawyer, Michael K. Bachrach, said as he and Mr. Boyland left the courtroom. “We intend to vigorously defend this case,” the lawyer added.
Mr. Boyland declined to comment.
The United States attorney in Brooklyn, Loretta E. Lynch, who announced the new charges with Janice K. Fedarcyk, the F.B.I. official who leads the bureau’s New York office, said the “extent of the charged corruption is staggering.”
Prosecutors accused Mr. Boyland of soliciting and accepting a stream of bribes between August 2010 and June 2011 from a carnival promoter who had known Mr. Boyland for years, and who was cooperating with the government. In exchange, Mr. Boyland agreed to take official actions to secure business opportunities, according to the complaint, which is signed by F.B.I. Special Agent Richard Wilfling.
The complaint says the case stemmed from an investigation of another elected official, identified only as John Doe No. 1, who was said to have solicited a bribe from a carnival operator in the past.
Originally, the undercover agents said they were looking for locations for carnivals in Brooklyn, and Mr. Boyland had said he would help them, the complaint notes.
In October 2010, Mr. Boyland told the undercover agents that he had the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development “locked up,” the complaint says, adding that Mr. Boyland apparently intended to have the city agency help find carnival locations.
Mr. Boyland and the agent also discussed ways to compensate Mr. Boyland for his assistance, the complaint says. “Boyland suggested ‘a consultancy,’ ” by which he would accept payments disguised as consulting fees, the complaint adds.
In November 2010, Mr. Boyland was recorded telling one undercover agent and the carnival promoter that he had arranged for a meeting with the new parks commissioner for Brooklyn, the complaint says. “We pretty much have a green light here, guys,” Mr. Boyland said, according to the complaint. “We can pretty much do what we need to do here.”
Vickie Karp, a spokeswoman for the parks department, said: “It’s premature to comment. We’re looking into it.”
In the April meeting in the Atlantic City hotel suite, in which Mr. Boyland solicited $250,000, the assemblyman proposed a deal by which the two agents posing as investors could buy a financially troubled hospital in his district for $8 million, renovate it with state grant money that he would help obtain and then resell it for $15 million to a nonprofit organization that Mr. Boyland indicated that he controlled, prosecutors said.
One undercover agent asked how much money he wanted in the deal. “Don’t be bashful,” the agent said.
When the undercover agent asks for a specific figure, Mr. Boyland responds “Two fifty,” the complaint says.
“Two hundred and fifty?” the agent asks.
“Yeah,” Mr. Boyland is quoted as saying.
Mr. Boyland, who was first elected in 2003, succeeded his father, William F. Boyland Sr., who had served two decades in the Assembly. The father, in turn, had succeeded his brother, Thomas S. Boyland, who won the seat in the late 1970s but died at age 39 in 1982. Mr. Boyland Jr.’s sister, Tracy, served on the City Council as well.
Mr. Boyland’s Assembly district, the 55th, includes neighborhoods like Ocean Hill and Brownsville, and the district includes a street, school and park all named after Thomas Boyland.
In the trial in Manhattan, Mr. Boyland was acquitted of charges that he had received $175,000 in bribes through a sham consulting agreement with the chief executive of a health care organization, MediSys, which runs hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens.
If convicted of the new charges, Mr. Boyland could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
As he left the courthouse, Mr. Boyland was asked by a reporter whether he intended to remain in office. He nodded in assent. Then he walked into the rain shielded by his lawyer’s umbrella.
.
Matter: Benjamin Weiser e Lisa W. Foderaro/The New York Times
.
Even to those accustomed to the sins of New York politicians, the latest trial and tribulations of Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. may have hit a new low.
Mr. Boyland, 41, who comes from one of Brooklyn’s most prominent political families, was arrested on Tuesday on federal bribery charges in the borough; the arrest comes nearly nine months after he was arrested on similar but separate bribery charges in Manhattan.
In the new case, prosecutors said Mr. Boyland had the temerity to continue to commit bribery — they say he solicited more than $250,000 in bribes — even after he had been charged in the Manhattan case.
And in a twist, Mr. Boyland intended to use some of the bribe money to pay for lawyers who were representing him in the Manhattan bribery case, prosecutors said; in one case, he solicited $7,000 in cash bribes to “solidify some attorneys,” as he put it in a phone call that was secretly recorded by the government.
Mr. Boyland was acquitted on Nov. 10 in the Manhattan case, and left the courthouse that day triumphant, declaring he was looking forward to returning to his work as an assemblyman. That case was largely circumstantial and the jury never heard Mr. Boyland’s voice, for example, on secretly recorded phone calls.
His voice is all over the new case, the authorities say.
