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Guest
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http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/sen_hiram_monserrates_legal_f
u.html
ALBANY -- While government watchdog groups called today for an
investigation of a convicted state senator's legal defense fund, another
New York lawmaker said he's drafting legislation to clearly outlaw such
funds for legislators charged with crimes.
Sen. Neil Breslin, an Albany Democrat, said he'll be asking other
lawmakers to pass his bill to ban the funds.
Citizens Union and three other groups asked the Legislative Ethics
Commission today to force Sen. Hiram Monserrate to disclose names and
contributions to his defense fund and issue a binding opinion that the
2007 ethics law prohibits legislators from receiving gifts, including fund
contributions.
"We believe the Legislature effectively banned gifts in the form of legal
defense funds in 2007," they wrote.
In a statement earlier this week, executive director Lisa Reid said that
since its establishment in 2007, the commission has neither received nor
given any opinions about such funds. There was no immediate commission
response to the complaint today.
Those advisory opinions, including any issued by the previous Legislative
Ethics Committee, are typically kept confidential.
Monserrate, D-Queens, faces sentencing Dec. 4 for a conviction of
misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend. With legal fees at a half-
million dollars and growing, a defense fund was established. His attorney,
Joseph Tacopina, said he did not know who was contributing.
A call to Monserrate was not immediately returned.
Breslin, a former prosecutor, said he'd thought such funds for lawmakers
were illegal but was recently told they weren't. The problem is that a big
lobbyist or someone who wants to influence a lawmaker could secretly
contribute, he said.
"We want, retroactive, the names of all persons that have contributed to
those funds," Breslin said.
Former Republican Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has a legal defense
fund. He faces trial, starting Monday, on federal corruption charges.
Bruno retired in July 2008, aware of the federal investigation that began
more than two years earlier and involved grand jury testimony by many of
his associates. He also has used campaign funds to pay legal bills.
In 2004, then-state Sen. Guy Velella used campaign funds and donations
from the campaign committees of Bruno and other GOP senators to help pay
his legal bills. Velella, a Bronx Republican, eventually went to jail
after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring to accept bribes. |
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