Guilt plea by pol aide hub in coke case
The husband of a top aide to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is set to plead guilty in his cocaine trafficking case.
Orlando Dennis, 32, who is married to Heastie’s chief of staff Jevonni Brooks-Dennis, was arrested in January 2020 for his alleged role in a scheme to import and distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine. Federal prosecutors said Dennis (inset) and his co-conspirators botched the pickup of a bag carrying three bricks of coke at Kennedy Airport in late 2019.
A year later, he’s ready to admit his guilt.
“Last week, the government and the defense came to agreeable terms on a plea, which we are currently finalizing the paperwork for,” Dennis’ lawyer Jason Goldman wrote last week.
Goldman declined to comment on the specifics of the plea deal when reached by the Daily News. Federal prosecutors also declined to comment.
While Brooks-Dennis was not charged in the case, federal prosecutors did implicate her in possible criminal activity in December, saying she and her husband deposited more than $15,000 of unreported income into a bank account in a two-day period in 2019.
“This patterns suggests a calculated — and illegal — effort to evade reporting requirements,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Siegel in court papers in December.
The government also sought to introduce evidence — had the case gone to trial — of the couple’s lavish lifestyle that the feds claim was partially financed by drug money.
The duo spent nearly $20,000 at Christian Louboutin between 2018 and 2020, and Brooks-Dennis spent another $9,000 on hair extensions in a single year, the feds said.
Federal prosecutors also said they had texts that show Dennis was dealing cocaine. Dennis’ onthe-books job as a delivery truck driver netted him about $10,000 per year, the feds said.
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment on plea negotiations.
Heastie’s team did not respond to a request for comment and has failed to respond to numerous queries about the case over a monthlong period.