Last April, for example, just weeks after he had been released on bond in the earlier case, Mr. Boyland was secretly recorded by the authorities as he solicited a $250,000 bribe from two undercover agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an Atlantic City hotel suite. In that conversation, he talks about his need to “stay clean” and work through a “bag man,” a criminal complaint shows.
He also says that he prefers personal meetings to phone calls, according to the complaint. “I stopped talking on the phone a while ago,” he said, adding, “especially with what we’re talking about.”
The complaint quotes Mr. Boyland as telling the undercover agents, who were posing as investors interested in real estate projects in Brooklyn, that he needs $250,000 to cover his “legal fees for this legal thing that I have,” a clear reference to the Manhattan bribery case.
“I have a good attorney — I just can’t pay him,” Mr. Boyland says with a laugh, according to the complaint. “I have to get clear of these ... charges, but I have to come back in a bigger sense. That, that’s what has to happen.”
Mr. Boyland was arrested at his home in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, an official said; later in the day, he appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, wearing a blue jogging suit and sneakers. His demeanor was calm.
Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack released him on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond and ordered him not to leave the state.
“We’re sorry to have to be here again,” his lawyer, Michael K. Bachrach, said as he and Mr. Boyland left the courtroom. “We intend to vigorously defend this case,” the lawyer added.
Mr. Boyland declined to comment.
The United States attorney in Brooklyn, Loretta E. Lynch, who announced the new charges with Janice K. Fedarcyk, the F.B.I. official who leads the bureau’s New York office, said the “extent of the charged corruption is staggering.”
Prosecutors accused Mr. Boyland of soliciting and accepting a stream of bribes between August 2010 and June 2011 from a carnival promoter who had known Mr. Boyland for years, and who was cooperating with the government. In exchange, Mr. Boyland agreed to take official actions to secure business opportunities, according to the complaint, which is signed by F.B.I. Special Agent Richard Wilfling.
The complaint says the case stemmed from an investigation of another elected official, identified only as John Doe No. 1, who was said to have solicited a bribe from a carnival operator in the past.
Originally, the undercover agents said they were looking for locations for carnivals in Brooklyn, and Mr. Boyland had said he would help them, the complaint notes.
In October 2010, Mr. Boyland told the undercover agents that he had the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development “locked up,” the complaint says, adding that Mr. Boyland apparently intended to have the city agency help find carnival locations.
Mr. Boyland and the agent also discussed ways to compensate Mr. Boyland for his assistance, the complaint says. “Boyland suggested ‘a consultancy,’ ” by which he would accept payments disguised as consulting fees, the complaint adds.
In November 2010, Mr. Boyland was recorded telling one undercover agent and the carnival promoter that he had arranged for a meeting with the new parks commissioner for Brooklyn, the complaint says. “We pretty much have a green light here, guys,” Mr. Boyland said, according to the complaint. “We can pretty much do what we need to do here.”
Vickie Karp, a spokeswoman for the parks department, said: “It’s premature to comment. We’re looking into it.”
In the April meeting in the Atlantic City hotel suite, in which Mr. Boyland solicited $250,000, the assemblyman proposed a deal by which the two agents posing as investors could buy a financially troubled hospital in his district for $8 million, renovate it with state grant money that he would help obtain and then resell it for $15 million to a nonprofit organization that Mr. Boyland indicated that he controlled, prosecutors said.
One undercover agent asked how much money he wanted in the deal. “Don’t be bashful,” the agent said.
When the undercover agent asks for a specific figure, Mr. Boyland responds “Two fifty,” the complaint says.
“Two hundred and fifty?” the agent asks.
“Yeah,” Mr. Boyland is quoted as saying.
Mr. Boyland, who was first elected in 2003, succeeded his father, William F. Boyland Sr., who had served two decades in the Assembly. The father, in turn, had succeeded his brother, Thomas S. Boyland, who won the seat in the late 1970s but died at age 39 in 1982. Mr. Boyland Jr.’s sister, Tracy, served on the City Council as well.
Mr. Boyland’s Assembly district, the 55th, includes neighborhoods like Ocean Hill and Brownsville, and the district includes a street, school and park all named after Thomas Boyland.
In the trial in Manhattan, Mr. Boyland was acquitted of charges that he had received $175,000 in bribes through a sham consulting agreement with the chief executive of a health care organization, MediSys, which runs hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens.
If convicted of the new charges, Mr. Boyland could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
As he left the courthouse, Mr. Boyland was asked by a reporter whether he intended to remain in office. He nodded in assent. Then he walked into the rain shielded by his lawyer’s umbrella.
.
Matter: Benjamin Weiser e Lisa W. Foderaro/The New York Times
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