Skelos forfeited his Senate seat when he was convicted on federal corruption charges in 2015. In 2017,his conviction was overturned following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in McDonnell v. United States. His retrial resulted in a second conviction on July 17,2018. Skelos was sentenced to four years and three months in prison,and he began his prison term in January 2019. In April 2020,Skelos tested positive for COVID-19 and was released from prison to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Skelos was of counsel to Ruskin Moscou Faltischek,P.C.,from 1994 through 2015.[5] Skelos was automatically disbarred in 2016 following a felony conviction.[6]
Political career
New York State Assembly
Skelos was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1980.[7]
New York State Senate
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2020)
After one Assembly term, Skelos ran for State Senate in 1982,[8] challenging incumbent Democratic-Liberal New York State SenatorCarol Berman . The reapportionment earlier that year changed the boundaries of the 9th Senate District, which previously included parts of Nassau and Queens County. The new district, drawn by Senate Republicans, was entirely within Nassau County and favored Republicans. Skelos was endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties. Berman, running on the Democratic Party and Liberal Party lines, won the race by 6,108 votes (55,504 to 49,396). Matthew Doyle, the Right-to-Life Party candidate, received 2,520 votes in the three-way race.[9]
In 1984, Skelos challenged Berman in a rematch. This time, Skelos, who had President Ronald Reagan visit the district and campaign for him, narrowly defeated Berman in a two-way race, winning by 50.7% to 49.3% (67,834 to 65,875 votes).[10] Skelos represented Senate District Nine from 1985 to 2015.[11]
In 1986, Berman challenged Skelos in their third consecutive state senate contest. Skelos, running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines, defeated Berman, the Democratic and Liberal parties' candidate, in a three-way race, winning 53% of the vote (49,761) to 43.7% (41,005). Right-to-Life party candidate Joan McDermott received 3.2% (2,967) of the vote.[12]
From 1995 to 2008, Skelos was Deputy Majority Leader of the New York State Senate.[13] In 2008, he became the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate after Joseph Bruno stepped down from that post.[14]
On June 24, 2011, Skelos voted against allowing same-sex marriage in New York during a senate roll-call vote on the Marriage Equality Act, which narrowly passed the Senate in a 33–29 vote.[15] In a statement made prior to the vote, he said: "This is a very difficult issue and it will be a vote of conscience for every member of the Senate."[16][17]
In 2013, as Senate Majority Leader, Skelos was responsible for suspending Senate rules and bringing the NY SAFE Act (a firearm-related bill) to the Senate floor. He voted for the SAFE Act and advocated its passage.[18][19]
On May 4, 2015, Skelos was arrested on federal corruption charges.[20] On May 11, he stepped down from his position as Senate Majority Leader.[21] Skelos was convicted on December 11, 2015; he was automatically expelled from the Senate due to his conviction.[22][23][24]
Federal prosecution and conviction
Skelos and his son, Adam Skelos, were arrested and charged with six counts of corruption by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on May 4, 2015. The criminal complaint included extortion, fraud, and bribe solicitation charges. Skelos was accused of taking official actions to benefit a small Arizona environmental company, AbTech Industries, and a large New York developer, Glenwood Management, that had financial ties to AbTech. According to the complaint, Senator Skelos agreed to do so as long as the companies paid his son.[25]
On May 28, 2015, Skelos and his son were indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of bribery, extortion, wire fraud, and conspiracy.[26]
After his arrest, Skelos asserted that he and his son were innocent.[25] He stepped down from his majority leader post in the Senate on May 11, 2015; he had already begun a leave of absence from the law firm of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek. "The criminal complaint against him said he had earned $2.6 million there since 1994, despite apparently doing no actual legal work; he was paid instead for referring clients, some of whom had business before the state."[26]
In July 2015, in an expanded indictment, federal prosecutors added two new charges of soliciting bribes from a Long Island company in return for favorable legislation.[27] The new indictment charged that Skelos procured a position for his son at a medical malpractice insurance company with business before the state, that Adam Skelos was not qualified for the position, that Adam Skelos threatened his supervisor, and that Adam Skelos asserted that "he didn't need to show up to work because his father was the Majority Leader of the State Senate".[28]
On December 11, 2015, a unanimous jury convicted Dean and Adam Skelos of all eight counts of bribery, extortion, and corruption. Dean Skelos was convicted of using his position in the Senate to benefit three companies—a real estate developer, an environmental technology company, and a medical malpractice insurer—in exchange for the companies' agreement to give work to his son. Prosecutors said that the three businesses provided Adam Skelos with about $300,000 and other benefits. The trial verdict automatically terminated Dean Skelos from the state legislature.[29][30] On May 12, 2016, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood sentenced Dean Skelos to five years in prison, and Adam Skelos to six-and-a-half years in prison.[31] Wood allowed both to remain free on bail pending appeals based on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McDonnell v. United States, in which the court reversed the corruption conviction of a former Virginia Governor.[32]
On September 26, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the convictions of the Skeloses and ordered a retrial, arguing that the district judge had given the jury improper instructions. However the panel wrote that the government's evidence appeared to be sufficient to allow a properly instructed jury to convict the Skeloses, as there was enough evidence to establish that there had been a quid pro quo arrangement in each of the schemes at issue.[23] The retrial of Skelos and his son began on June 19, 2018.[33] During the retrial, in contrast to the first trial, Skelos took the witness stand and testified in his own defense. On July 17, 2018, Skelos and his son were found guilty of eight felonies.[34][35][36][37]
On October 23, 2018, Skelos was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison. Judge Wood suggested that he had been unrepentant and that parts of his testimony were outright false.[38] Adam Skelos was sentenced to a four-year prison term.[38] Dean Skelos reported to the Federal Correctional Institute in Otisville, Orange County, New York to begin his prison term on January 8, 2019.[39] Under New York State law, Skelos continued to draw his annual pension of nearly $100,000 while in prison.[38]
Skelos tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2020 and was released from prison to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.[40][41][42]
Related Research Articles
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. The Democratic Party has held control of the New York State Senate since 2019. The Senate Majority Leader is Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Sheldon Silver was an American Democratic Party politician and attorney from New York City who served as speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 2015. A native of Manhattan's Lower East Side, Silver served in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 2015. In 1994, he was selected as the Speaker of the Assembly; he held that position for two decades. During this period, Silver was known as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.
