By Sarina Trangle
A month ahead of his scheduled sentencing, former Bayside City Councilman Daniel Halloran replaced his trial attorney with one he said is known for appeal work.
The ex-GOP legislator, who contended he was innocent throughout this past summer’s trial, said his former defense lawyer, Vinoo Varghese, did not do appeal work.
“Now we have to get ready for the next phase,” Halloran said after a court conference last week.
White Plains Federal Court Judge Kenneth Karas approved his request to hire Jonathan Edelstein. Karas, however, instructed Halloran and his co-defendant, Vincent Tabone, they would need to sign waivers authorizing the first of Halloran’s three defense attorneys, Dennis Ring, to work as counsel for Tabone.
Ring once worked as chief of staff in Halloran’s City Council office.
Tabone needed new counsel because the judge denied his prior attorney Deborah Misir’s request for an adjournment to accommodate her pregnancy and planned maternity leave.
With the counsel lineup agreed upon, Karas scheduled Halloran’s sentencing for Jan. 21.
A jury found the former northeast Queens legislator guilty this summer on five counts stemming from two separate schemes. Halloran was convicted of negotiating alleged bribes to borough GOP leaders in exchange for the organizations giving state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) consent to run on the Republican line in the 2013 mayoral elections. He also was convicted of plotting to direct discretionary city money to a sham charity run by FBI operatives he believed were wealthy developers willing to contribute to his failing Congressional campaign.
Halloran’s case was severed from Tabone’s and Smith’s this summer when their attorneys successfully sought mistrials. They argued the government had failed to hand over hours of conversation and text messages in Yiddish and English captured from a wiretap on a cooperating witness’ phone ahead of the trial.
Prosecutors allege Smith orchestrated a ploy to bribe his way onto the Republican line, in part, by allegedly steering $500,000 in state funding to a pseudo real estate project in exchange for its recipients agreeing to pony up his suspected bribes.
Smith has maintained his innocence.
Prosecutors contend Tabone, who was vice chairman of the Queens Republican Party, allegedly accepted a $25,000 bribe to help Smith in his quest the GOP ticket.
Tabone, too, has claimed he is innocent.
He and Smith’s trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 5 in White Plains.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4546.
