State Senator Alessandra Biaggi gives 50th Annual Lehman College Memorial Lecture, and supports CUNY Professors

  It was the 50th Annual Herbert H. Lehman Memorial Lecture with Lehman College President Jose Luis Cruz giving the opening address, and then introducing State Senator Alessandra Biaggi for the Memorial Lecture. 

 Senator Biaggi began her speech with memories of her grandfather former Congressman Mario Biaggi, with some family history of how he wound up running for elected office. In her speech she parrelled her calling to run for office to that of her grandfather. She said that one is not to think of themselves, but they can help the community as a whole. 

 She went on to say that while there are now thirty-nine Democratic State Senators things have not changed as she thought they would. There is still much to little sharing of power while you have to vote for something that has other items you might not vote for is attached to it. 

 Senator Biaggi mentioned how her campaign went by knocking on doors, talking to people to see what they wanted from their representative, and trying to be what the people wanted her to be. She mentioned that she is a survivor of child sex abuse, and spoke of some of the new legislation passed in 2019 with the new Democratic State Senate.

 Then Senator Biaggi spoke of changing things in Albany such as the budget process. The Courage, Disruption, and Resilience that is needed to change the way things are done in Albany, and how those three things can change the old way things get done into a newer better way. 

She ended by saying that the tide is always right to do what is right, by rejecting the status quo in Albany. 

Afterwards Senator Biaggi went outside to protest on campus with professors who want higher wages claiming that the current wage scale is to low for them. 

Above - State Senator Alessandra Biaggi gives the 50th Annual Herbert Lehman Memorial Lecture.

Below- After the lecture Senator Biaggi went outside to call for higher wages for CUNY professors.

  

New York State Assembly Member Marcos A. Crespo - Newsletter

I am reaching to share with you an electronic version of our latest newsletter. If you are a constituent of the 85th district, you should be expecting to receive one by mail.  To view our latest publication please CLICK HERE or the green button appearing below. Wishing you a productive end of the week and hoping you have a safe weekend. Sincerely, Marcos A. Crespo Member of Assembly 85th District

NEWSLETTER Editor's Note: There was so much information there was not enough room for all of it. We suggest you click on the link to see everything Assemblyman Crespo has been doing.

EmblemHealth Hosts Free Obesity Prevention Event With State Senator Gustavo Rivera

 

Ms. Karen Ignagni CEO of Emblem Health with State Senator Gustavo Rivera holding a cane because he tore his meniscus. Senator Rivera said that he will need surgery that he is scheduling for July or August during the summer recess from Albany.  

  Saturday at the Claremont Community Neighborhood Center located at 489 E. 169th Street Emblem Health and State Senator Gustavo Rivera hosted an Obesity Prevention event. 

This free educational event  highlighted the importance of BMI health screening, the health risks of obesity, and the benefits of weight loss. It also featured interactive opportunities for the attendees, including:

· Tips for health food shopping on a budget

· Demo for evaluating sugar-sweetened beverages including sample bottles/labels

· Private Weekly Weight Assessment and Review of Food Journals

  There were several professionals from Emblem in attendance from nurses to dieticians. Healthy food was also offered to those who attended.

The Body Mass Index chart is discussed as to just what the numbers mean and how to find the right BMI number for each person. 

Westchester Man Sentenced To 19½ Years In White Plains Federal Court For Sex Trafficking Of Minors And Child Pornography Production

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced that VICTOR GONZALEZ was sentenced yesterday in White Plains federal court to 235 months in prison for sex trafficking of minors and production of child pornography.  GONZALEZ pled guilty to these charges on January 24, 2019.  United States District Judge Cathy Seibel imposed yesterday’s sentence.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Victor Gonzalez admitted to the reprehensible crimes of trafficking underage girls for his commercial benefit and producing child pornography of one of his victims.  He will now serve over 19 years in prison, were he will not be able to harm any more children.”

FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said:  “It is our responsibility as a community to protect the vulnerable, and stop people like Mr. Gonzalez from ever harming girls again.  However, the FBI needs your help and law enforcement cannot do this on our own.  We work with dedicated detectives, community activists and charity organizations who do all they can to help these girls get away from these criminal and rebuild their lives.  We also need help from the community.  If you know of a young girl or boy in trouble, please contact the FBI at 212-384-1000.”

