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Ex-State Senator jailed for looting taxpayer-funded charity
– had secretly recorded Sen. Sampson, other elected colleagues for FBI
A 74-year-old former State Senator who secretly recorded her elected colleagues for the FBI was sentenced yesterday to a year and a day in prison for looting a taxpayer-funded charity she controlled.
Ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) pleaded for mercy before Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein imposed his sentence.
In an even-tempered voice, Huntley faced the judge and said: “I am requesting that you give me another chance. I vow to spend my remaining years to redeem myself in the eyes of those I have embarrassed.”
Ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley
Weinstein said he was required to give her jail time “because the law expects the highest honesty from elected officials.”
The sentence was less than the 18-month minimum under federal sentencing guidelines, and with time off for good behaviour she could be out by February.
Huntley has emerged as a central figure in a growing investigation of political corruption that’s so far resulted in two arrests and the revelation that five other legislators are currently under the FBI’s microscope.
Last summer when the FBI confronted Huntley with allegations of wrongdoing, she agreed to cooperate and told them she knew of ongoing acts of political corruption.
The FBI suggested she invite a parade of seven elected officials and two political aides to her Jamaica, Queens, home where they could record the discourse.
The list of politicians caught on tape in those chats included Sens. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) and John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), both of whom were arrested in the last six weeks.
Huntley’s cooperation followed her admission that she embezzled $87,700 from a Queens non-profit that was supposed to help parents of public school students. The charity, Parents Information Network, was funded with tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars sponsored by Huntley.
She also admitted taking $1,000 from an unnamed businessman after lobbying the Port Authority to expand his lease at JFK International Airport. She agreed to repay the money as part of her deal.
Court papers and sources say Sampson asked Huntley to “use her official influence” to help the businessman expand his lease.
Sampson was arrested Monday in an unrelated matter, charged with embezzling $440,000 from escrow accounts he oversaw as a court-appointed referee in foreclosure sales. Prosecutors say he used that money to fund a failed bid for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005.
Yesterday Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry – the judge assigned to Sampson’s case – sat in to observe Huntley’s sentencing.
Huntley’s three months of recording politicians produced “evidence useful to law enforcement” against three elected officials they declined to name. Sources say one was Sampson.
Yet she failed to win a cooperation agreement from Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch that could have lightened her sentence.
That’s because Lynch’s prosecutors felt that during the investigation, Huntley gave “false, implausible and inconsistent” answers to their questions, undermining her credibility as a witness.
In court, Huntley’s attorney, Sally Butler, claimed Huntley went to the FBI while she was already under investigation by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Butler said Huntley told the FBI “about corruption involving” Schneiderman, although she did not elaborate. She also claimed Huntley told Brooklyn federal prosecutors that there was a mole in their office leaking law enforcement secrets.
Samuel Noel, a paralegal in that office, has been charged with leaking secrets to his high school pal, Sen. Sampson. He was fired and is now cooperating with the FBI.
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