The Feds Keep an Eye on the Democratic Circus

The Feds Keep an Eye on the Democratic Circus

By Yonkers Confidential

The Yonkers 2011 mayoral race is upon us, and the democratic candidates are very colorful characters, to say the least.

City Council President Chuck Lesnick is a victim of his own making. Having distanced himself from the man who controls the Yonkers democratic committee’s nominating votes, County Legislator Ken Jenkins, he paid the price last night by being trounced by Jenkins’’ handpicked spoiler, Assemblyman Mike Spano. His will at least guarantee that Lesnick does not get the support of the party faithful in his quest for the Yonkers mayoralty while also serving to curtail his fledging campaign. This setback, coupled with the recently released information by the Daily News of Lesnick’s direct involvement with the soon-to-be defaults while he was a member of the CIDC board- will likely spell doom for his ‘Don Quixote’ campaign.

Now to Mike Spano, who obviously has a little of Vinny Liebell’s ‘denial syndrome’ in him these days. Allow me to digress.

What do we know about the ongoing Ridge Hill investigation and the Spano family? We know that two of their former employees and closet political allies, attorney Anthony Mangone and political fixer Zehy Jereis, were indicated in January of 2010 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on various bribery and conspiracy charges related to two development projects that needed the vote of a certain Yonkers legislator (enter indicated council woman Sandy Annabi) to move forward. The windup was that Sandy changed her vote and Mangone, upon indictment, flipped and became a government informant. And Mangone, from what federal investigators are implying, certainly is the big fish they needed who knows where all the bodies are buried. And there is plenty of digging going on these days.

We know that between July and October of 2010, Nick Spano paid $30,000 to a high-end Manhattan defense firm from his Senate campaign fund (although it’s presently unknown how much more was spent from his person accounts or additional campaign expenditures to this firm in the last seven months. But one can surmise that it is a sizable amount to date). A partner at the law firm at the time would say only that he was advising Spano on a number of matters. Yeah, I’ll bet. But the question any reasonable person would ask is: Why would an innocent man spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend himself against criminal charges if he hadn’t committed a crime? Got me. These payments give new meaning to the term guilty conscience. Do you think that Nick’s attorneys were told that he was a target of the present federal investigation? One would think that would be the only reasonable way to explain Nick Spano’s current paranoia.

Now let’s move to Mike Spano and his ongoing “Ridge Hill Issue.” Mike, the trusting and dutiful brother of Nick, was ‘asked’ by his big brother to leave the NYS Assembly in 2005 in order to lobby for the Ridge Hill project, working for the lobbying firm of Patricia Lynch & Associates. Nick needed Sandy Annabi’s vote, and he brought in Mike to engage the fixer, Zehy Jereis. The feds were watching (and listening) on May 31 and again on June 1, 2006 as Mike Spano and Zehy Jereis discussed their strategy in Garden City, NY. Jereis would get paid via a consulting contract with Forest City Ratner for delivering Annabi’s vote. That’s the way the Spano’s liked to do business (remember the consulting contract with the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce that Nick put in place for Zehy which is also part of the current federal investigation?). Now the feds had a charge of Criminal Solicitation against Mike. The feds were watching (and listening) again the next day, June 2, 2006, when Mike Spano introduced Jereis to representatives of Forest City Ratner and the aforementioned consulting deal was officially cut. If Jereis could deliver Annabi’s vote, he would receive $60,000, one-year consulting contract from FCR, and Mike (and Nick) would make a hefty lobbying fee for delivering the prize. The feds now had Mike on the charge of Conspiracy. And when Annabi voted a week later for the Ridge Hill project zoning change, the crime of Bribery was completed.

Bribery is defined as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his/her public or legal duties. The first element required is Intent. Corrupt intent is the intent to receive a specific benefit in return for the payment. The second element is that a bribe must involve something of value that is used to influence the action or non-action of the recipient. However, the bribe doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of money. It is sufficient if the receiver gets anything of value to himself/herself from the bribe.

One might ask how Sandy Annabi could be charged with bribe receiving if she wasn’t directly paid by FCR for her vote. But, in reality, she was. Remember that Zehy Jereis kept Annabi on retainer, supplying her with over $160,000 in secret payments since 2004. These payments bought her vote on the Longfellow project and the Ridge Hill vote.

