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Court Enforcers Gave 41g to Their Guy By Rich Calder City marshals shelled out more than $41,000 in campaign donations to Guy Velella during his final four years in office and the disgraced lawmaker was instrumental in passing a state law that made marshals richer, a Post investigation found. Velella, who quit the state Senate last year after pleading guilty to pocketing $137,000 in bribes to rig contracts, was a strong ally of city marshals. The Bronx Republican in 2003 introduced and helped push legislation through to significantly increase fees that marshals could charge in civil-court proceedings. Nearly all of the city's 36 marshals donated money to Velella at some point between 2000 and 2004, with contributions ranging from $500 to $2,200. "If there is a legislator trying to help the industry, you are going to try and help the legislator," said George Arzt, a spokesman for the New York City Marshals Association. He said marshals expected nothing in return for their largesse. Velella declined to be interviewed. His measure raised by $5 most fees charged in civil-court proceedings and allowed marshals and deputy sheriffs to raise fees for executing arrest orders, from $30 to $45. Unlike marshals, deputy sheriffs are city employees and don't get a cut of the debt and fees they collect. Velella Freed After Making Return Trip to Rikers By Sabrina Tavernise and
Rachel Metz Mr. Velella, 60, was released from Rikers Island at 9:30 a.m., on the final day of a one-year sentence for bribery conspiracy. He spent 182 days in jail - about six months - a sentence shortened in part by his release last fall by a little-known mayoral panel. Looking pale, Mr. Velella, who has prostate cancer, got out of the back seat of a blue sport utility vehicle outside his house in Morris Park, the Bronx, shortly after noon yesterday, and spoke briefly in a quiet voice to a throng of reporters. When asked how he was feeling, Mr. Velella replied, "Good, thank you." He was dressed in a gray button-down shirt, a black jacket and blue jeans, and was surrounded by about 10 friends and relatives. He said he had plans to go to the doctor to "get checked out on the cancer." "It's good to be home," he said, before disappearing behind the varnished wooden front door to his two-story brick house on Seminole Avenue. Mr. Velella's lawyer, Charles A. Stillman, described his client's health as "good," but said the details of his treatment were personal. So ended Mr. Velella's journey in and out of jail, which began last June, when he was sentenced for conspiring to take bribes from people seeking to do business with the state. His release by the panel on Sept. 28, just three months into his sentence, drew accusations of favoritism. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, embarrassed by the ensuing political uproar, dismissed the panel's members and appointed new ones. That panel then ordered Mr. Velella back to jail. His release began about 7:45 a.m., a Department of Correction official said. Jail officials checked his fingerprints, went over paperwork, and gave him back his clothes and other property, like money or jewelry. He left the area under the radar of a herd of reporters by boarding a private van service that operates between the island and Queens, instead of the city's Q101 bus, said a city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the details. The van dropped Mr. Velella in a place not designated for stopping, opposite a parking lot on the Queens side of the bridge to Rikers Island, and he scurried across the street into a waiting blue sport utility vehicle, which quickly sped away. Mr. Velella has no further probation or community service obligations, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. The office said it was still investigating the circumstances of his first release. Time off for good behavior contributed to Mr. Velella's reduced jail time. In Morris Park, residents remain fiercely loyal. Shortly after 9 a.m., two men in a black pickup truck drove past the reporters outside Mr. Velella's house and one of them shouted out the passenger side window, "No matter what, Guy's our guy." Some time later, a woman in a sport utility vehicle screamed: "Leave this guy alone. Let him just come home." Around noon, several people stood outside his door as if they were waiting for someone to open it. One of them yelled at reporters to get off the grass. Two groups of women left the house in the morning and drove away in two cars, about 15 minutes apart. One of them was carrying a baby. One friend, Samuel Zarcone, said he had attended an anniversary party for a mutual friend with the former senator, when he was released temporarily in the fall. "While I was at the party with him, he looked like he was O.K.," Mr. Zarcone said. But generally, he said, "I know he hasn't been feeling well, health-wise." Mr. Zarcone seemed to speak for the neighborhood when he said: "He's done a lot for the community. It's just time to move on." After Mr. Velella went inside, the activity around the house died down. A man who identified himself only as a lawyer came out of the house and answered a few quick questions from reporters as he walked away. "He's really just going to hang around in the house today," he said. Mr. Stillman said that Mr. Velella's first day of freedom would be "the first day of the rest of his life." As soon as he is out of the glare of flashbulbs, "Guy Velella will fade into history," he said. Mr. Velella is no longer allowed to practice law. He will draw an $80,000 annual pension. Guy's
