Crooked ex-pol Efrain Gonzalez Jr. was slapped with a seven-year prison term yesterday by a judge who slammed him for failing to show any remorse for the “venal acts” of looting two charities in a corruption scheme.
Manhattan federal Judge William Pauley III rejected defense arguments that the former Democratic Bronx state senator deserved the same sort of leniency shown one-time Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican who got just two years for peddling his influence through a consulting firm.
“You deprived your constituents of the scarce resources that could be allocated to help those in need,” said the judge, who also ordered Gonzalez to forfeit nearly $738,000 netted by his five-year scam.
The portly 62-year-old — who blew the cash on luxuries, including an upstate vacation home — rolled his eyes after being told to stand up and accept his punishment.
The disgraced ex-lawmaker said only, “Your Honor, I want to take this opportunity to apologize to my family, my friends and my communities. Thank you.”
Afterward, Gonzalez — who in February blamed his former attorney for making him plead guilty — refused to speak to reporters in English, but insisted in Spanish that he wanted a trial to prove his innocence.
“We Hispanics, we have to unite. It’s not fair what they’re doing to us. I feel like an illegal immigrant,” he said, according to a Spanish-speaking observer.