Two Ske-losers!
Dean, Adam each get 4 years in prison
Like father, like son — with a prison cell for each.
Dean Skelos, who as state Senate majority leader was once one of the most powerful men in Albany, and his ne’er-do-well son, Adam, were both sentenced to four years Wednesday for using the dad’s political influence for personal gain.
Both blubbered in court about how their criminal trials — and a retrial that saw the elder Skelos throw his adult son under the bus — torpedoed their relationship.
Dean got an extra three-month jail stretch for having lied on the stand.
Due to his age and deteriorating health, the 70-year-old fallen Long Island Republican powerhouse received a lesser sentence than the five years meted out by Manhattan federal Judge Kimba Wood at the end of his first trial.
But she tacked on the extra 90 days because, she said, he lied on the witness stand when he claimed he didn’t know about his son’s misconduct.
“Your repeated mischaracterizations and lies about your conduct warrant a three-month enhancement,” Wood told the disgraced pol.
He and Adam, his only child, were found guilty at their retrial in July of using Dean’s office to strong-arm businessmen into giving Adam no-show jobs and money. Father and son were initially convicted in 2015, but the raps were overturned on appeal.
The back-to-back trials drove a wedge between the Skeloses — who grew cold toward one another at the retrial after Dean testified he thought it was “improper” of Adam to accept money for the no-work jobs.
Still, the dad said he has been wracked with guilt over the estrangement.
“My son, Adam, I love him more today than yesterday,” he told Wood, his voice cracking. “I always try to protect him and I failed. Although our relationship is strained, I hope one day it will be restored.”
He begged the judge to take it easy on Adam. “I hope that you show him mercy so that he can be the father he wants to be,” Skelos told the judge.
Neither Dean nor wife Gail were in court when Adam was sentenced to four years later Wednesday.
Wood previously sentenced the father to five years and son to 6½ in finding that the younger Skelos had “no moral compass.” But this time around, she was convinced Adam, the 36-year-old dad of three, is a changed man.
“I accept you’ve made great strides,” said Wood.
Adam cried as he told the judge the case cost him dearly.
“As you know, I have no relationship with my father and that side of the family,” he said, his voice choking with tears. “We don’t talk anymore. And that is something I thought I would only experience in death.”
His pregnant fiancée cried in the gallery, as well. She is due with their second child next month. Adam also has two children with another woman.
The Skeloses were both ordered to surrender on Jan. 8 — unless Dean’s request for bail pending his appeal is granted. The judge said she would rule on that motion at a later date.
The surrender date was set to allow Dean to spend time with Adam’s children by his first wife before they return to school next year and for Adam to spend time with his newborn.
As Senate majority leader, Dean served as one of the socalled “three men in a room,” which also included Gov. Cuomo and longtime state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who in July was sentenced to seven years for corruption.