Legal News

Pedro Espada Jr.: A One-Man Full-Employment Act for NY Lawyers

By Suzanne Sataline

If you turn conventional wisdom on its head, New York state senator Pedro Espada Jr. has been good for the three branches of government. Espada has been at the center of the recent power-shuffle (and struggle) up in Albany, where the state Senate is currently deadlocked 31-31 between Republicans and Democrats. Click here for a WSJ story from today on the situation.

For starters, there's the boon he's brought to the legislative branch. Until the state senator decided to dump his fellow Democrats and joined up with the Republicans, sparking a two-week power war in New York's upper chamber, how many New Yorkers, let alone readers nationwide, were paying much attention to the workings of the state legislature? Score one for Espada.

The governor might also thank Espada. Before this, Gov. David Paterson was seen by many as the least popular, least capable politician in the state, if you buy what polls tell you. The warring party powers in the senate have put that notion to rest. Mr. Espada: the executive branch thanks you.

Espada’s also funneled a good amount of work to the state’s judicial branch. He holds the distinction of being sued more than most legislators, though so far he’s managed to prevail every time. The rundown:

In 2000, Espada was tried, and acquitted on criminal charges that he used nonprofit money to pay campaign expenses.

In 2008, he won a civil suit accusing him of violating state election laws, namely that he wasn’t living in the Bronx, where his district is located, but in leafy Mamaroneck, a Westchester county suburb. (The state Supreme Court Judge Robert G. Seewald found that “in today's mobile society, an individual can maintain more than one bona fide residence.")

Espada currently faces further investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has served the Espada nonprofit, Soundview Health Clinic, with subpoenas as he tries to glean if the nonprofit funds have been used for political purposes.

Espada is also now part of a coalition of senate Republicans who have twice blocked Democratic legal efforts to get temporary restraining orders that would have prevented Espada from assuming power as president pro tem.

Daniel Pagano, one member of the Espada legal team, says all the investigations into his client are reminiscent of certain trials held centuries ago in Salem, Mass. “Legally speaking,” says Pagano, “he has no problem.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).