But the more puzzling question that the public should be asking is…

1. Who supplied Zehy Jereis with the $160,000+ that he paid to Annabi? and;
2. Who supplied Zehy Jereis with the money that he used to purchase six two-family homes in Yonkers over the course of less than a decade? And why?

The U.S. Attorney believes that these are questions that can only be answered by either Zehy Jereis or… a certain attorney who is presently acting as a government witness.

Murtagh Gets Mayoral Nod at GOP Convention

 

John Murtagh

 

The Yonkers City Republican committee met last Friday and voted for John Murtagh to be the party’s nominee for Mayor. Murtagh received 50% of the convention vote, with Richard Martinelli at 40% and Carlo Calvi 1%.

Murtagh said he was humbled by the victory and called for party unity. Martinelli vowed to run a GOP Primary in September.

In the race for City Council in the 5^th District, Mike Breen won the night with 84% of the vote. Joe Crotty received 15% and Stephen Ceratto with 1%. Breen will be the party’s nominee, but Crotty and Ceratto are expected to challenge Breen in a primary.

In the other two council races, Yonkers Republicans nominated Brian Carter in the 1^st District, and Jay Brant, a Democrat, in the 3^rd District.

The City GOP also nominated incumbent County Legislators Bernice Spreckman and Gordon Burrows unopposed. Carmen Goldberg was also nominated to run in the 17^th County Board district.

Mike Spano Wins Big at Democratic Convention–“A Slap in the Face for Chuck”

 

Mike Spano

                Assemblyman Mike Spano was nominated at the Democratic convention this week to be the party’s nominee for Mayor. Spano won a huge victory at the convention, with 68% of the support of the district and ward leaders.

                Finishing a distant second was Council President Chuck Lesnick with 30%. Katherine Brezler and Bob Flower each received 1%.

                While many had already determined that Spano would win the night, most were surprised by the margin of victory. One Democratic leader called it “A slap in the face for Chuck (Lesnick)”

                The Lesnick campaign team had already planned on losing the convention, are were already preparing for a Democratic Primary in September against Spano, and Brezler of Flower if they are able to collect the 1,000 signatures of registered dems.

                Spano’s victory was won with the votes from the leadership of the Democratic Party. City Democratic Chair Symra Brandon and former party chair and County Board Chairman Ken Jenkins. The animosity between Lesnick and Jenkins is well known, and this type of a large victory for Spano could not have happened without Jenkins blessing.

                Spano also received support from the Latino leadership in the Democratic party, including Councilman Wilson Terrero, County Legislator Jose Alvarado, and political operative Carlos Moran.

                While Lesnick will have a tough hill to climb to overcome the opposition within the party leadership to his campaign, it is something he has done before. Lesnick has narrowly won two citywide elections, beating Richard Martinelli in 2005 and Jim Castro-Blanco in 2009.

                It will be up to the rank and file Yonkers Democrat to decide who their nominee for Mayor will be. But it was Mike Spano’s night to shine on Tuesday night.

                Republicans will pick their mayoral candidate on Friday night, with John Murtagh and Richard Martinelli facing off. This race is too close to call, with both sides lining up, and counting district leader proxies. Murtagh may have a slim lead before the convention.

                Efforts are also underway to get the endorsement from the Conservative and Independence parties. Martinelli and Murtagh are vying for the Conservative line, and all four candidates are seeking the Independence line.

Hollywood Takes an Interest In DiPietro Case

Wrongful conviction cases, like the one portrayed in the movie Conviction, with oscar winner Hilary Swank, is creating a renewed interest and shinning a bright light on government corruption

 

Rising Media Group has been contacted by a Hollywood film producer interested in our coverage of the case of Angelo DiPietro, who is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime that never even happened.

DiPietro, 54, is sentenced to a high level security facility in Pennsylvania where he has spent the last eight years of his life convicted of a fabricated kidnapping story at the behest of politically connected “Mo” Sanginiti and a dubious Ponzi scheme operator, John Perazzo, who both stuck deals with prosecutors in exchange for their freedom. Visit our Web site, www.risingmediagroup.com, to read our previous stories on the DiPietro case.

Currently, the DiPietro’s case is on appeal, with a motion pending before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Pittman to reopen the case based on new evidence and testimony. The motion was filed last August and remains before Pittman. While similar motions occasionally take more than a year to rule on, some are wondering when a decision will be issued.