Joseph Louis Bruno was an American businessman and Republican politician from upstate New York. Bruno served in the New York State Senate from 1977 to 2008 and was Senate Majority Leader from 1994 to 2008. Bruno was convicted of federal corruption charges in 2009, but his conviction was overturned on appeal and a subsequent retrial resulted in an acquittal.
The majority leader of the New York State Senate is elected by the majority of the members of the New York State Senate. The position usually coincides with the title of temporary president of the State Senate, who presides over the session of the State Senate if the lieutenant governor of New York is absent. The temporary president of the State Senate becomes acting lieutenant governor for the remainder of the unexpired term in case of a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor, or until a new lieutenant governor is appointed In case of a vacancy in the offices of both the governor and lieutenant governor at the same time, the temporary president of the State Senate becomes Acting Governor. If the double vacancy occurs until three months before the mid-term state elections, a special election for governor of New York and lieutenant governor is held. If the double vacancy occurs later, the Temporary President of the State Senate acts as governor until the end of the unexpired term. The temporary president of the State Senate retains both majority leadership and a seat in the State Senate while acting as lieutenant governor or governor.
Thomas W. Libous was an American politician who served as New York State Senator for the 52nd Senate District, representing the counties of Broome, Tioga, Chenango and Delaware.
Hiram Monserrate is an American politician who served in the New York State Senate from 2009 until his expulsion in 2010. A Democrat, he previously served on the New York City Council from 2002 through 2008.
John L. Sampson is an American former politician and convicted felon. A Democrat, Sampson represented District 19 in the New York State Senate from 1997 to 2015. He is of Guyanese heritage. Sampson became Senate Democratic Leader in June 2009 and served as Senate Minority Leader from January 2011 to December 2012. Sampson forfeited his Senate seat when he was convicted of federal felony charges on July 24, 2015. On January 18, 2017, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Malcolm Anthony Smith is an American politician from New York who was convicted of public corruption. A Democrat, Smith was a member of the State Senate, representing the 10th district in the New York State Senate from 2000 to 2002 and Senate District 14 from 2003 to 2014. Smith served as New York State Senate Majority Leader in 2009 and served as Temporary President of the New York State Senate from 2009 to 2010; he is the first African-American to hold those leadership positions.
This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.
Joseph M. Margiotta was an American political boss who ran the Nassau County, New York Republican Party, considered "one of the most powerful political organizations in New York State", until his 1983 convictions on federal charges.
In December 2008, then-Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009. The federal investigation continued after his removal from office, and he was indicted on corruption charges in April of that year. The jury found Blagojevich guilty of one charge of making false statements with a mistrial being declared on the other 23 counts due to a hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberation. On June 27, 2011, after a retrial, Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges, not guilty on one charge and the jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges. On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Pedro Espada Jr. is an American former politician. A Democrat, Espada served multiple nonconsecutive terms in the New York State Senate.
Troy Xavier Kelley is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and convicted felon who served as the 10th Washington State Auditor from 2013 to 2017, and is a member of the Democratic Party. He is a lieutenant colonel JAG officer in the Washington National Guard. Kelley was a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 28th Legislative District from 2007 to 2013. In 2017 he was convicted of multiple counts of possession of stolen property, making false declarations in a court proceeding and tax fraud.
Todd Kaminsky is an American attorney, lobbyist, and former politician from the state of New York. A Democrat, he was a member of the New York State Senate representing the 9th district, which is based on the South Shore of Long Island. He was the Democratic nominee for Nassau County District Attorney in 2021 but lost the general election to Anne Donnelly by a landslide.
Robert Gary Ortt II is an American military veteran, treasurer, and politician who is a member of the New York State Senate. Ortt represents the 62nd district, which covers Niagara and Orleans counties. First elected in 2014, Ortt is a Republican.
McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550 (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the appeal of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell's conviction for honest services fraud and Hobbs Act extortion. At issue on appeal was whether the definition of "official act" within the federal bribery statutes encompassed the actions for which McDonnell had been convicted and whether the jury had been properly instructed on this definition at trial.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