According to the Information and other filings in White Plains federal court:

From at least in or about 2014 to in or about June 2018, GONZALEZ engaged in the sex trafficking of three teenage girls (“Victim-1,” “Victim-2,” and “Victim-3”) for his own commercial benefit.  GONZALEZ solicited Victim-1, who was approximately 14 or 15 years old, and Victim-2, who was approximately 15 or 16 years old, for sex in exchange for money.  He met Victim-3, who was 17 years old, on an online dating website after he misrepresented himself as being in his 20’s.  After establishing a relationship with each of the victims, GONZALEZ, using online services and the telephone, posted online advertisements for commercial sex services with the minor victims and arranged for the victims to engage in those services with adult men.  He also transported the victims on numerous occasions to meet with those men in New York and Connecticut.  GONZALEZ further sexually abused the victims himself.  In addition, in or about January 2016, GONZALEZ produced a video containing child pornography of Victim-1, depicting GONZALEZ engaged in sexual activity with the victim. 

 In addition to his prison term, GONZALEZ, 41, of Millwood, New York, was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release and restitution in an amount to be determined by the Court at a later date.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, the Greenburgh Police Department, and the New Castle Police Department and thanked the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and the White Plains Police Department for their assistance. 

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION OFFICER, INMATE AND THREE CIVILIANS INDICTED FOR SMUGGLING CONTRABAND INTO RIKERS ISLAND

Defendants Allegedly Conspired to Smuggle Marijuana, Cigarettes and Other Contraband into the Jail

  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett announced that a NYC Department of Correction Officer, a former Rikers Island inmate and three civilians--including two people who worked in a Brooklyn after school program--have been indicted for smuggling contraband into jail. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant broke the oath he took when becoming a Correction Officer and betrayed his fellow Officers by allegedly working with an inmate to smuggle marijuana into the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. Contraband fuels corruption and violence in jails. My Office is committed to working with DOI and DOC to investigate and prosecute crimes in the jails, whether they are committed by inmates or Correction Officers. No one is above the law.”

 DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said, “Investigating contraband smuggling schemes is a vitally important facet of DOI’s work rooting out corruption and reducing violence in the City’s jails. In this all too familiar case, a Correction Officer, and his co-conspirators both inside and outside the jail, allegedly set up an elaborate operation, ferrying drugs and other contraband in exchange for bribes, according to the charges. DOI and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office are committed to breaking up these criminal networks and punishing those individuals who engage in them.”

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Torray Riles, 36, of the Bronx, a DOC Officer since December 2016, was arraigned today on four counts of third-degree Bribe Receiving, four counts of Official Misconduct, first and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband, Attempted Promoting Prison Contraband second-degree, third and Attempted Criminal Sale of Marijuana in the third and fourth-degree, fifth-degree Criminal Possession of Marijuana, and sixth-degree Conspiracy before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas. He is due back in court on August 7, 2019.

 The other defendants, Joseph Swaby, 33, a former Rikers Island inmate, Vergillian Blount, 33, of Brooklyn, Damont Brooks, 23, of Brooklyn, and Aisha Tolbert, 41 of Manhattan, were charged with third-degree Bribery, third-degree Criminal Sale of Marijuana, fifth-degree criminal Possession of Marijuana, first and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband, Attempted Promoting Prison Contraband in the second degree, and fifth and sixth-degree Conspiracy. Brooks and Tolbert were arraigned today before Justice Villegas. They are due back in court on August 7, 2019.

 If convicted of the top count of Bribery and Bribe Receiving, the defendants face a maximum of 2 1/3 to seven years in prison.

 According to the investigation, on January 21, 2018, Riles, was discovered trying to bring contraband into the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. He had two Ziploc bags of marijuana hidden in his pants. He also had five DVDs, four packs of Newport Cigarettes, loose rolling paper and fanto leaves inside a book bag. Riles was fired shortly after his arrest.

 During an investigation conducted by the Bronx DA’s Office and DOI, investigators discovered that Riles had been part of an ongoing conspiracy with Joseph Swaby, who was incarcerated in Rikers Island at the time, to smuggle various contraband into the jail in exchange for money. Swaby allegedly recruited Aisha Tolbert, his wife, who is the director of a Brooklyn afterschool program at RiseBoro Community Partnership; Damont Brooks, who was a group leader in the same afterschool program; and Vergillian Blount. Through multiple phone calls made from Rikers Island, Swaby allegedly ordered Tolbert, Blount and Brooks to give the contraband--including marijuana, and a gold and diamond pendant of Jesus on a gold chain--to Riles and ordered them to pay Riles for his involvement.