Hollywood has always taken an interest in wrongful criminal conviction cases. A recent movie, called “Conviction” and starring academy award winner Hillary Swank, has similarities to the DiPietro case. “Conviction” reviews the case of Kenny Waters, convicted in the1980 murder of Katharina Brow.

Swank plays Betty Anne Waters, Kenny’s sister, who goes to Law School and, with the help of the Innocence Project, helps uncover DNA evidence that frees Kenny. In the DiPietro case, Innocence Project lead investigator Bill Clutter has uncovered new evidence that is before the court that makes the case for either a new trial or for the court to throw out the convictions against DiPietro.

The evidence Clutter discovered and presented to the court includes:

Cell phone records from the date of the alleged kidnapping — testimony at trial from Sanginiti has DiPietro and the conspirators in a white van on the night of the kidnapping at the Cross County Mall, waiting for Perazzo. But phone records show numerous calls between DiPietro, Sanginiti and others who were said to be in the van, which begs the question; why would they be calling each other so many times if they were in the same van?

Testimony from Frank Taddeo and Richard Weiland, both supposed conspirators in the alleged kidnapping, who both say that the kidnapping never happened.

Other parts of the government’s case that don’t add up, and have fueled Hollywood’s interest, include:

The kidnapping allegedly took place in the middle of the busy Cross County Shopping Center, which has video surveillance cameras located at almost every angle of the mall. Yet video tapes on the date of the alleged kidnapping have not been produced or have “disappeared”;

Two investigators from the Westchester County District Attorney’s office were following Perazzo on the date of the alleged kidnapping. Both investigators claimed that they had lost Perrazo during the kidnapping and could not confirm that it happened.

Hollywood also loves stories with colorful and interesting characters, of which the DiPietro case has many.

John Perazzo, who we have dubbed “Westchester’s Bernie Madoff,” was a ponzi scheme artist who conned many Westchester residents out of millions of dollars. When Perazzo finally ran out of money from new investors, a la Madoff, his victims contacted the DA who prosecuted him for fraud.

During his interrogations by District Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, Perazzo then concocted his kidnapping and ended up getting a reduced sentence. The case was investigated by the DA’s office and then handed off to Federal Prosecutors, who succeeded in getting DiPietro convicted, but without the testimony of Perrazo.

The fact that Perazzo never testified to his own kidnapping, unheard of in most kidnapping cases, points to his unreliability as a victim and a witness. Combine this with the new evidence and you have a case, in our view, which deserves justice.

“Mo” Sanginiti is another interesting Westchester character. Sanginiti did testify at DiPietro’s trial, but also testified for the government in other cases involving organized crime. In another case, Sanginiti testified that he paid someone called “the Italian Executive” $25,000 for information regarding upcoming criminal cases against Sanginiti and his friends. Sanginiti named “Zehy” as someone who acted as a middle man in the payoff.

“Zehy” is Zehy Jereis, the former Yonkers GOP Chairman and political operative currently facing Federal charges of bribery and payoffs to former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi. He may also be providing the Feds more information about Sanginiti and his involvement in Westchester politics.

Jeanine Pirro, the former Westchester DA, is another made-for-Hollywood character. Pirro handed the Perazzo kidnapping over to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Her office has also admitted in court documents that she tape recorded conversations involving cases under her prosecution during her 12 years as Westchester’s top law enforcement agent. Do one of these tapes have conversations about the DiPietro case?

Pirro’s tenure as DA left behind a slew of questionable prosecutions, summarized best in Richard Blassberg’s book “The Jeanine Machine.” Pirro now works for Fox TV as a criminal analyst and also has her own court TV show, “Judge Jeanine Pirro.”

Another possible film interest in the DiPietro case may come in the form of a documentary. One HBO documentary, titled “Paradise Lost,” documented the trial and controversial convictions of three teenagers for the grisly murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.

The West Memphis case drew the interest of actor Johnny Depp and music stars Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks, who held concerts to aid in raising funds and awareness for the wrongfully convicted boys. Finally, just last year, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned the boy’s convictions. The DiPietro case may get the same type of attention and support.

Our conversations with Hollywood may also result in a review, and further investigation, by documentary producers from shows like 48 Hours, Dateline, or HBO. And who knows what new information they may uncover in their investigations.