Ex-NY state Senate leader, son face retrial on corruption charges

By Brendan Pierson

,

Reuters•June 20, 2018

FILE PHOTO: Former New York state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos arrives at the Manhattan federal court house in New York City, U.S. May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York State Senate majority leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam face the start of a second trial on federal corruption charges on Wednesday, nearly a year after an appeals court threw out their 2015 convictions.

Jurors are expected to hear opening arguments in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. Prosecutors have accused the elder Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, of using his position to pressure three companies to provide his son with consulting work, a "no-show" job and a $20,000 payment.

Lawyers for the Skeloses could not immediately be reached for comment.

Both men were found guilty by a jury in December 2015. Wood later sentenced Dean Skelos to five years in prison, and Adam Skelos to 6-1/2 years. Both have remained free on bail.

Last September, a New York federal appeals court threw out the conviction. The court ruled that the jury had received improper instructions in light of the Supreme Court's 2016 decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.

The Supreme Court found in that decision that routine political activities such as arranging meetings were not "official acts" that could be prosecuted under federal bribery law.

The federal appeals court cited the same decision last July when it overturned the November 2015 corruption conviction of Sheldon Silver, who once served as New York State Assembly speaker.

Silver, a Democrat who represented Manhattan's Lower East Side, was retried and found guilty on May 11. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27.

The cases against Skelos and Silver were among a series of high-profile corruption cases brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors under the tenure of former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Also charged were Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo found guilty of corruption charges in March, and former State University of New York's Polytechnic Institute president Alain Kaloyeros, who is currently on trial for charges that he helped rig bids for a public development project.