{"id":402,"date":"2008-05-25T02:03:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T02:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.israelgreenwald.com\/?p=402"},"modified":"2015-03-13T02:03:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:03:13","slug":"rogues-gallery-of-crooked-pols-bad-cops-get-big-time-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/?p=402","title":{"rendered":"Rogues’ gallery of crooked pols & bad cops get big-time pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dailynews\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
\nDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER<\/p>\n

Sunday, May 25th 2008, 4:00 AM
\nClick on photo to see a gallery of corrupt officials like ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer and ex-Controller Alan Hevesi who are eligible for big pensions. Schwartz, Chevrestt for News<\/p>\n

Click on photo to see a gallery of corrupt officials like ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer and ex-Controller Alan Hevesi who are eligible for big pensions.<\/p>\n

A corrupt army of 450 disgraced pols, crooked cops and bribed judges is pocketing fat city and state pensions funded by the taxpayers they betrayed, a Daily News probe has found.<\/p>\n

Another 125 fallen officials – from ex-Assemblywoman Diane Gordon (D-Brooklyn), caught fishing for bribes, to ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, caught rolling wth hookers – will snag their “golden goodbyes” when they turn 62.<\/p>\n

Fueled by a crime wave in Albany and scandals at City Hall, the roster of tainted public servants has exploded dramatically in the past two years – and the cost of their send-offs has soared to $25 million a year, estimates show.<\/p>\n

Even two ex-detectives accused of being Mafia hit men – Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa – have raked in city pensions that total $1 million apiece, records show.<\/p>\n

“It’s a world that rewards people who lie, cheat, steal, take bribes, betray the public trust and embezzle public funds,” said City Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) who has railed for years against such ripoffs.<\/p>\n

Even an upstate cell at the Oneida Correctional Facility can’t keep cash from a crook: Former Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic fixer Clarence Norman – serving nine years for theft and extortion – pulls down an annual state pension of $43,322. By the time he’s back in Flatbush, he could bank a $389,898 nest egg, state officials say.<\/p>\n

New York’s protected class includes ex-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty to state charges of lying about illegal gifts and faces federal charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements.<\/p>\n

Kerik’s $57,263-a-year city pension is guaranteed for life, no matter what. Since he began collecting pension checks in 2003, he’s pocketed $275,000, records show.<\/p>\n

The richest member of the Hall of Shame: ex-Controller Alan Hevesi, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to using state workers to chauffeur his ailing wife, water her plants, drop off her dry cleaning and take her to Bloomingdale’s.<\/p>\n

He gets a $104,123 state pension that began in 2002 plus a $66,570 teachers pension, from an earlier post at Queens College, that started in 1996. That comes to $170,693 a year; Hevesi has soaked taxpayers for $1.1 million, records show.<\/p>\n

Rewarding rogues is perfectly legal, pension experts say. The city’s administrative code, the state’s Retirement and Social Security Law and the state Constitution do not specifically ban the practice.<\/p>\n

There is no provision for forfeiture of pension benefits. Ne’er-do-wells who face legal peril simply file for retirement and begin collecting.<\/p>\n

Consider ex-Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, captured on video accepting payola to steer state work to a contractor. Confronted with $3,400 in marked bills found inside her pocketbook, the Bronx Democrat pleaded guilty in January 2003 to a bribery charge and was stripped of her $97,000-a-year seat.<\/p>\n

A month later her retirement became official and her $61,290-a-year pension kicked in. To date, she’s collected $302,500, records show.<\/p>\n

“She had a weak moment and something went wrong, but that doesn’t negate all the good she’s done for her community,” said her lawyer, Murray Richman.<\/p>\n

Davis is an exception. Only 12% of the tainted pols collecting fat pensions are women; the rest are men. Some have ridden the gravy train for years after their disgrace.<\/p>\n

Typical is ex-Chief Judge Sol Wachtler. In 1992, he altered his voice, disguised himself as a toothless Texas private eye and launched a bizarre harassment campaign against an ex-lover.<\/p>\n

A month after his arrest, he began receiving his $69,339-a-year retirement pay, which accrued while he served 15 months in federal prison for threatening to kidnap the woman’s 14-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

In the 16 years since he was booted from the state’s No. 1 judicial job, Wachtler has snared $1 million, a News analysis found.<\/p>\n

“Judge Wachtler accepted responsibility for what he did, and paid dearly for it,” said his then-lawyer, Charles Stillman. “It had zero to do with the outstanding service he rendered as one of the state’s greatest judges.”<\/p>\n

Ex-Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron also traded his black robes for an orange jumpsuit after accepting an $18,000 bribe from a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Arrested in January 2002, Barron put in for his retirement that August and began collecting his $87,836-a-year pension. A week later, he pleaded guilty to bribery. Jailed for three years, his monthly check from the state went into his direct-deposit account until his release in 2005.<\/p>\n

Over nearly six years, taxpayers have ponied up $516,000 for the jurist who sullied the Brooklyn bench.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers have also showered $292,000 on ex-state Sen. Guy Velella (R-Bronx), who pleaded guilty in May 2004 to funneling $137,000 in bribes from contractors through his 90-year-old father’s law firm.<\/p>\n

His timing was perfect: Velella’s retirement became official on June 16, 2004, giving him an annual $74,472 pension that followed him to Rikers, where served eight months of a one-year sentence.<\/p>\n

“It’s the tiniest bit of wrongdoing weighed against a long lifetime of enormous service as a public official,” said Stillman, who also was Velella’s lawyer.<\/p>\n

dfeiden@nydailynews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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