GUILTY! GUILTY!
Skelos & son convicted at 2nd trial for corruption
The sins of the crooked politician were visited upon his crooked son — again.
Former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, were found guilty Tuesday of eight bribery and extortion charges following a four-week retrial.
The jury deliberated three days before deciding the elder Skelos — once one of the “three men in the room” who controlled Albany — had used his powerful position to strong-arm businesses into giving his troubled, bratty son $300,000 through low- and no-show jobs.
Adam Skelos, 36, held his head in his hands as the verdict was read and then shook his head in disappointment. Father and son gave each other a quick embrace in the courtroom and then left separately, declining to comment. A thunderstorm started to drench lower Manhattan as they stepped out of the courthouse.
“Yet again, a New York jury heard a sordid tale of bribery, extortion and the abuse of power by a powerful public official of this state. And yet again, a jury responded with a unanimous verdict of guilt, in this case of Dean Skelos and his son, Adam – sending the resounding message that political corruption will not be tolerated,” Deputy Manhattan U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami said.
It was the second time father and son were convicted in the scheme. Dean Skelos, 70, was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison and Adam Skelos got 6½ years. But they won a retrial based on a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision that redefined what constitutes bribery of a public official.
The Skeloses are the fourth and fifth people with Albany connections to be convicted this year. Just last week, Gov. Cuomo’s handpicked economic guru, Alain Kaloyeros, was found guilty of rigging bids tied to the Buffalo Billion development initiative. In a related trial in March, Cuomo’s former close aide Joseph Percoco was convicted of accepting some $300,000 in bribes. Earlier this year, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted of corruption following a retrial.
The second Skelos trial differed in one notable way from the first: Dean Skelos took the stand in his own defense. The Nassau County Republican choked up while describing himself as a loving father trying to help the son who had been a screwup for much of his adult life. The gambit, which had the father painting his son as a ne’er-dowell man-child, didn’t change the outcome.
“Quite frankly, I’ve asked a lot of people to help my son,” Skelos said on the stand. “If I had the opportunity to ask (somebody) to help Adam, I would.”
Officials from the medical malpractice insurer PRI, the real estate giant Glenwood Management and a manufacturer of stormwater treatment products, Abtech, testified they gave Adam Skelos cushy jobs because of his dad. Prosecutors said the elder Skelos began putting pressure on the companies soon after he became Senate leader in 2010, giving him control over legislation that affected their bottom lines.
The younger Skelos was a terrible employee, showing up to work late and failing to meet his employers’ low expectations. He even threatened to “smash in” the head of one boss, testimony revealed.
“I’m Adam Skelos and do you know who my father is?” he told one employer, according to testimony.
“His temperament, sometimes he could get a bit abrasive,” Dean Skelos admitted on the stand. “It could get a little ugly.”
Adam Skelos did not testify in his defense.
The Skeloses are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 24.