Posted on 12/17/2004 12:27:02 PM PST by ambrose
Kerik tied to lawyer indicted in mob gaming
Friday, December 17, 2004
By TOM TRONCONE STAFF WRITER
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik dated an attorney in the early 1990s who was indicted in a multimillion-dollar, mob-run gambling ring.
Kerik, a Paterson native, and Hackensack attorney Linda George split shortly before George and her estranged husband were indicted by a Passaic County grand jury on allegations they owned a Paterson cafe used from 1988 until 1993 as a video gaming den.
Prosecutors described the storefront as part of a $26 million-a-year organized-crime gambling ring. Kerik and George lived together in an East Rutherford town house bought by Kerik in 1994 after the pair had dated for several years, according to people familiar with the situation.
Neither George nor her estranged husband, Marcello Ferreira, was convicted in the politically tinged case, as prosecutors permitted their corporation to plead guilty to the charges and pay a fine.
Indicted with George in the case were several prominent reputed organized-crime figures, including Fortunato "Frank" Inzone, a felon who served time in federal prison for conspiring to import heroin in the famed New York City "Pizza Connection" case. Inzone received 18 months' probation in the gambling case.
Several Paterson police officers and a former Passaic County Prosecutor's Office investigator also were indicted.
A call to Kerik spokeswoman Sunny Mindell was not returned.
A source familiar with the situation told The Record that Kerik and George bought the town house together, but Kerik later moved out and into an apartment in the Bronx.
Mindell said last weekend that the pair agreed that George would continue to pay maintenance fees and the mortgage on the unit. When she stopped paying, the condominium association sued Kerik, and banks began foreclosure proceedings, Mindell said.
Copies of the civil suit filed by the condo association show a Bergen County judge issued a warrant for Kerik's arrest when he failed to appear in court.
The March 1995 indictment charged George and Ferreira with maintaining a gambling resort at The Spot, a cafe on Paterson's Cianci Street. Altogether, 34 defendants were named in the 149-count indictment.
It was not entirely clear Thursday how long Kerik and George dated. George has declined to discuss the relationship.
Several people familiar with their relationship said the pair dated in the "late '80s to early '90s." The relationship had ended by 1995, and Kerik married his current wife, Hala, in 1998.
Kerik was warden of the Passaic County Jail in 1986 before embarking on an eight-year stint as a New York Police Department narcotics officer.
His partner on the force was current Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale who, coincidentally, retains George as his private attorney.
Kerik joined the New York Corrections Department in 1994 and was appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1997 to the newly formed New York City Gambling Commission. In 2000, he became police commissioner.
George remains a Hackensack defense attorney.
Like Kerik, George withdrew her name from a nomination in recent days. George, a former Democratic aide in the state Senate and a friend of former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, had been nominated to the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission.
Kerik withdrew his name last Friday from consideration as the next U.S. homeland security chief, saying he employed a possible illegal immigrant as a nanny in his Franklin Lakes home.
Numerous other allegations and character questions have emerged since then, including reports alleging that he arranged high-paying jobs for his brother and a close friend at a Clifton construction firm long dogged by reputed ties to organized crime, from which he also allegedly received improper gifts.
There also were questionable stock-option windfalls, an inmate cigarette scandal and allegations of improperly using NYPD detectives to help research an autobiography.
A published report on Monday said that Kerik carried on extramarital affairs with two women, including the publisher of his autobiography, in a Battery Park City love nest.
E-mail: troncone@northjersey.com
Not that Kerik is not guility of all these things - but the liberal media (especially the NY Daily News) has hated Guiliani and Kerik since they were mayor and police commissioner. This is payback from the NY Daily News and NY democrats. This is not going away until Guiliani says he will not run in 2008. Then the NY liberal media will be satisfied because the have gotten what they want.
In sales, that is called a "big fat claim." It is quite effective, seriously, when you follow it up with evidence.
I admit I haven't followed this very closely, but all I am aware of is the old "hiring of an illegal alien" card being played against him.
He could be dirty. I don't know. I didn't really follow this that much and had heard he was sort of a "kid from the wrong side of the tracks makes good" sort of story.
Is there a lot of compelling stuff coming out about him?
The problem with today's reporters is that they do not know understand what they are reporting. Who qualifies these idiots to be reporters. It's a sad joke.
FLASH-Kerik beat up black kid in Grammar school. Details at eleven.
By the way - since when are we guilty through association in this country. I'm a real estate developer dealing with every trade group in the book. I know some of these guys are probably dirty but what am I supposed to do go out and get FBI checks on my garbage company owner. This is out of control.
Erik
I think anybody with a lenghty career in NYC is going to be covered from head to toe in pigeon droppings.
Oh, good grief! My daughter once dated a guy whose father was convicted of stealing from his clients. Maybe they could make something out of that. Can they not get over this?
"This Kerik character is like a political pinata"
Wonderful simile!!!
And so apt when it comes to this character.
I think this is a Democrat that dates other Democrats, this kind of stuff has to happen.
Why did President Bush nominate this guy?
Rudy may have great crossover appeal, but what do you plan to do about all those people in the red states (Republicans) that are no more thrilled with a liberal from N.Y. than a liberal from Mass and who will either sit at home or vote third party if they are given a choice between a Democrat or Republican liberal? Also remember that the "Reagan Democrats" and a big part of potential crossover voters are socially conservative (pro-life, pro-gun and anti-gay marriage, the opposite of Rudy) but economically liberal.
Birds of a feather stick together. Kerik was into making tons of money via political connections, illicit sex, hypocrisy, corruption, and playing up 9/11 to the Repukies' benefit. When a few reporters started asking questions, the nanny excuse was invented. What more do you need to know about why Bush was attracted to Kerik?
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