Here’s a bright bit of news: Crooked Albany pols may be getting only one one shot at having taxpayers cover their legal bills when they’re caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
To be specific, Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. (D-Brooklyn) received the bad news last week: Brooklyn federal Judge Sandra Townes rejected his request that taxpayers pick up the bill for his legal defense in his latest corruption trial.
Townes rightly noted that Boyland — who owns a $460,000 home and earns a $79,500 part-time salary plus a legislator per diem that brings in an additional $17,000 — should be able to afford his own attorney.
Of course, it’s understandable that Boyland would assume that he could get the public to pay for his legal defense in this trial, his second in as many years.
After all, the taxpayers were on the hook in last year’s federal trial — in which he beat a variety of pay-to-play and no-show-job charges.
The Manhattan federal judge who heard that case determined that taxpayers should subsidize Boyland’s defense.
Clearly, however, even that wasn’t enough, because Boyland ran afoul of the law again when he was taped soliciting $250,000 in bribes — supposedly to help pay lawyers in his first case.
(Seriously, such things could happen to anyone, right?)
Thank goodness Judge Townes saw fit to halt Boyland’s legal gravy train.
Had she ruled in his favor, the politician would get the idea that taxpayers should pay for each and every future trial.
Given that Boyland is averaging one federal indictment a year, it’s likely that there will be more to come.