By Sarina Trangle
City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) said he never wore a wire despite pressure from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in what his lawyer described as a bid to take down African-American officials who did not support New York’s top prosecutor.
Wills’ lawyers said they would file a motion seeking to have a special prosecutor replace Schneiderman in Wills’ pending criminal case.
The councilman’s rebuttal in a press conference at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens Village Wednesday came three weeks after Schneiderman and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced Wills had been charged with grand larceny and fraud for allegedly stealing about $30,000 in state and city funds.
Days later, the New York Post cited anonymous sources and reported that Wills attempted to secretly record colleagues at Schneiderman’s behest.
“Mr. Schneiderman is up for election. Mr. Schneiderman needs the African-American vote. He knows that he doesn’t necessarily have the support of the leaders that are here now, so he is going to do whatever it takes to bring them down,” said Sally Butler, Wills’ attorney. “If that means releasing false information that [Wills] wore a wire because voters may not like that, that’s what he will do.”
Butler, who represented Wills’ former boss, ex-state Sen. Shirley Huntley. in her corruption case, said: “This is all political.”
As part of a plea deal, Huntley photographed and recorded Wills and eight other politicians without their knowledge when they visited her Rochdale Village home in summer 2012.
Schneiderman’s office did not comment on whether Wills wore a wire, but it released a statement saying the attorney general’s pursuit of public corruption did not focus on southeast Queens, where Huntley is slated to complete a 366-day sentence for embezzling public funds, Sen, Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) is preparing for a trial on charges stemming from his alleged plot to rig the 2013 mayoral election and state Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-St. Albans) is under investigation for his use of vouchers for Albany travel expenses.
“Attorney General Schneiderman has prosecuted more than 40 individuals in public corruption cases across the state. He is committed to rooting out public corruption wherever it exists and will follow the evidence wherever it leads,” the statement said.
Wills said Schneiderman’s team asked him to follow in the footsteps of former Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who helped prosecutors indict a fellow lawmaker by secretly recording conversations for years.
“After the grand jury was convened, the attorney general’s office told me to cooperate and do a Nelson Castro, to be specific. And they would disband the grand jury, send those good people home and the pending indictment would go away,” Wills said. “Because I refused again the attorney general proceeded with his side of the story.”
Wills said he was first approached by the attorney general’s office in late 2011 or 2012 about wearing a wire.
Authorities have been eyeing NY 4 Life, the nonprofit headed by Wills since at least 2012, when Schneiderman and DiNapoli filed a joint motion in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming Wills made several attempts to obstruct their probe into the organization’s finances.
Years later, the two announced Wills had been indicted on charges of swindling $19,000 from a $30,000 state grant Wills’ former boss, Huntley, steered towards NY 4 Life and $11,500 in public matching funds allocated to his 2009 Council campaign.
Wills denied the allegations after his arraignment three weeks ago.
Surrounded by posters with photos and programs from NY 4 Life events celebrating single parents, Wills again reiterated the organization’s validity Wednesday.
His attorney, Steve Zissou, said the attorney general had been given an accounting of how the state grant and matching funds were spent “within a few hundred dollars of the exact amount.”
Wills also offered to repay the grant when contacted by the comptroller’s office, according to Zissou.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
