Former Nassau County Legis. Patrick Williams leaves the district attorney's office in Mineola on July 22, 2010. Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
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A former Nassau County legislator surrendered Tuesday to begin serving a jail sentence following his 2012 conviction in a scheme to steer an $80 million New Cassel redevelopment project to a favored developer.
Democrat Patrick Williams of Uniondale surrendered after the state’s highest court recently declined to hear his appeal.
The state Court of Appeals in Albany also declined to hear appeals from Williams’ co-defendants, Roger Corbin, another former Democratic county legislator, and Neville Mullings, who had run the North Hempstead Community Development Agency.
In 2012, a Nassau jury convicted the trio on charges stemming from a 2010 indictment that said they steered a project to revitalize New Cassel’s downtown – that later failed — to a developer willing to “pay to play,” sold false exclusivity rights to a bank and stole $150,000 in public funds.
The Oyster Bay Town Board on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, appointed Brian Nevin, a top aide to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, as the town's new public information officer. He is to start in the new job Wednesday. (Credit: Steve Pfost)
The Oyster Bay Town Board on Tuesday appointed Brian Nevin, a top aide to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, as the town’s new public information officer.
The 6-1 vote came after a town board member objected to the appointment, calling Nevin a “high-powered Republican operative” who does not live in the town and should not be paid a $163,000 salary when the town is facing severe budget problems.
“It would be cheaper to contract out to a firm than paying one individual $163,000,” said Councilman Anthony Macagnone, the sole board member to vote against Nevin’s appointment.
Supervisor Joseph Saladino defended the hiring and salary, which he said was the same amount Nevin received from the county. Nevin is to start his town job Wednesday.
Saladino said Nevin, 39, will help increase transparency in town government by communicating with residents online, on social media and through the news media.
Two town employees already perform public information duties, but Saladino said Nevin also will be a top policy aide and involved in day-to-day decision-making on a range of issues, including trimming the town budget. Saladino said Nevin will save the town many times more money than his salary.
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“We have a person who is willing to take on multiple roles in one position,” said Saladino, who called Nevin “highly experienced and qualified.”
Saladino and Nevin worked together for years in Albany when Saladino was a state assemblyman and Nevin was a budget analyst, director of operations for Republicans and on the Assembly GOP campaign committee.
Mangano hired Nevin in March 2010 as senior policy adviser/communications director for the county.
Mangano is facing federal corruption charges and is not expected to seek re-election. Nevin, a Merrick native, said in an interview Tuesday that the indictment did not influence his decision to take the Oyster Bay job. He said he had accomplished much in the Mangano administration and “felt like it was an important task and a challenge to help Supervisor Saladino increase transparency in the town.”
The Mangano administration recently transferred more than 40 county employees from political jobs to competitive union positions that would protect them from being fired if a new county executive takes office in January, Newsday reported Monday. Nevin and Saladino said no one from Mangano’s office was involved in securing Nevin’s new job.
The vote to appoint Nevin came after the board went into executive session to discuss Nevin’s resume and qualifications. Macagnone, a Republican, had objected to how board members were not given Nevin’s resume before the meeting and was opposed to discussions being held behind closed doors.
Vicki Spinelli, deputy commissioner for human resources, said there is money in the town budget for Nevin’s position, because several vacant slots in the sanitation department will be eliminated as part of a consolidation.
Marc Herman, a Democratic candidate for town supervisor in the November election, said in a statement that Saladino should be “ashamed” of making Nevin’s appointment “without notice, and without even a semblance of a competitive review.”
In 2014, current Court of Claims Judge Alan Honorof sentenced Williams, now 69, to a year in jail for conspiracy. He sentenced Mullings, now 76, of Westbury, to 9 months in jail for conspiracy and official misconduct.
The judge also sentenced Corbin, now 70, of Westbury, to 2 to 6 years in prison for taking bribes and official misconduct.
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But an appellate court granted stays of all three of the sentences while considering separate appeals from the trio, who were then released on six-figure bonds.
In January, that lower appellate court upheld all three convictions, finding in each case that evidence had been sufficient to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Williams arrived in Nassau County Court Tuesday wearing a business suit, and embraced family before turning himself over to law enforcement officials to be handcuffed and transported to Nassau’s jail. He’s expected to spend about nine months behind bars.
Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said Tuesday in a prepared statement that all three defendants “victimized the New Cassel community in a corrupt scheme to enrich themselves and, nearly ten years later, they will finally be held accountable for their crimes.”
She added that Nassau residents “are tired of corruption in their government” and her office is “committed to holding accountable those in power — and those who enable them — when they betray the public trust.”
Williams’ attorney, Brian Griffin, said after the court proceeding that his client still maintains his innocence and was heading to jail “resolute in his conviction that he did nothing wrong.”
“Unfortunately the Court of Appeals refused to hear his case. This is unfortunate because if they had, the fundamental flaws in the prosecution would have been exposed and his innocence would have prevailed,” the Garden City lawyer added.
The surrenders of Corbin and Mullings also are expected within the next two weeks, a court official said Tuesday.
Hempstead attorney Frederick Brewington, who represents Mullings, declined to comment Tuesday on the Court of Appeals’ decision but confirmed his client would surrender shortly.
An attorney for Corbin, who served federal prison time for evading taxes on payments he got from a developer at the center of the Nassau corruption case, couldn’t be reached for comment.
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