Romney Campaign Returns Grimm Cash

By on October 17, 2012  Politics
Oct 172012
 

The Albany Times Union is reporting that the Mitt Romney campaign “returned a $2,500 contribution from scandal-scarred Rep. Michael Grimm’s leadership PAC, Grassroots Initiative to Retain Our Majority” just days after receiving the funds in September, as indicated by Federal Election Commission records.

A Political Action Committee, or PAC, is a group formed to receive or spend more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, according to the Federal Election Campaign Act.

Liz Benjamin writes via the Times Union blog Capitol Confidential that, while Grimm’s PAC had sent $2,500 to Romney earlier in the year, the latest contribution still falls within the annual legal limit of $5,000 per election.

This development raises some serious questions – namely why Romney is continuing to distance himself from one of his staunchest New York supporters. Continue reading »

Three More Sentenced In 6-8 Precinct Gun-Running Scandal

By on October 15, 2012  News
Oct 152012
 

Three disgraced Bay Ridge police officers will be spending Christmas behind bars for the next couple of years, after they were sentenced by a Brooklyn federal court judge for gun-running, as reported by Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Daily.

Richard Melnik, John Mahoney, and Eddie Goris will soon be joining former 68th Precinct cops Joseph Trischitta and Marco Venezia in prison. Treschitta and Venezia had been sentenced to 40 and 24 months respectively during the summer for taking part in the same gun-smuggling ring. Continue reading »

In Sunday Piece On Mark Murphy, NY Times Gets Real About Grimm Challenger

By on October 15, 2012  Politics
Oct 152012
 

While walking around Bay Ridge, I’ve witnessed some interesting combinations of political posters in store windows and in front of private homes.

I’ve seen signs for Marty Golden and Andrew Gounardes sharing space in a car service, Gounardes and Malliotakis posters hanging out together in the front windows of Greek-owned businesses, anti-fracking signs and peace symbols glued to front doors bearing Obama bumper stickers sitting next to homes owned by die-hard Grimm fans. However, I can’t recall seeing ANY evidence of the Mark Murphy campaign’s presence in Bay Ridge. No literature, no stickers, no buttons. Zilch. Nada.

While coverage of incumbent Congressman Michael Grimm by the New York Times has often involved attempts at political pile-on involving truth that can, at times, appear stretched, the Gray Lady seems to have finally published a story about the race for New York’s 13th Congressional seat that’s grounded in reality rather than some muckraker’s wet dream. Continue reading »

After Teen Arrested For Vandalism, Grimm Wags Finger At Media While They Wag Right Back

By on September 26, 2012  Politics
Sep 262012
 

Image source: Grimm campaign via Politicker.

After the Associated Press broke the news yesterday that a teen had confessed to smashing the windows at U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm’s Staten Island campaign office with a classmate, after it had already been revealed that the crime was being treated as an act of criminal mischief and not a burglary, the Congressman responded by releasing a statement saying he was “very relieved” that the attack wasn’t politically motivated, as reported by Politicker’s Hunter Walker and Colin Campbell.

“It is unfortunate that these young kids would commit such an act of vandalism, yet we are very relieved to know this is not politically motivated. At the time, when we saw three large window panes broken, following a consistent pattern of lawn sign thefts and after several locations with Grimm signs and posters were barraged with eggs, it was not hard to come to any other conclusion,” Mr. Grimm said. “In addition to that, the gentleman in charge of operating the main computer system, found the computer not functioning and a new operating system installed. Again, under the circumstances, it could very easily lead one to believe that this was all connected, which is why we contacted the NYPD.”

However, it didn’t take long for Grimm to lash out at the press for having the gall to report on things that actually happened, calling it “shameless spin.” Unfortunately for him, the media was more than happy to respond by going to the Michael Grimm blooper reel. Continue reading »

Judge Allows Poly Prep Lawsuit To Proceed

By on August 29, 2012  News
Aug 292012
 

In what Daily News reporter Michael O’Keeffe has described as a “startling court order that could be a watershed moment for survivors of childhood sex abuse,” U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block told those gathered in a federal courtroom on Tuesday that he would allow a lawsuit brought by several alumni to proceed against Poly Prep Country Day School. At the same time, Judge Block threw out all but two RICO claims made against the school by plaintiffs.

