Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was found guilty by a federal jury on Monday of pocketing more than $22,000 in bribes to help Bronx developers open adult day-care centers and block their competition.
The second-term Bronx pol must now give up his Albany post after a jury convicted him on all four counts of conspiracy and bribery in an alleged scheme to help the four businessmen fast-track their projects and then propose legislation limiting future competitors.
Stevenson, 47, remained predominately mum afterwards, nodding his head up and down when asked if he was disappointed and declining to comment about the possibility of an appeal.
When asked by the Post how the decision affects his future in Albany, he shot back, “What do you think?”
He faces up to 55 years behind bars when he’s sentenced on May 20, and, by law, he must relinquish his Albany post because he was convicted of a felony. Within less than a half hour after being convicted, his official government Web page was taken down.
Jurors came back with a verdict relatively quickly — after only about 90 minutes of deliberating in the week-long trial.
“It was not a very difficult decision because the argument [by prosecutors] was a good one,” said a juror, Jessica Garcia, 26, of the Bronx.
The conviction is the latest feather in the cap of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara in a quest to weed out corrupt elected officials. His long list of convictions against ex-pols include former City Councilman Larry Seabrook, state Sen. Carl Kruger and Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi.
“As a unanimous jury swiftly found, Assemblyman Stevenson brazenly betrayed the public that elected him,” said Bharara, who has said he’ll seek to block Stevenson from collecting his government pension, if convicted. “Graft and greed are intolerable in Albany, and we will go to trial as often as we have to until government in New York is cleaned up.”
Stevenson’s lawyer, Muhammad Ibn Bashir, questioned Bharara’s credibility following the decision.
“You can’t ‘create’ corruption and then say you went after it and still say you are credible as a law enforcement officer or a politician,” Bashir said.
During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Krieger said Stevenson cannot deny “that he took” an envelope allegedly containing $10,000 from one of the businessmen after walking out of a Bronx steakhouse in Sept. 2012.
“Stevenson’s initial refusal to take the money because of a surveillance camera [inside Jake’s Steakhouse] is devastating proof,” he added.
Images of Stevenson pocketing an envelope were caught on video by the feds, but the video of the actual hand-off was blurry. The feds in convicting the pol relied heavily on damning audio tapes and the word of a former political operative with a long rap sheet who agreed to wear a wire to avoid significant jail time.
Bashir asked jurors to ignore the testimony of the operative, Sigfredo Gonzalez, claiming the case “comes down to someone who can’t be trusted.”
“He is conning the Russian [businessmen]. He is conning the assemblyman. He is lying to the government about having sex with a prostitute. He is lying, he is lying, he is lying!” he said.
Gonzalez on Wednesday told wide-eyed jurors he once stopped recording in an Albany hotel — where Stevenson allegedly pocketed another $5,000 in bribes — to privately enjoy a “b—w job” with a prostitute, which was paid for by four businessmen.
The trial was also highlighted by Chief Judge Loretta Preska getting into heated debate on Thursday with Bashir, a black lawyer, on whether the N-word can ever be interpreted as a “term of endearment.” She felt it could and he adamantly disagreed.
Gonzalez had referred to Stevenson as the N-word behind his back shortly before he arrived at Jake’s, and the judge shot down a request to have the jury hear audio confirming this.
Stevenson was elected to the state Assembly in 2010 and re-elected two years later.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Hagen and Carl Campanile