By Patrick Donachie
The criminal trial of Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) is expected to begin in January, according to the office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The court is currently handling pre-trial motions in preparation for a trial that follows Wills’ 2014 arrest on charges of corruption.
In 2014 Wills and his relative, Jelani Mills, were indicted on charges of diverting public campaign funds and charitable grant money to their own personal accounts, the AG said. Wills was also accused of funneling money into a nonprofit that he subsequently pocketed, according to the indictment. Schneiderman said the more than $30,000 came from state funds allocated by former state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was found guilty in 2013 of corruption for stealing money for shopping sprees at Roosevelt Field in Long Island from a charity she controlled. Wills worked as her aide before she was sentenced to a year in prison.
Schneiderman contends Wills steered the grant money into a nonprofit called New York 4 Life, which he supervised. Wills was accused by the attorney general of using some of the money for shopping trips, which included the purchase of a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag.
Wills’ office did not return a request for comment on this story.
In January Mills pleaded guilty to directing campaign funds marked for Wills’ unsuccessful 2009 City Council run into an account for Micro Targeting, which Mills said was a shell company set up by Wills.
The indictment accused Mills of submitting a check from Wills to Micro Targeting in the amount of $11,500 to the New York Campaign Finance Board. The attorney general’s office maintained Micro Targeting never did any work for Wills’ 2009 campaign and that Wills instead pocketed the funds.
After Wills’ May 2014 arrest, Schneiderman said the arrest sent “the message that elected office does not come with a blank check or a license to break the law.”
Wills allegedly signed a contract with the state Office of Children and Family Services in March 2010 and pledged that the funds Huntley allocated to New York 4 Life would be used for community services, but after the state requested Wills account for how the funds were used, he did not respond, according to the AG’s office.
Wills successfully won a special election to the City Council in November 2010. Wills denied any wrongdoing when he was arrested and accused Schneiderman of attempting to target prominent political rivals.
Amid pressure by the FBI, Huntley agreed to wear a wire and record meetings with nine other people, including Wills, in 2012. At the time, federal authorities claimed many of the nine individuals were also under investigation. Eventually, Huntley served a year and a day in prison. She was released in June 2014.
Judge Ira Margulis of the Queens Supreme Court will be presiding over the Wills case coming before the court. John Chiara, an assistant attorney general for the state attorney general’s office, is scheduled to head the prosecution.
Reach reporter Patrick Donachie by e-mail at pdona