Judge Block wrote that he was giving the case the go-ahead because school officials may have been lying when they claimed to have no knowledge of a longtime football coach’s molestation of students before 1991. The sexual abuse by coach Phil Foglietta, which is alleged to have went on for decades, has been compared with revelations brought to light during the recent Penn State scandal. Continue reading »

Congressional Candidate Mark Murphy Asks Vito Lopez To Step Down; Prominent Dems continue to pile on amid allegations of sexual harassment

By on August 27, 2012  Featured story, Politics
Aug 272012
 

Mark Murphy

In light of the disturbing allegations of sexual harassment recently brought against Kings County Democratic Party boss Vito Lopez, local Congressional candidate Mark Murphy – along with a host of powerful New York State Democrats including Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – have called on the formerly formidable Lopez to resign.

Saturday, U.S. Congressional hopeful for District 11 Mark Murphy, who enjoys the support of Brooklyn’s younger, more reform-minded contingent – represented by groups such as the Southern Brooklyn Democrats, and Bay Ridge Democrats – released a statement asking Lopez to step down. Continue reading »

FBI Continues Probe Into Grimm’s Campaign Finances

By on June 21, 2012  Politics
Jun 212012
 

Yesterday, Politicker’s Colin Campbell broke the news that the FBI is apparently continuing its investigation into allegations of illegal fundraising during Congressman Michael Grimm’s 2010 campaign.

The report states that the FBI “has been speaking to at least one individual” connected to Rep. Grimm. The individual in question, speaking with Campbell on the condition of anonymity, confirmed rumors to that effect.

A New York Times story from January of this year drew attention to followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, who allege that Grimm – along with Ofer Biton, a former aide to Rabbi Pinto – illegally raised funds using methods that included strong-arm tactics such as extortion. Continue reading »

Poly Prep Hires Prominent Former U.S. Attorney For Defense Team

By on June 18, 2012  News
Jun 182012
 

Poly Prep officials – while maintaining that they would like a “fair resolution” to a lawsuit filed by dozens of former students who say administrators covered up decades of sexual abuse – have also signaled that they have the legal wherewithal to defend the school should the case go to trial, writes Michael O’Keeffe for the Daily News.

On Friday school officials retained Mary Jo White – who was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 2002. White oversaw the prosecution of “Ramzi Yousef and others” convicted  in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Continue reading »

Poly Prep Grad David Zarnock Gives Graphic Details Of Alleged Sex Abuse

By on June 11, 2012  News
Jun 112012
 

David Zarnock, a former NYPD detective and Poly Prep Country Day School graduate who has had run ins with the law, has shared a graphically detailed account of the sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of the school’s former football coach Phil Foglietta with reporter Michael O’Keeffe – who has been covering the story for the Daily News.

Former students, including David Hiltbrand – an entertainment reporter in Philadelphia who attended Poly Prep in the late 1960s, and Jonathan Enroth – who was enrolled at the school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, came forward to the New York Times in 2005 with detail-laden stories of abuse at the hands of the now-deceased Foglietta.

In the most recent account by Zarnock, the sexual assaults began in 1982 – when he was in 8th grade. Continue reading »

Judge Says Evidence Suggests Poly Officials Knew Of Sex Abuse Allegations Before 1991

By on June 7, 2012  News
Jun 072012
 

Source: Wikipedia Commons

Yesterday a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that there is enough evidence to suggest that officials at Poly Prep Country Day School [9216 7th Ave] were aware of sex abuse allegations against former football coach Phil Foglietta before 1991 – the year they claim to have first learned about them, reports Michael O’Keeffe for the Daily News.

The hearing, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollack, added new credibility to a law suit by former students that alleges school administrators have covered up sexual abuse since the 1960s.

“There have been serious questions raised as to whether defendants and their counsel were simply engaged in a good faith effort to vigorously defend this lawsuit or whether certain [aspects] of the alleged conduct was in furtherance of an effort to conceal the extent of the school’s knowledge and to hinder plaintiffs’ efforts in pursuing their case,” Pollak wrote in an order made public on Wednesday. Continue reading »