US News

D.A.’S HUBBY GUILTY – 34 TIMES – PIRRO’S CAREER MAY GO DOWNHILL AFTER ALBERT’S TAX-FRAUD CONVICTION

Free-spending powerbroker Albert Pirro was convicted on all 34 counts at his tax evasion trial yesterday as his loyal wife – Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro – sat stunned and stone-faced in court.

The verdict threw the future of Westchester’s “golden couple” into doubt, and threatens to derail Jeanine’s once-brilliant political career.

Albert’s accountant brother, Anthony Pirro, also was convicted on numerous charges, including tax-evasion conspiracy. His wife, Donna, seated directly behind Jeanine, wept openly as the verdict was read.

Albert Pirro, a prominent businessman and Republican Party lobbyist, leaned against the table and showed little reaction as the jury foreman said “Guilty” over and over.

The White Plains federal jury found the high-flying Pirro cheated the tax man by falsely claiming $1.2 million of personal expenses like sports cars, vacations and expensive furniture as business deductions.

Pirro, who said he is considering an appeal, faces up to five years in prison, but the federal guidelines suggest a sentence of about three years.

His longtime personal assistant, Deborah Cain, who was forced to testify against him, rushed out of the courtroom weeping.

“I’m a little disappointed, surprised, disappointed,” Albert Pirro said quietly in the elevator after the verdict.

“Guys, I’m shell-shocked,” said his lawyer Gustave Newman.

Bracing for a phalanx of cameras outside the courthouse, Jeanine Pirro gently patted her husband’s cheek and straightened her hair.

Both vowed to continue their public lives – although DA Pirro would not say whether she would seek higher office.

“We don’t see this as the end, we see this as another stumble along the way,” Albert Pirro said outside court.

The trial painted Pirro, an influential lobbyist with ties to Gov. Pataki, as a big spender who wrote off everything from a $123,000 Ferrari to a pig pen as business costs.

Even after the total defeat at the hands of the jury, he maintained his innocence.

His wife vowed to continue on as the county’s top crime fighter despite her husband’s status as a newly minted felon.

Albert Pirro, 53, said the case brought against him by prosecutors Elliott Jacobson and Cathy Seibel was “without a doubt” politically motivated, and insisted it should not damage his wife’s reputation in any way.

Jeanine had been touted as a rising star in the state GOP, and the person most likely to replace Mayor Giuliani as the Republican candidate for Senate. But when Giuliani dropped out, her husband was still on trial, and the party chose Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio to challenge Hillary Rodham Clinton.