New York — Former New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam Skelos were found guilty of, “bribery, extortion, and honest services fraud counts,” Robert Khuzami, Manhattan’s deputy U.S. attorney announced on Tuesday.
This wasn’t the first time the father and son had faced a Manhattan court room, both had “been found guilty of the same offenses by a jury in December of 2105,” the convictions were overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit “as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonnell v United States,” which narrowed the legal definition of corruption in a case that involved former Republican governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell.
The retrial of the Skelos’ lasted five weeks, the jury found that Dean Skelos “repeatedly abused his official postition to obtain more than $300,000 in bribes and extortion payments made to his son Adam.”
Dean Skelos attorney offered no comment after the verdict, but Adam Skelos attorney John J Kenney simply said he was, via The New York Times, “severely disappointed.”
Deputy U.S. Attorney Khuzami said after the verdict, “Yet again, a New York jury heard a sordid tale of bribery, extortion, and the abuse of power by a powerful public official of this State. And yet again, a jury responded with a unanimous verdict of guilt, in this case of Dean Skelos and his son Adam – sending the resounding message that political corruption will not be tolerated.”
District Judge Kimba Wood will sentence father and son on October 24th, 2018.
Dean Skelos isn’t the only New York politician that has been successfully retried recently. Former speaker of New York’s Assembly democrat Sheldon Silver, was convicted in May, he’s scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
