Every doggy has its day, but a poodle belonging to former Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley sure has been living the high life — at taxpayers’ expense.
And for that, Huntley says, both she and a sitting state lawmaker are responsible.
The politician in question?
Assemblywoman Vivian Cook of Queens.
And if Cook isn’t guilty as Huntley charged, then it sure is a mystery why she won’t stand up and say so.
Huntley, of course, will be serving up to two years behind bars for her part in the scheme to steal taxpayer money for lavish shopping sprees for herself and her pooch.
As The Post’s Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein reported, Cook sponsored some $135,000 in “member-item” pork payments meant for a charity run by Huntley, the “nonprofit” Parents Information Network.
But the group was a front. Huntley diverted the money to herself — and shared it with the lawmaker, according to Huntley’s court testimony. “Once [the charity] received the state funds, I alerted this person, and together we used PIN’s funds for personal shopping,” she said. Sources later confirmed that she was referring to Cook.
The pair spent the cash at department stores, and their taste ran ritzy. Huntley favored fancy champagne and expensive cigarettes — and even bought clothes for the poodle.
Now, blowing money on clothes for your poodle may be silly. What makes it a crime here is that it was all bought with taxpayer dollars meant for educational charities.
Which is why Huntley is headed to the Big House. But what about Cook?
As this paper reported last year, she, too, is no stranger to taxpayer cash. Indeed, Cook put in for 12 “per diem” expense-reimbursement checks for 12 straight days of work in Albany in 2010 — during a stretch when the Legislature was in session for only three days.
And she was absent for all three.
These days, Cook’s gone completely mute. She won’t return our calls, hasn’t offered any public defense or denials and won’t even say if she’s under investigation.
Last year, by contrast, Cook did deny — emphatically — that she took even a single penny from the public. “I don’t lie, I don’t cheat and I don’t steal,” she told The Post.
New Yorkers know for sure that Shirley Huntley’s a thief, but is she also a liar?
Vivian Cook had better hope so.