Over whiskey-soaked meetings in Atlantic City hotel suites and pricey New York steakhouses, disgraced Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. brazenly sold off the perks of his office for cash, prosecutors said Monday as his corruption trial opened in Brooklyn federal court.
The self-styled “King of Brooklyn” offered up everything from profitable real-estate development deals to street carnival permits in exchange for payola, according to the feds.
“This is a case about money and power and how the defendant, William Boyland Jr., abused that power to get money,” assistant US Attorney Robert Capers said.
Despite representing a lower-middle-class to poverty-level district in dire need of political vision, Boyland hungrily sought out personal benefit at the expense of his constituents, Capers said.
“He had the power to bring change to his community,” he said. “But all he wanted to do was get money.”
With his legal fees from a separate Manhattan case piling up, Boyland demanded $250,000 from an agent posing as a real-estate honcho in 2011 and promised access to a distressed property in return, prosecutors said.
The politician also stuck out his palm to another man posing as a carnival operator who wanted a permit for a lucrative Brownsville event, prosecutors allege.
The assemblyman even fleeced taxpayers by cashing in expense checks for Albany-related business that never took place, prosecutors said.
With seemingly scant options for a defense, Boyland’s attorney argued that her client wasn’t serious about his promises to undercover agents.
Nancy Ennis acknowledged to the jury that Boyland sought out financial help but never actually doled out the political favors he said he could deliver.
“Mr. Boyland thought he was playing the players,” Ennis argued. “If that’s a crime, it’s not one of the crimes charged here.”
Boyland allegedly hatched his schemes with his then-chief of staff and mistress, Ry-Ann Hermon.
She was arrested along with her former boss and has agreed to cooperate and testify against him after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
Hermon was once captured on tape cooing that her receipt of a $1,000 bribe was making her “hot.”
Boyland is trying to win his second criminal acquittal after he beat a corruption rap in Manhattan federal court in 2011.
He nearly pleaded guilty to his current raps but had an 11th-hour change of heart and opted to fight the charges against him.
Boyland faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.