Embattled City Councilman Larry Seabrook wants to keep prosecutors from referring to their star witness as his “girlfriend” at his upcoming retrial on corruption charges.
In court papers filed today, Seabrook’s lawyers demanded an “offer of proof” that Gloria Jones-Grant “was indeed the ‘girlfriend’ of Councilman Seabrook during the time period relevant to the indictment.”
The feds contend that Jones-Grant paid Seabrook kickbacks for getting her a series of jobs, including at non-profits he funded with $1.2 million in council “slush” funds.
The Manhattan federal-court filing claims that “the evidence adduced at the first trial was devoid of proof of any relationship other than platonic friend” and that they didn’t have “a relationship to which all of the connotations which flow from the term ‘girlfriend’ would be appropriate.
“The government attempts to disparage Ms. Jones Grant by referring to her as ‘girlfriend’ and to pejoratively portray her to the jury as someone who was unqualified for the positions she held other than by way of being the ‘girlfriend’ of Councilman Seabrook,” lawyers Anthony Ricco and Ed Wilford wrote.
Jones-Grant testified under court order last year that she had an “intimate relationship” with the Bronx Democrat between 2004 and 2007 and that she was still “in touch” with the married pol two or three times a week.
She also testified that she was suffering the “onset of dementia.”
Seabrook’s trial last year ended in a hung jury, and a retrial is set for June 19.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office had no comment.