Former Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley, whose secret recording of powerful New York colleagues has shaken up the Albany statehouse, is going to prison for ripping off a taxpayer-funded nonprofit to pay for shopping sprees with a crony.
Huntley, 74, was sentenced yesterday to a year and a day in a federal penitentiary, followed by three years’ probation. She will also have to repay $87,700 to the educational nonprofit and $1,000 to the Port Authority for accepting a bribe from a business looking to expand rental space at JFK Airport.
“I regret deeply and apologize,” Huntley told Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein.
“It hurts me deeply to know that my mistakes have tarnished the good things I have done over the years,” said the South Ozone Park resident, who last fall lost the Democratic Senate primary after six years in office.
Weinstein scolded, “This is a special case of a member of the Legislature who has pleaded guilty to stealing funds allocated for the special purpose of aiding the children of the City of New York.”
Huntley’s sentencing came after disclosures that she wore a wire for federal investigators last year to tape six fellow state senators from New York City, a city councilman and two political operatives.
All but her former aide, Councilman Ruben Wills, remain under investigation by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
Among them are John Sampson, of Brooklyn, the former state Senate minority leader, who allegedly suggested she demand payment from the JFK business in exchange for the bribe — and who was arrested Monday on charges of stealing $440,000 from mortgage foreclosure escrow accounts he controlled.
Weinstein’s sentence for Huntley was less than the 18 to 24 months suggested by federal guidelines. Huntley, whose surrender date has yet to be determined, will be eligible for release after just 10 months.
Weinstein said he showed Huntley some leniency because of her advanced age and longtime volunteering and community service and the serious ailments facing her two surviving adult children.
But “a period of incarceration is necessary,” Weinstein said, because of “a strong need for the criminal law’s message: Those who use their elected positions to abuse the public trust and steal from the state and their constituents will go to jail.”
In March, Huntley was sentenced in Nassau County Supreme Court to five years’ probation for trying to cover up a $30,000 theft committed by her niece and a political aide from another nonprofit.
Yesterday, Huntley admitted conspiring to embezzle $87,700 from Parents Information Network, a group she founded in 1994.
Huntley used some of that money for shopping jaunts with her pal Vivian Cook, a Queens assemblywoman, the feds said.
Huntley’s lawyer, Sally Butler, in asking for a light sentence, highlighted the extensive cooperation Huntley gave the FBI about colleagues after being confronted about her crimes last year
“She was telling the FBI about corruption . . . and there was a lot of it. The FBI basically moved into her home,” said Butler, whose client secretly recorded visitors to her home at the direction of the feds.
Butler said that since that cooperation came to light last week, Huntley’s “family has been terrorized” by threatening phones calls and other harassment.
Additional reporting by Dana Sauchelli