The chief of staff and star witness against a Democratic New York state assemblyman charged with taking bribes from undercover agents was recorded at a restaurant admitting that taking her own illegal payoff didn’t make her feel shame but arousal.

“You just, like, made me hot,” said William Boyland Junior’s chief of staff, Ry-Ann Hermon, when an agent gave her a $1,000 payoff at the Blue Water Grill in Manhattan during a recorded 2011 meeting. The audio was played Thursday at Mr. Boyland’s corruption trial in Brooklyn federal court.

Hermon wanted a cut of the bribes her boss allegedly took.

“I don’t know if I would ever get any extra money out of it or not,” Hermon told the agent, according to the New York Post. “Because at the end of the day, my description is to work for him. So if you’re trying to give me a bonus check, bring it. I’ll welcome it.”

After accepting a plea deal, Hermon became the government’s star witness against the Brooklyn assemblyman, who is accused of soliciting money to undercover agents in order to secure “easy access to properties that could be profitably developed,” the Post reported.

Mr. Boyland argues otherwise. In her opening statement, his attorney, Nancy Ennis, said he was merely “playing the players,” the Post reported.

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