New York assemblyman public corruption informant since 2009

Joseph Spector, Gannett Albany (N.Y.) Bureau | USATODAY

ALBANY, N.Y — An assemblyman, revealed Thursday he has been an informant since 2009 and helped prosecutors in public-corruption cases — sending shock waves through Albany and fueling speculation that more lawmakers could be taken down in what appears to be a widening probe.

The assemblyman, Nelson Castro, a Bronx Democrat, announced his role after Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, D-Bronx, was arrested Thursday by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in the second bribery scandal in a week to hit the Capitol.

"I think it's going to get worse before it gets better because of the aggressive pursuit by the U.S. attorney and the sheer sloppiness of the elected officials," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a good-government group.

Stevenson is charged with four other defendants, accused of accepting $22,000 in bribes to push legislation for an adult-care center in his district.

Stevenson is the brother of two Mount Vernon, N.Y. firefighters: Edward Stevenson, the department's chief, and Mark Stevenson. Neither Stevenson could be reached for comment. Edward Stevenson was promoted from captain to chief after Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis returned to office in 2012.

Mark Stevenson joined the department in 2006, five years after he was released from federal prison. He had been sentenced to 21 months in 2000 after pleading guilty in New Mexico to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Thursday's case added fuel to the long-held criticism that state government in New York is dysfunctional. Twenty-nine state lawmakers have had ethical or legal troubles since 2000. In the past six years, nine senators have been defeated in a general election; 12 have been arrested, according to New York Public Interest Research Group.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a statement late Thursday, called the charges revealed this week "appalling."

"New Yorkers deserve a government that is as good as the people it serves, and the events of the last few days fail this and every standard of public service," he said.

Castro said in a statement that he had been indicted on perjury charges in 2009 related to a civil case from the previous year. After he was charged, he cooperated with authorities and aided with "various investigations." He was first elected in 2008 and took office in 2009, and was re-elected twice while still working with prosecutors. He resigned Thursday as part of his agreement with Bharara's office.

"I continue to cooperate with state and federal authorities in this prosecution and in other investigations," Castro said.

Bharara said the allegations "illustrate the corruption of an elected representative's core function – a legislator selling legislation. And based on these allegations, it becomes more and more difficult to avoid the sad conclusion that political corruption in New York is indeed rampant and that a show-me-the-money culture in Albany is alive and well."

A woman who answered the phone at Stevenson's office said there was no comment and hung up. Stevenson's arrest came two days after Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, was charged in a separate bribery scandal Tuesday. Smith, the former Senate majority leader, and five other political leaders including the mayor and deputy mayor of Spring Valley were charged in a scheme to help Smith win the GOP nomination for New York City mayor.

Stevenson is charged with conspiracy to deprive New York state of honest services and federal bribery charges. The charges come with a maximum 35 years in prison.

In both cases, the Democratic lawmakers boasted to their cohorts that they had more influence in Albany than they probably did.

Smith vowed to get $500,000 in state aid that would help a Spring Valley community center project, but the money was never secured, and Smith did not get the Republican nomination for mayor. Stevenson said he could get a state bill passed to put a three-year moratorium on new adult day-care centers in the city, which ostensibly would have helped Stevenson's alleged co-conspirators.

The bill lacked a Senate sponsor and went nowhere in the Assembly, yet Stevenson told an informant, "I'm telling you, it's done. It's no problem."

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, a Democrat from Monroe County, N.Y. said it's disheartening that some lawmakers are tarnishing the work of most legislators.

"It's hard to imagine in this day and age, that people are still so arrogant that they think they can get away with this," Morelle said. "You're almost after awhile at a loss for words to describe how disappointed you can be in colleagues."

Cuomo vowed to clean up the troubles in Albany when he took office in 2011 and sought to stabilize state government after Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008 in a prostitution scandal. But a new ethics panel that Cuomo installed has been widely knocked as ineffective, and Cuomo now faces added pressure to tighten ethics and campaign-finance laws. Cuomo said Wednesday that no law can stop all malfeasance.

"People do stupid things, frankly," Cuomo said. "People do illegal things. People in power abuse power. And that's part of the human condition. We do everything we can do to try to stop it."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, called on Stevenson to resign. "I believe that given the evidence that has been presented, he should seriously consider whether he can continue to maintain the public trust," Silver said.

Contributing: Ned P. Rauch, Jonathan Bandler, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News.