The New York Sun
September 29, 2004

Velella Released from Jail
By Associated Press

A former Republican state senator, Guy Velella, who was sentenced in June to a year in jail on a charge related to accepting bribes, was released yesterday after serving a little more than three months.

Velella, who turned 60 on Saturday, left the Rikers Island jail around 2:40 p.m. after being approved for conditional release.

He was jailed on June 21 after admitting he helped bribe payers win public works contracts.

The former senator was taken from the jail to the visitors' center, where he boarded a bus to ride across the bridge from the island to a parking lot in Queens, a Department of Correctional Services official said.

Velella's lawyer, Charles Stillman, refused to comment on his client.

Velella, his father, and two other men were charged in May 2002 in a 25-count indictment that alleged he accepted at least $137,000 in bribes from contractors from 1995 through June 2000.

© 2004 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC



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