Gonna Walk - Again By David Saltonstall
Official Taped in Velella Case Is Back at Work, as a Lobbyist By Michael Slackman February 8, 2005 A former top State Department of Transportation official, who was caught in a secretly recorded conversation saying he would give preferential treatment to a company linked to Guy J. Velella even if it cost taxpayers money, is back working in the corridors of the state government as a lobbyist and collecting a state pension of $87,128 a year. The former official, James B. Cantwell, retired four months after the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, announced the indictment of former State Senator Velella, Mr. Velella's father and two others in 2002 in a bribery scandal. In his news release and in court papers detailing the indictment of Mr. Vellela, Mr. Morgenthau cited the conversation that Mr. Cantwell, who at the time was general counsel to the Department of Transportation, had with a client of Mr. Velella's father, Vincent J. Velella. In the recorded conversation, Mr. Cantwell described how the department was "going much, much farther then we would ever go with any other contractor" to aid the company, which was being represented by Senator Velella's father. Mr. Cantwell did not know he was being recorded in the 1998 meeting. A few moments later, Mr. Cantwell told the client, "I mean, you know, quite frankly, I'm costing the taxpayers money by not going to the second bidder." Mr. Cantwell was never accused of any criminal wrongdoing, and there was never any suggestion he had taken money for his action. But by leaving state government when he did, he benefited, intentionally or not, from a provision in the law that effectively shields former employees from being charged with violations of the Code of Ethics of the State Public Officers Law - no matter what they did while in office. The state's highest court found in the mid-1990's that the law applies only to state employees - not former employees, said a spokesman for the State Ethics Commission, which is the agency responsible for enforcing provisions of the law. That reality was highlighted recently when the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, and the state inspector general, Jill Konviser-Levine, said in a report that a plan by the New York State Canal Corporation to sell the rights to develop private land along the Erie Canal was plagued by favoritism and illegal ethical lapses. The report said that the people linked to the misconduct were no longer employed by the state, so they could not be charged with ethical violations. "Everyone in the executive branch gets a 'get out of jail free' card - it's called retirement," said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, who has monitored state government activities for decades. Mr. Cantwell's case was never referred to the Ethics Commission, and he was never accused of violating the public officers' law. But his story helps illuminate the way Albany operates. Mr. Cantwell's appearance in the tape did not harm his relations with elected or appointed officials in the capital, and today he works as a lobbyist representing more than 20 special-interest clients. Mr. Cantwell declined through his employer, Ostroff, Hiffa & Associates, to discuss the matter. A law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Mr. Cantwell was never charged with any crime because he had essentially told investigators that the tape caught him telling a powerful senator what he wanted to hear, and that he did not actually take any official action because neither the senator nor the senator's father asked him to. The law enforcement official also said that Mr. Cantwell never knew that the senator was accepting bribes for exerting his influence. Mr. Cantwell told friends that he was retiring not because of the case but because it was time after more than 30 years in public service, and that the difference between his pension and his $127, 642 salary when he left was not enough reason to stay on the job. The Department of Transportation said yesterday that no wrongdoing had been found. "We take our responsibility to taxpayers very seriously, and are continually taking steps to assure the highest degree of accountability and oversight among all our employees and within the entire agency," said Jennifer Post, a spokeswoman for the department. She added that the contract was never awarded. In the Velella case, the former senator pleaded guilty charges of bribery conspiracy after he was charged with several instances of selling influence, including his father's efforts to aid a client who was in danger of losing a contract to paint a bridge in the Albany area. The client had submitted the lowest bid, but because of safety problems at other work sites was in danger of losing the bid. The contractor paid Mr. Velella's father's firm $5,000 and made $10,000 in political contributions in exchange for help winning back the