New York’s growing list of convicted politicians — including ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — just received some very bad news about their efforts to avoid jail under the Supreme Court’s new definition of bribery.
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the bribery conviction of former Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. — despite acknowledging that some of the jury instructions at his trial were technically wrong under the new rules.
Boyland’s overall bribery scheme was so blatant that tweaks to those instructions would not have mattered, the court found.
The ruling bodes poorly for the slew of other pols seeking appeal on similar grounds, including Silver, the disgraced former head of the NY Assembly, and Skelos, former majority leader of the New York state Assembly.
The Supreme Court opened the floodgate for corruption appeals in June 2016 when it overturned the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, ruling that only official acts, like legislation, can be traded for bribes.
Money provided for things like meetings — or asking other officials for help — don’t count, the High Court ruled.
Boyland claimed he was wrongfully convicted because his jury was told that he could be found guilty for things like “contacting . . . other governmental agencies” — along with official acts like legislation.
But the Manhattan appeals court Monday disagreed that taking that language out would have resulted in a different outcome.
“We see no reasonable possibility, in light of the record as a whole, that that flaw affected the outcome of the case,” the court said of Boyland’s complaints about his jury instructions.
Boyland, a Democrat, was convicted in 2014 of accepting $13,800 in bribes for helping to a carnival promoter get a carnival permit, and of funneling more than $84,000 in state funds for a nonprofit in his district to his campaign coffers.
Silver and Skelos could still win their appeals on other grounds.
Skelos, for example, may seek to win a new trial based on recently disclosed information that a key witness in his 2015 corruption trial has been accused of being a very naughty businessman.
Anthony Bonomo, founder of Roslyn-based Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, was booted from PRI on Thursday after the state’s Department of Financial Services accused him of bleeding his company dry for his own personal benefit, including $90,000 toward a recreational baseball field that he allegedly named after himself.
Skelos’ lawyers are expected to demand information about what the feds knew of Bonomo’s alleged shenanigans ahead of trial, source said.
If they had information they didn’t share, Skelos could win a new trial.
Skelos and his son Adam were convicted of strong-arming executives Skelos had legislative power over to give Adam do-nothing jobs.
Bonomo testified at the trial that he couldn’t fire Adam for not showing up for work because he feared he’d “have a problem in Albany” if he did.