79th Assemblyman Eric Stevenson has been found guilty of taking $22,000.00 from Senior Center Developers in cash bribes. The U.S. Attorney's office acted swiftly on this case, since it was the culmination of over 4 years of using former assemblyman Nelson Castro to try to root out corruption in the Bronx Democratic County organization. Nelson Castro was snared by the Bronx District Attorney on a charge of election fraud back in 2008, and agreed to wear a wire for the U.S. Attorney to catch Bronx elected or party officials in the act of corruption.
Meanwhile Assemblyman Castro was allowed to run for re-election against a Bronx Democratic County backed opponent, winning re-election in 2010. This continued for the next election in 2012 as Assemblyman Castro again won re-election while wearing a wire for the U.S. Attorney. It was actually one of Assemblyman Castro's associates Sigfredo Gonzalez who actually gave the testimony that convicted Assemblyman Eric Stevenson. Stevenson never took the stand as it was reported that his attorney could never believe that the jury would find Gonzalez's testimony credible let alone believe it and convict Stevenson of corruption.
Stevenson's former New York State Assembly page was taken down right after the conviction and replaced with a blank page for the 79th A.D. Stevenson now faces up to 50+ years in jail following the conviction.
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