Crooked Brooklyn by Michael Vecchione

Author:Michael Vecchione
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466871748
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 7

“Just Another Kind of Bling-Bling”

Politics is applesauce.

—WILL ROGERS

AS GERALD GARSON ROUNDED UP his legal team, our own strategists told me during a status meeting with the district attorney that we could expect at least two years of legal wrangling before Garson would actually face trial, unless he agreed to a plea deal before that.

I could not imagine him not taking a plea, but as a rule you have to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Not that a trial is a bad thing. It is the bedrock of the criminal justice system in a free society. A fair trial is what we all strive for, and I especially yearned for the challenge of arguing before the bench, sparring with the defense, matching wits with the brightest lawyers and judges and overcoming the nitwits.

But from a practical point of view, a prolonged, complicated trial can be debilitating to a staff even in an agency as large and resourceful as we had in Brooklyn. What it does to a defendant is even more debilitating. The cost of a defense is one thing, but the strain on the families, the pressure on the innocents, such as victims and witnesses, is incalculable.

When a defendant knows he is guilty and his lawyer believes the state can prove it, pleading guilty avoids a lot of suffering. That is not to say an innocent person should ever feel pressured to accept a disposition that does not serve him well. But it does happen sometimes.

As head of Rackets, I realized we could take a little bit of a breather, but not much. Noel Downey and Brian Wallace and Seth Lieberman had to prepare for Ellman, Salerno, Sarnell, and the related cases, which would certainly be heard before Garson got to trial. I would be totally involved with them every step of the way. But I did feel a little lessening of the pressure of pursuing two state supreme court judges over two years.

I looked forward to taking some vacation and catching some of Andrew’s ball games. He played baseball and football in high school. Both my sons were athletes. My older boy, Brian, was a college football and rugby player and was off on a fine career as a social studies teacher in a Brooklyn public school.

Then I had a meeting with Kevin Richardson, who headed my public-corruption unit. During one of the debriefings with Garson, when he was cooperating with us, he told us that Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., head of the Kings County Democratic Party, was misappropriating party funds for his own benefit.

Richardson had issued some subpoenas to take a closer look at the party’s records. When he reported what he had learned, I expanded Richardson’s investigation. I assigned financial investigators, and senior assistant district attorneys Anne Seely, Jeff Ferguson, and the always reliable Gavin Miles to pour over what Richardson had initiated.

It did not take them long to find among the financial records serious instances of double-dipping, illegal contributions from lobbyists, and what appeared to

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