Ex-Albany crook Boyland also got early fed release
Former Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., who was convicted in 2014 on bribery and corruption charges, was moved to home confinement in February after serving six years of his 14-year sentence.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors, who oppose Boyland’s compassionate release, said in court papers filed Tuesday that he was released to home confinement on Feb. 3.
“BOP (Bureau of Prisons) has informed the government that it does not currently know whether Boyland will be required to return to a federal correctional facility after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended,” prosecutors wrote in the court filing.
Boyland told the Daily News he is living with family in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
“I’m good, just happy to be around family. Happy to be in the community again,” he said in a phone call.
Boyland — whose release came to light the same day that former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was moved to home confinement
— called Silver’s release “interesting” but had no further comment.
Boyland applied for compassionate release during the pandemic, but a federal judge has yet to rule on the request.
Boyland was first elected to the state Assembly in 2003 and represented parts of Brooklyn until he was found guilty in March 2014 of 21 counts of corruption.
The charges included soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover feds, stealing funds earmarked for the elderly and fabricating mileage expenses.
Boyland comes from a family known as the Kennedys of Brownsville, where a major thoroughfare is named after his uncle, Thomas S. Boyland.
The disgraced ex-assemblyman said his days as an elected official are behind him, but that he wants to find ways to help prisoners with mental health and trauma issues.
“I’m just interested in helping folks the best I can,” Boyland said.
“There’s a mental health disparity that a lot of the inmates and individuals go through and I want to be a part of helping them find themselves and get whole again.”