Metro

Castro wore wire to save his own skin

FLIPPIN’ OUT: Disgraced Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who resigned yesterday, leaves home amid revelation he’s been cooperating with prosecutors since 2009. (
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State legislators better watch their back: Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro has been wearing a wire.

In a bombshell indictment handed down by the feds, it emerged that Castro — who resigned yesterday — was a key witness in the sting operation against fellow Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson.

Castro, elected to the Assembly in 2008, turned government witness while the state charged him in 2009 with a sealed perjury indictment connected to false statements he made regarding the large number of people who registered to vote from his Bronx apartment, sources said.

That secret perjury case was brought by Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson.

“The feds were holding the sealed indictment over his head. He cooperated to make it go away,” an insider familiar with the Castro case said.

“Politicians in The Bronx and the state legislators better hope they chose their words carefully and stayed away from white envelopes,” the source quipped.

The 2009 indictment said that Castro has agreed to “continue to cooperate with both the US attorney and Bronx DA’s Office and to resign his office with the New York state Assembly.”

Castro announced his resignation yesterday in a carefully worded statement released by his lawyer, Michael Farkas.

“On July 31, 2009, I was indicted by a Bronx County grand jury for committing perjury in a 2008 civil matter, held prior to my election to the Assembly. I appreciate the seriousness of my misconduct,” Castro said.

“Thereafter, I agreed to cooperate with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and, later, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, in conjunction with various investigations aimed at rooting out public corruption.”

“I continue to cooperate with state and federal authorities in this prosecution and in other investigations.”

Castro was embroiled in two civil cases in 2008 concerning voting irregularities during the September primary.

During questioning by the Bronx DA, he lied about the circumstances surrounding the number of people who registered to vote using his apartment’s address, sources said.

Johnson issued a sealed indictment, and that’s when Castro agreed to flip to help the feds root out political corruption.

Castro, a native of the Dominican Republican, worked his way up the political ladder.

He was chief of staff to former Manhattan Assemblyman and now state Sen. Adriano Espaillat and forged close ties with the Bronx Democratic power brokers.