The disgraced Bronx pol sat silently with his chin resting on his left hand as Chief Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska sentenced him for his January jury conviction on four counts of conspiracy and bribery in an alleged scheme to help four businessmen fast-track their projects and then propose legislation limiting future competitors.
Preska scolded Stevenson, 47, for committing a “betrayal of the responsibility bestowed” on him as an elected official but showed him compassion by praising his community work and expressing faith he’ll soon clean up his act.
“Mr. Stevenson, you are young man with a lot to give to your community,” she said. “I am sure you will do that upon your release.”
Minutes earlier, a choked-up Stevenson begged Preska, saying “please have mercy on me.”
“I am sorry it ever happened,” he said. “All I can do is plea to you to grant something not too harsh. I have a family.”
Stevenson, who was forced to relinquish his Assembly seat following his conviction, confided about how two decades ago he ran into former US Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and the two talked about him someday following his popular grandfather’s footsteps, former Assemblyman Eric Stevenson Sr.
“My only intention was to be my grandfather and serve my people,” he said. “I did my best. I did for the elderly. I do for the poor. I work hard.”
The pol’s lawyer Murray Richman asked Preska to sentence Stevenson to less than two years in prison, while prosecutors sought a roughly four- to five-year term.
Aftewards, Richman called the three-year sentence “fair.”
Richman said Stevenson was struggling financially when the businessmen offered him bribes representing about a third of his income. The four businessmen — Igor Belyansky, Rostislav Belyansky, Igor Tsimerman and David Binman – all copped plea deals in the case and their prison sentences range from 8 months to 2 years.
Richman argued that Stevenson shouldn’t get any more time the four men.
“They were rich and they were white,” Richman blurted out, suggesting it is wrong that his black client wasn’t offered as gracious a plea deal by the feds.
Preska, however, shot back by saying elected officials who accept bribes by law are held more culpable than those who pay them.
The feds in getting Stevenson convicted relied heavily on damning audio tapes and the word of Sigfredo Gonzalez, a former political operative with a long rap sheet who agreed to wear a wire to avoid significant jail time.
A highlight of the trial was when Gonzalez told wide-eyed jurors he once stopped recording for feds in an Albany hotel — where Stevenson allegedly accepted $5,000 in bribes — to privately enjoy a “b–w job” with a prostitute, which was paid for by the four businessmen.
Prosecutors during the trial said Stevenson made $3,400 in down payments to buy a 2003 Jaguar — only days after the feds claim Stevenson pocketed a $10,000 cash bribe.
They also talked about how Stevenson referred to bribes as “blessings” and vowed to send anyone who dared to record him breaking the law “to the cemetery.”
Stevenson was elected to the state Assembly in 2010 and re-elected two years later.