Courts

In a statement released this afternoon, city Councilman Ruben Wills says he is not under investigation from federal authorities despite being secretly taped by then-Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was cooperating with prosecutors during her own corruptioncase.

Wills says his attorney has been told by federal law enforcement that he is not the target of an investigation.

“My attorney has been in contact with federal law enforcement authorities and he has been informed that I am NOT the target of any investigation arising from proceedings involving Shirley Huntley,” he said. “I have personally not been contacted by any law enforcement officials to date and I look forward to continuing the work of the people of southeast Queens that elected me.”

Nine people, including Wills, were named in a sentencing document from Huntley’s attorney unsealed today in federal court. The attorney for Huntley named nine people who Huntley secretly recorded while believing they may be involved in corrupt activity.

Six of the nine include sitting Democratic members of the Senate.

In court filings made public on Tuesday, federal prosecutors indicated that eight of the nine are under criminal investigation.

Two of the nine have already been arrested: Sens. John Sampson and Malcolm Smith.

Sampson is accused of embezzling $440,000 from escrow accounts under his supervision, while Smith allegedly sought to bribe his way onto the New York City Republican mayoral ballot.

Sen. Malcolm Smith will be arraigned Tuesday on federal bribery charges, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced this afternoon.

The proceeding, scheduled at noon, will be before Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains federal court.

Federal prosecutors also released Smith’s indictment laying out the alleged plot for Smith, a registered Democrat, to bribe his way onto the New York City GOP mayoral ballot.

Smith allegedly sought bribes for Republican party leaders in New York City in exchange for a Wilson-Pakula waiver in order to run on the Republican line.

The scandal was the first of two back-to-back corruption cases to hit state government this month renewing calls for campaign finance and electoral reform.

Malcolm Smith Et Al Indictment by Nick Reisman

A judge has declined to toss the lawsuit filed by disgraced former political consultant Hank Morris over wheter state parole officials followed proper procedures for his parole hearing.

Morris was the top political consultant to ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi and was sent to prison for his role in a plot to sell faovrable access to the state’s pension fund.

Hevesi, also jailed for his role in the pay-to-play scandal and resigned in 2006 from the comptroller post over an unrelated scandal, was released Dec. 12 from Mid-House Correctional Facility.

Morris, however, has been denied parole multiple times and has several filed legal challenges to reverse the decision.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office had sought dismissal of the current Morris suit, charging that the decision was essentially moot at this ponit because of the parole board’s vote to keep Morris in prison.

But state Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott this week ruled that Morris’s claims are “substanial and novel” and effectively kept the legal challenge alive. Mott also ruled the state has a relatively short time frame to repsond in order to move the case along quickly.

Morris was denied parole in November 2012, with the board citing at the time his “inability” to understand his state of mind at the time he took part in a massive pay-to-play pension fund scandal.

At the heart of the challenge is the Parole Board not following a change to procedure approved by the Legislature in 2011. The amendment to the parole law required the board to have written procedures when making parole decisions with the goal of streamlining the process.

But the written procedures were not in place at the time of Morris’s August 2012 hearing.

Morris, an inmate at Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County, began his four-year prison term in March 2011 after pleading guilty to providing access to the pension fund in exchange for lucrative fees. Investigators accused him of taking more than $19 million, which was ultimately paid back.

Dec Morris v Dept of Corrections 5696-13 Signed 4 4 2013 by Nick Reisman

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares to make his second nomination to the state’s highest court, the New York State Bar Association today released its ratings of candidates as selected by the state Commission on Judicial Nomination.

All of the candidates selected by the commission were deemed “well qualified” save for Maria Vullo, a lawyer for the New York City firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, who was given the “qualified” rating.

Cuomo has between March 22 and April 6 to make his nomination to the state Court of Appeals.

The governor’s first nomination to the Court of Appeals, Jenny Rivera, was met with criticism by Senate Republicans who questioned her qualifications and whether her resume was extensive enough to sit on the bench.

Due pending retirements based on age, Cuomo has the chance to remake the entire court should he be re-elected to a second term.

Http Www.nysba.org AM Template.cfm Section=News Center&Template= CM ContentDisplay by Nick Reisman

Manhattan Democratic Sen. Andriano Espaillat said he and other lawmakers were “offended” by the treatment of Court of Appeals nominee Jenny Rivera by Senate Republicans who questioned her resume.

Rivera, whose confirmation to fill a vacancy on the state’s highest court is exepcted to pass later this afternoon in the state Senate, was subjected to prolonged grilling by lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee last week who questioned whether the CUNY law professor had the appropriate experience for the job.

Committee Chairman John Bonacic went as far as to suggest that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his predecessors have engaged in “social engineering” to ensure that minority groups were represented in nominations to the court.

The debate over Rivera’s confirmation was also seen as a broader struggle between the governor and the GOP conference which he has worked well with over the last two years, but pushed them to take several politically difficult votes. The governor last week in a radio interview said the back and forth over the Rivera confirmation was part of the political process.

But Espaillat, who has good relations with both the five-member Independent Democratic Conference and the Senate GOP, said Republicans need to recalibrate.

“The demogrpahics of our state and our country are changing dramatically and they should adjust,” he told our NY1 colleague Zack Fink. ”We often hear a jury of your peers, why not a bench of your peers?”

Espaillat said the questioning of Rivera’s qualifications by the Senate GOP was unusual.

“I have never seen this type of reaction before with any nomination,” he said. ”There was some politicis, some partisan politics behind this and that’s unfortunate. Many of us were surprised, if not offended, by the assaults leveled against her.”

Senate Republican Leader and co-president Dean Skelos, who has made a point of reaching out to Latino voters, told reporters last week he will vote to confirm Rivera and expects the nomination to pass the chamber.