Bloom Where You're Planted
John Mason reports today in the Register-Star that the board of the Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) has decided to write off as a bad debt the $13,000 in restitution still owed to the city agency by Quintin Cross: "Agency writes off $13K Cross restitution." In 2007, Cross, then a Second Ward alderman and Common Council majority leader, who sat on the boards of HDC (Hudson Development Corporation) and HCDPA (Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency), was convicted of using city credit cards for personal expenses and embezzling public funds. As part of his sentence, Cross was ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution. Of the amount, $13,000 remains unpaid. Cross's attorney maintains that Cross has served his time and is therefore not required to pay the remaining $13,000.
In one stroke Cross's political career is resuscitated and the HDC picks up the bill for the escort services.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should answer whether civil litigation on the part of the HDC was actually required by law, or was this slap in the face to taxpayers precipitated by the mere annoyance of someone's unbalanced books?
Or was it something else altogether? It strikes an amazing resemblance to influence-peddling. Maybe let's ask the state Attorney General.
Yes let's do. Times are a changin' boys, of that you can be sure.
ReplyDeleteAs written: "HDC Executive Director Sheena Salvino said Cross’s attorney had informed her his client had served his time and he was not required to pay the remaining restitution" (Register Star 12/5/13).
ReplyDeletePeople should fully appreciate the character and history of Sheena Salvino's new advisor.
Susan Tipograph, Quinton Cross's attorney, has represented terrorists from the Weather Underground, the May 19th Communist Organization, the Republic of New Africa, and the Puerto Rican FALN.
She was subpoenaed for her suspected role in the prison escape of FALN bomb maker Willie Morales. After Tipograph visited Morales in his cell, a bolt cutter miraculously materialized enabling him to cut through the window grillwork and escape.
As the New York Times described it, "according to the brief, Alfredo Mendez, a convicted F.A.L.N. member who has become an informant for the authorities, said that after [Morales'] escape, he was told that 'a female attorney strapped the bolt cutters to her leg and smuggled them into Morales.' Mr. Mendez said he was told this by Dylcia Pagan, described in the brief as a 'paramour' of Mr. Morales. The document also says Mr. Mendez, who began cooperating with prosecutors to gain a reduction of his own long prison sentence, had also quoted Miss Pagan as saying, 'Susan Tipograph helped a great deal with the escape.' The court papers add that 'the last and only contact visit that Morales had' at Bellevue was with Miss Tipograph and that it occurred three days before his escape."
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/03/nyregion/court-brief-implicates-lawyer-in-escape-by-william-morales.html
Tipograph's former law partner Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support to the blind Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and helping him direct terrorist activity from his prison cell under the guise of attorney-client privilege.
Rahman is currently serving a life sentence for his 1995 conviction as leader of the plot to blow up such New York City landmarks as the World Trade Center, the New York FBI headquarters, the George Washington Bridge, and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.
What terrific advisors, HDC!
And I wonder how the court looks upon the undermining of its sentencing procedure? Surely restitution was weighed in the balance with the other punishments. Does the HDC, which is a non profit organization, envision itself on a level with the courts?
It's high time to investigate the HDC, which owes its existence to Hudson's addiction to grant money. (They can't even do that right!)
As for the HCDPA, the state's General Municipal Law provides guidelines for its dissolution. So let's start the proceedings.
Fascinating thought, Unheimlich: HDC taking it off its books doesn't invalidate the court's order.
ReplyDeleteabsolutely amazing
ReplyDeleteI believe the statute of limitations came into play here.
ReplyDelete