NYCivic

DOI Report on Velella Is Awaited,
Upstate Early Releases Criticized,
Newsday Seeks Reincarceration.

By Henry J. Stern
October 26, 2004

As you know, we have been closely following the Velella case, starting with his untimely release from Rikers Island on September 28th, and proceeding through the removal of the entire commission that freed the senator, the appointment of a law professor as the commission's new chair, and pending inquiries by the NYC Department of Investigation and the New York County District Attorney, who originally prosecuted Senator Velella and agreed to the plea bargain which resulted in the one year sentence.

While our eyes were on Velella, a Bruno scandal relating to the State of New York leasing a special office in Saratoga for a drug project run by the senator's brother, which the Senator himself had added to the state budget as a member item. The issue lasted just a few news cycles, because Governor Pataki closed the Saratoga suite and fired the senator's brother. Official misconduct should be handled promptly, and the longer the Velella case drags on, the greater embarrassment it becomes for those who have the power to dispose of it.

We don't want to be preoccupied with bad behavior, in part because it distracts us from our concern with important issues of public policy. Our solution is to break out the Velella stories, and send them to you as they appear under a V headline. If you are interested, you should read them or store them. If tales of improper influence bore or depress you, just skip the V and go on to the kinder, gentler items. We report, you decide what to read. Since we are reporting a reality show, not all chapters will be of equal interest.

Review of the Press

Bringing you up to date after a five-day respite, yesterday's Times had a striking article by Mike McIntire, "In Release of a Deputy, a Forerunner to Velella," on B1, which describes a very similar incident that occured in 1998 in upstate Livingston County (its county seat is Geneseo). A sheriff's deputy was released after serving two months of an 18-month sentence for interfering with the investigation of a drug case. The upshot was an investigation by Governor Pataki's office that led to the removal of the local board. The deputy was returned to jail on the order of a state judge.

Another informative article, on B4 of Friday's Times, informs us that the senator was never placed on a suicide watch while at Rikers, despite former LCRC chairman Raul Russi's statement that he was released because they feared he would kill himself. Mike McIntire and Kevin Flynn wrote the story, which quotes a City Council report that was made public at a Council hearing Monday.

Yesterday's Sun carries the first interview with Daniel Richman, the law professor appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to chair the LCRC. Oddly, the interview was conducted by e-mail with Maura Yates. Most public officials are interviewed in person, but Professor Richman, who impressed everyone at the Council hearing as an extremely cautious man, wanted to protect himself from indiscretions into which he feared he might be lured if he had to respond spontaneously, as he did at the public hearing when questioned by a councilmember. Having watched him at the hearing, and read his interview in the Sun, one may conclude that the new chair is more tortoise than hare, which may or may not be what the city needs. Anyway, he's a new player.

Friday's News carried an article by Joe Mahoney and Barbara Ross, "Guy's friends in Albany focus of DA probers." The News was told by an unnamed source that "subpoenas have been issued seeking phone records of some GOP lawmakers to determine if any of them contacted members of the LCRC before it sprung Velella." Another issue the article raises is "a $24 million grant given to a nonprofit Bronx agency run by Russi on September 22, the same day the commission accepted Velella's second application for freedom. Russi earns $125,000 a year as executive director of the state-funded agency.

The fact that it only cost the Dutch $24 (sixty guilders worth of wampum) to buy the entire island of Manhattan, shows the result of inflation between 1626 and 2004.

Newsday editorialized on the subject last Thursday. The title tells the story: "Send Velella back to jail: It'd be one step toward restoring the name of NY's criminal justice system." The editorial begins, "The state's criminal justice disgraced itself last week... Message: It's not so much what you do that matters but who you happen to know." The editorial cites Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's office in referring to "a recent Rensselaer County case in which Mary Beth Anslow, serving a one year sentence for endangering the welfare of a child, was freed after doing just three months. The fuss that followed was based on a strong suspicion that family and political conections had helped Anslow prevail before Rensselaer's LCRC."

The editorial concludes: "The best way for New York City to show that the buddy system doesn't trump the justice system? That one's also easy: send Velella back to Rikers.... The point here is not to torture the former senator. The point is to show that the system is unshakably fair and equitable."

We now await the report of the NYC Department of Investigation. We hope the report will be forthcoming, as it relates to both time and content.