contract, according to court papers. When the contractor and Vincent Velella went to Albany to meet with state officials - including Mr. Cantwell - the meeting was recorded with a hidden microphone worn by one of the participants. Mr. Cantwell explained in that meeting that he should give the contract to the second-lowest bidder, but that to avoid harming Mr. Velella's client he would simply reject all proposals and put the contract out for bid again, which gave the company another chance. Mr. Cantwell later said to friends that he had to take this approach because the contractor with the lowest bid could have taken legal action against the state to prevent it from going to the second bidder, and not because of pressure from the Velellas. But according to the recorded conversations, Mr. Cantwell gave Mr. Velella's client a different reason for his actions: "I did this because, because I have a great deal of respect for Vincent and for his son, and you're well represented on this and, quite frankly, I let my hair down a little too much." Velella a Man with No Appeal By Kenneth Lovett ALBANY Disgraced former state Sen. Guy Velella yesterday lost his final bid to get out of jail early. Without comment, the Court of Appeals the state's top court said it would not hear Velella's appeal, meaning the former Bronx political powerhouse-turned-jailbird will be locked up at Rikers Island until the spring. "We are obviously disappointed," his lawyer, Charles Stillman, said in a statement. "Mr. Velella will complete his sentence and looks forward to his freedom and the resumption of his life." With good behavior, Velella's projected release date is March 19, said city Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Antenen. Sentenced to a year in jail for conspiracy to commit bribery, Velella entered Rikers on June 21 but was released Sept. 28 by the Local Conditional Release Board. After a firestorm of controversy, the board's decision was reversed. Guy's Got
Tough Rap to Take By Barbara Ross Former State Sen. Guy Velella spent his second night back at Rikers Island yesterday, getting used to life behind bars again. But can he stomach the music? Velella and two co-defendants in his bribe conspiracy case were being kept in protective custody in a cellblock also occupied by hip hop star Jamal (Shyne) Barrow. Barrow, 25, is doing a 10-year stretch in state prison as the convicted triggerman in the 1999 nightclub shooting in which music mogul Sean (P. Diddy) Combs also was charged. Combs, who fled the club with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, was acquitted. Barrow, his young protιιgιι, was convicted and was recently moved from an upstate prison to Rikers so he can be available for a local court. Velella, 61, surrendered to the city Correction Department Monday afternoon, after a state appeals court ruled last week that onetime Republican powerbroker and four others granted early release by the Local Conditional Release Commission should be returned to jail because they were freed illegally. Correction Department spokesman Tom Antenen said Velella arrived at Rikers shortly after 5 p.m. Monday and dined on Salisbury steak, rice and tea before being examined by doctors and being issued regulation green shirts and pants that all inmates wear. It wasn't until 1:30 a.m. yesterday that Velella arrived at Rikers northern infirmary, where high profile inmates are housed in individual cells. Antenen described Velella as "a man of leisure," who enjoyed a breakfast of wheat flakes, a lunch of beef tacos and a dinner of chicken patties, gravy and rice. He also was allowed out for a brief exercise period. Today, he said, Velella will be assigned a prison job. He may have his first visitors tomorrow. Velella and Barrow, a rising star in hip hop until his conviction, have little in common except ties to the same Bronx lawyer, Murray Richman. Richman represented Barrow and Velella's elderly frail father, Vincent, who got five years' probation after his son admitted that he and his dad shook down contractors to hire the Velella family law firm to get and keep state jobs. New Shocker in Velella Release By David Seifman He's back behind bars now, but Guy Velella got the sweetest deal of any felon freed from Rikers Island by the little-known Local Conditional Release Commission. Records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Law show that only 10 inmates other than Velella and his two co-defendants got out of Rikers in 2002, 2003 and 2004 as a result of commission actions. The disgraced Bronx state senator was sprung by the commission on Sept. 28, just 100 days into a one-year sentence for conspiring to take bribes to rig state government contracts. Even considering the time he might have gotten off for good behavior, Velella was released at least five months early. The closest anyone came to getting that good a deal was Asharna Richards, 22, a first-time offender convicted of misdemeanor possession of a forged check, who walked out of Rikers 41/2 months early in 2002. In fact, a Department of Investigation report last month found that by the time the commission got around to reviewing some cases, the inmates had already finished serving their terms. The exclusive early-release club included Judith Smiley, a