ALBANY — Joseph Bruno’s sticky-fingered former secretary testified yesterday that the once-powerful Senate leader was such an abusive boss, he even scolded her for failing to fetch a $1,000 bill — when they’re not even made anymore.
Longtime Bruno aide Patricia Stackrow said the senator wanted the unusually large note as a birthday present for his wife.
But apparently, he was unaware of just how daunting the mission was — the Treasury stopped printing $1,000 bills in the late 1960s. She came back with a fist full of $100 bills after the bank told her they didn’t have larger denominations.
“He got very angry with me because I did not do what he asked me to do,” Stackrow said after prompting from Assistant US Attorney William Pericak.
The disclosure capped off a grueling two-day turn on the stand in Albany for Stackrow, who on Monday admitted stealing money from personal accounts that Bruno relied on her to keep balanced.
Stackrow said she found treatment by the senator “demeaning” and “degrading” as she handled everything from his Christmas shopping to his business income taxes during her 24 years on the Senate payroll.
Bruno’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, attempted to counter Stackrow’s tales of woe by asking her to explain all the time off and promotions her gave her along with a six-figure salary.
Prosecutors say the former Republican legislative leader denied taxpayers of “honest services” by collecting $3.2 million in fees from groups that had business before the state. If convicted, Bruno could face 20 years.
Also testifying was former Senate ethics counsel Kenneth Redditt, who for more than a decade vetted and approved financial disclosure forms filed by Bruno.
Prosecutors attempted to use Redditt’s testimony to show how the senator and his aides concealed Bruno’s business ties by omitting key information from ethics filings.
Redditt also explained how he advised senators to hand-deliver ethics filings — not mail them — to avoid running afoul of the same mail-fraud law Bruno was charged under.
“You’ve got to find that extraordinary,” Judge Gary Sharpe joked. “Obviously, they didn’t do a very good job,” Lowell said.