Ex-New York assembly speaker gets 7 years in prison

NEW YORK— Sheldon Silver, a former New York Assembly speaker who brokered legislative deals for two decades before criminal charges abruptly ended his career, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison by a judge who said political corruption in the state “has to stop.”

The punishment, announced by U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni, was five years less than the 12-year sentence she gave to Silver after he was initially convicted in the case in 2015.

She noted that the conviction of the 74-year-old Democrat came in a year in which Joseph Percoco, a onceclose aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and former New York State Senate leader Dean Skelos, a Republican, were also convicted at corruption trials.

Until 2015, Cuomo, Silver and Skelos made up what was known in Albany as “three men in a room” who every year negotiated the state budget and important legislation behind closed doors.

The judge said the trials meant “corruption cases have touched either directly or indirectly all of the infamous three men in a room.”

“This has to stop,” Caproni said. “New York has to get its act together.”

Before announcing the prison term and a $1.75 million fine, Caproni said Silver seemed to have aged more than would be normal in the last three years while his case has proceeded.

She said “further reflection” led her to the conclusion that the original sentence was longer than necessary.

Given a chance to speak, Silver, requesting mercy, said: “Going forward, I feel I will continue to be ridiculed and shamed.”

Silver’s original conviction was tossed out by an appeals court, but he fared no better at a second trial this spring. A jury once again found him guilty of taking nearly $4 million in return for legislative favors he performed for a cancer researcher and real estate developers.

In a letter to the judge, Silver had begged for mercy. His lawyers had asked that he be given a shorter sentence with a community service component that would allow him to get out from behind bars.

“I pray I will not die in prison,” Silver wrote, saying he was “broken-hearted” that he damaged the trust people have in government.