wheelchair-bound woman who got two months shaved from her six-month sentence for kidnapping her adoptive son. Disbarred lawyer Carl Mione, 71, won an early discharge on a grand-larceny conviction when his health started failing. He died two months later. For the most part, the others handed get-out-of-jail cards were in on minor drug crimes. In its report, the DOI determined that 116 inmates were judged eligible for early release by the commission since fiscal 2000 but only 13 actually took up the offer. Officials said most inmates decided to serve out their full terms, which were often close to the early-release dates, to avoid the requirement of further monitoring while on probation. Data on those released before 2000 isn't available because, officials said, the commission shredded its older files. Velella spent his first full day back in jail yesterday settling into an 8-by-6-foot cell in a maximum-security, protective custody unit reserved for high-notoriety inmates. Among those Velella may see in passing at the 11-man unit is 26-year-old rapper Shyne Jamal Barrow who is at Rikers temporarily while serving a 10-year sentence for firing his gun at a Midtown nightclub while partying with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Additional reporting by Laura Italiano http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/37326.htm Now He's Guy Jailella By Helen Peterson
Velella Snaps at Fotogs on Eve of Jail Trip By Lisa L. Colangelo
Going-to-jail Guy a Bad Santa By Angela Montefinise Former Bronx state Senator Guy Velella may be naughty, but it didn't stop him from playing Santa yesterday only 48 hours before his return trip to the slammer. Velella who's been ordered back to Rikers tomorrow to serve his time for taking bribes appeared outside his Bronx home for only a few minutes on Christmas Day, popping in to drop off a few gifts before heading out again. The embattled politico walked up to his house at around 3 p.m., dressed all in black, carrying a Bloomingdale's brown bag in one hand and a present wrapped in red and gold in the other. He stopped outside to greet a young couple who had just left the house, chatting for about five minutes. He then walked through the front door only to leave five minutes later empty-handed. He looked suspiciously at a Post photographer before quickly walking around the corner and disappearing. Velella, 60, has made himself scarce since his controversial release from Rikers Island on Sept. 28 only three months after the start of his one-year sentence for taking bribes from potential state contractors. New York City argued Velella was released illegally and prematurely by the Local Conditional Release Board a mayoral panel with the power to release inmates early. After an embarrassed Mayor Bloomberg replaced the members of the board, it ordered Velella back to jail in November. He was granted a reprieve
while his attorneys argued the board's decision in court, but last
Monday the state's highest court ordered Velella back to jail. He'll be handcuffed and shipped off to Rikers and the North Infirmary Command, where he served his previous 100 days. Velella pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in May, admitting he accepted bribes from contractors from 1995 to 2000. Prosecutors argued he took at least $137,000.
By Joe Mahoney ALBANY - Former Bronx Sen. Guy Velella is going back to jail on Monday after a state Court of Appeals judge nixed his bid to remain a free man. Velella, 60, has to turn himself in by 5 p.m. Monday, nearly three months after he was sprung from Rikers by an obscure city panel that can grant early releases to inmates. "I am obviously disappointed we did not get a stay," Charles Stillman, Velella's lawywer, said after Justice Carmen Ciparick refused to set aside a lower-court order requiring the once powerful city Republican to report to jail. But Velella will get still another crack at freedom, because Ciparick referred Velella's appeal to the full Court of Appeals, which is expected to meet again on Jan. 4. His return to Rikers is a victory for Mayor Bloomberg, who argued that Velella's release on Sept. 28 - just three months after he began serving a one-year sentence for a bribery conviction - was granted illegally. Stillman said that Velella, who is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, is "resigned" to his situation. Meanwhile, the Bronx Senate seat vacated by Velella in May will be filled next week when Jeff Klein, now a Democratic assemblyman, is sworn in. Political insiders said Republicans hoped Velella could overcome the scandal and run for his old seat in two years, but the flap over his release may have doomed any chance he would win another election. Velella Ball (& Chain) By Kenneth Lovett and Dareh
