A former New York comptroller will have to show up in court and take his medicine.
Disgraced Comptroller Alan Hevesi will be sentenced for his role in a state pension fund pay-to-play scandal on Monday, April 4.
His previous sentencing date was postponed after Hevesi underwent hospital tests for internal bleeding over the weekend of March 27. He reportedly began experiencing symptoms during a visit to Virginia with his daughter.
The 71-year-old pleaded guilty last year to a single felony corruption charge by admitting to pocketing $1 million in gifts for himself and his cohorts. He may be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
However, in a twist to the case, Hevesi’s lawyer has asked Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lewis Bart Stone to recuse himself from the case because of a financial relationship the judge has with the father of Hevesi’s lawyer, Bradley Simon.
Simon said in a court transcript that he believes it is unethical for the judge to continue to preside over the case.
“I think the ethical quagmire is overwhelming,” Simon told the judge.
In another case of fathers and sons, Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi recently sent a letter pleading with the judge to spare his father jail time, according to a report in the New York Daily News. The letter states that the elder Hevesi’s inappropriate behavior should not overshadow a lifetime of public service.
“In short, your honor, Alan Hevesi has earned the right to spend the rest of his life surrounded by those who appreciate and love him for who he is, a great and flawed man,” wrote Andrew Hevesi. “Please send him home to our family.”