 District Attorney Clark thanked Annarese Marcano, Trial Prep Assistant in the Public Integrity Bureau. District Attorney Clark also thanked DOI Captain Ali Fayad for his assistance in the investigation.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

Philadelphia-Area Political Consultant and Attorney Sentenced After Conviction in Two Campaign Finance Schemes

  A long-time Philadelphia-area political consultant and attorney was sentenced today for his role in two criminal schemes to violate federal campaign finance laws announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Kenneth Smukler, 57, of Villanova, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release by the Honorable Jan E. DuBois.  In the 2012 Democratic primary election for Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District, Jimmie Moore, a former Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge, ran against the incumbent Congressman Bob Brady.  Assisted and directed by Smukler, Moore executed a corrupt deal in which he agreed to withdraw from the race in exchange for funds from the Bob Brady for Congress campaign (the Brady campaign) to be used to pay off Moore’s campaign debts.  Those debts included money that Jimmie Moore for Congress (the Moore campaign) owed to several vendors, to Moore himself and to Moore’s campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness. On Feb. 29, 2012, Moore withdrew from the race and Cavaness had prepared a list of debts owed by the Moore campaign, which they provided to Smukler, a campaign consultant for the Brady campaign.  Smukler arranged for the Moore campaign to receive $90,000 from the Brady campaign through false documents and a series of concealing pass-throughs, including the consulting firm of another Brady associate and co-conspirator, D.A. Jones.  Smukler ensured that the Brady campaign reported none of the concealed payments, which exceeded the federal contribution limits, to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  Rather, he executed the scheme by ensuring that the three installments were falsely and illegally disguised from the FEC and the public as payments for poll and consulting services.

Later, during the 2014 Democratic primary election for Pennsylvania’s Thirteenth Congressional District, Smukler again committed federal campaign finance offenses, this time for the benefit of another client, Marjorie Margolies, a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Smukler, a veteran of prior Margolies political campaigns, ran the Margolies campaign in 2014. 

In April 2014, during a close primary race, the Margolies campaign was running out of money that it could legally spend in the primary.  Smukler then caused the Margolies campaign to illegally spend general election funds in his attempt to win the primary election for his client.  He further lied about his illegal spending to the campaign’s lawyer.  That lawyer, in turn, unwittingly reported Smukler’s lies to the FEC in response to a complaint filed by another candidate. Additionally, Smukler caused excessive campaign contributions and illegal conduit contributions to the Margolies campaign, all of which were hidden or disguised from the campaign’s FEC filings.

“When political operatives like Kenneth Smukler engage in hidden illegal campaign finance schemes, they undermine the integrity of the electoral process,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.  “This is a just sentence that reflects the seriousness of these crimes.”

“In order to win at all costs, Smukler knowingly and purposefully undermined our democratic process by misusing campaign funds and lying about it,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “My Office will continue to prosecute public corruption wherever and whenever we uncover it. Now Smukler is headed to jail, and I am grateful that the Court imposed a just sentence reinforcing the fact that this kind of corruption will never be tolerated.”

On Dec. 3, 2018, a jury found Smukler guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of excessive campaign contributions, two counts of false statements, two counts of conduit contributions, one count of willfully causing a false statement to the FEC and one count of obstruction of justice.     

Former Public Integrity Section Trial Attorney Jonathan I. Kravis and the FBI investigated the case. 

Statement from Governor Cuomo on the Passing of Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown

  "Today we mourn the loss of Richard Brown, a giant of the legal community and dedicated public servant who spent six decades serving the people of New York.

"My father recognized Judge Brown's brilliance when he appointed him to serve as Queens County District Attorney and 27 years later was proven right. Judge Brown fought successfully to create safer neighborhoods and reduce crime in his borough. He took on the scourge of opioid addiction, fought to protect domestic violence victims, worked to end human trafficking and so much more.

"We are forever indebted to Judge Brown for his service to this state; he will be sorely missed.

"On behalf of the entire family of New York, I extend my deepest condolences to Judge Brown's loved ones during this incredibly difficult time, especially his wife Rhoda, his three children and his two grandchildren."

Attorney General James Statement On The Death Of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown

  In response to the death of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown this morning, Attorney General Letitia James released the following statement:

“I’m saddened to learn of the passing of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. For decades, Judge Brown was a dedicated public servant who was deeply devoted to the people of Queens. My thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones at this difficult time.”