By Ivan Pereira
The bribery trial against one of Jamaica Hospital’s former top administrators is winding down and is set to have its grand finale at the end of the week.
David Rosen’s attorneys rested their case Monday evening in Manhattan Federal Court after putting two witnesses on the stand. Rosen, who used to be the CEO of Jamaica’s parent company, MediSys, is accused of bribing former state Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio with $390,000 in return for favorable work for the hospital in the state Legislature.
Seminerio died in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to setting up Marc Consultants to receive the money from the hospital for his work.
Rosen did not take the stand in his own defense in the bench trial and his attorney, Scott Morvillo, called current MediSys CEO Neal Phillips and attorney Barbara Arky as the defense’s only witnesses.
Arky, the executive vice president and general counsel of Lutheran Health Care, had worked with the assemblyman and MediSys about their consulting projects, but testified that Rosen did not talk to her about the possible conflict of interest in doing business with Seminerio.
Rosen was charged with other alleged misconduct besides his dealings with Seminerio during his tenure with the health system. He is also charged with giving $177,368 to Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., who used to work for MediSys, and giving him a job as a consultant.
Rosen allegedly put money in a hospice care service where indicted state Sen. Carl Kruger reaped some of the cash, according to prosecutors. Kruger is awaiting his own corruption trial along with former Parkway Hospital owner Dr. Robert Aquino and lobbyist Richard Lipsky.
After receiving some pieces of evidence from Morvillo, including a huge binder of minutes of board meetings between Jamaica Hospital and MediSys from 1998-2008, Judge Jed Rakoff scheduled a summations date for this Friday. Rakoff told the attorneys for both sides that he would be interrupting their closing arguments with questions and asked them to prepare accordingly.
If convicted of the charges, Rosen faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
