By Howard Koplowitz
The sentencing of Alan Hevesi, the former state comptroller from Forest Hills, on a corruption charge involving the state pension fund was postponed Monday after he was hospitalized for internal bleeding over the weekend.
The New York Post said Hevesi experienced symptoms during a visit to his daughter in Virginia and underwent an emergency endoscopy, citing Hevesi lawyer Bradley Simon.
Simon could not be reached to confirm the report.
While Hevesi’s sentencing — where he faces up to four years in prison — was scheduled for Monday, it was unlikely the sentencing would have been handed down because Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lewis Bart Stone decided to transfer the case to another judge.
Hevesi was scheduled to be sentenced April 4.
Simon argued earlier this month that Stone had a conflict of interest because the judge was the executor of his estranged father’s will.
Even though Stone transferred the case, he determined he was not conflicted, the Post said.
Stone’s office could not be reached for comment.
Hevesi’s youngest son, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills), wrote a letter to Stone asking him not to send his father to jail.
“Despite his failures and mistakes, I will not now or ever stop believing in him,” Andrew Hevesi wrote. “Not just because I love him as the man who, with my mom, raised, protected and loved me, but because these transgressions will never define my father.”
Hevesi pleaded guilty in October to receiving $1 million in gifts in exchange for state pension business, including directing $250 million in pension funds to be invested with Markstone Capital Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in Israeli investments.
The senior Hevesi, who also represented Queens in the state Assembly and was city comptroller, admitted taking gifts, including $500,000 in campaign contributions and $75,000 for five paid trips to Italy and Israel.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