Gregorian Guy Velella will ring in the new year behind bars. The state's highest court dumped a lump of coal in the freed felon's Christmas stocking yesterday, refusing a request to keep the disgraced former state senator out of jail while it considers his case. Velella, 60, and four others were freed earlier this year by the obscure city Local Conditional Release Commission in a move the Department of Investigation and two courts have found was illegal. Velella had only served 100 days of his one-year sentence for taking kickbacks on state contracts when the board released him on Sept. 28, following pleas by his politically connected pals and his own sob stories about life behind bars. A reconstituted version of the LCRC ordered Velella and the others to go back to jail in November, but the five got reprieves from the courts that allowed them to remain free while they challenged the board's move. The state Appellate Division ruled against the powerful Republican this past Monday, ordering he and the others should go back to jail but not until Dec. 27. The Christmas bonus time was surprising, because each day Velella and the others are out of jail counts against their sentence. Velella is now taking his case to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. Lawyer Charles Stillman yesterday asked the Albany cou Judge Carmen Ciparek, a Democrat, denied the request, but put the case on the court calendar for Jan. 4, when the judges are expected to decide whether they will hear Velella's appeal. Velella, who'll return to Rikers Island, must turn himself in on Monday before 5 p.m. "We're obviously quite saddened by the decision," Stillman said. "Nevertheless, we are hopeful that the court will consider the case." Jeffrey Friedlander of the city Law Department said, "We appreciate that the judge allowed the Appellate Division's decision to be enforced." Velella, who is suffering from diabetes and prostate cancer, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy in a scheme to collect kickbacks from state contractors. After the Department of Investigation issued its report, Mayor Bloomberg replaced all of the members of the
Velella
to Return to Jail Monday By Sabrina Tavernise Former State Senator Guy J. Velella will have to return to jail on Monday, since a judge on New York's highest court rejected his request that he remain free while his lawyers continue to press his appeals in court. The decision, by Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick of the New York Court of Appeals, ended more than a month of legal wrangling over Mr. Velella's fate. He was released from jail in September by a mayoral panel, but that same panel - with all new members - ordered him back to Rikers Island after determining that his release was illegal. Thus the court fight. Mr. Velella is due to report by 5 p.m. on Monday to Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan, where he will be handcuffed and taken to Rikers Island. He will be served meatloaf, rice and steamed cabbage for dinner, a Correction Department spokesman said. A spokesman for the Court of Appeals said that Judge Ciparick's decision would apply only until the full court returned from recess in early January, when it could decide to take up Mr. Vellela's appeal. Even so, it is the first time Mr. Velella's return to jail has been imminent since the mayoral panel - the Local Conditional Release Board - set him free on Sept. 28, just three months into his one- year sentence in a bribery conspiracy case. His release provoked a whirlwind of criticism that embarrassed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Charles A. Stillman, Mr. Velella's lawyer, said yesterday, "We're saddened by today's decision." Still, "by placing it on the January calendar, the court has the opportunity to decide the important issues raised in this case." Lawyers for the city applauded the ruling. It was the third time a court had ruled in their favor in the case. In November, a Supreme Court justice, Lottie Wilkins, ruled that the panel had the power to order Mr. Velella back, and this week, an appeals court unanimously upheld that decision. "We appreciate that the judge allowed the Appellate Division's decision to be enforced," said Jeffrey D. Friedlander, a lawyer for the city, in a statement yesterday. Lawyers for the city have argued that the panel made a mistake when it released Mr. Velella. They say that it often acted without enough members present and that it let Mr. Velella reapply for release too soon after his previous application. After the outcry over Mr. Velella's release, Mr. Bloomberg replaced the members of the panel, and in November that newly reconstituted group ordered the former senator and four other people back to jail. The new panel cited a report by city investigators that there had been irregularities in the release process. That sudden reversal is at the heart of the objections raised by Mr. Velella's lawyers, who say that their client was simply following the panel's own rules in applying for his release. "There's something wrong with firing the people that let him out and hiring new people to then go ahead and send him back to jail," Mr. Stillman said. The court has agreed to consider whether to take Mr. Velella's case soon after it returns in January. But a quick decision would not necessarily mean that the court takes the case. The court accepted just 8.2 percent of applications for civil cases last year, the spokesman said. If the court rejects Mr. Velella's case, his lawyer could still appeal in federal court. If Mr. Velella is not granted relief in court, he will be eligible for release by the end of March. Mr. Velella served 100 days of his sentence at Rikers Island, from June to September, a spokesman for the Department of Correction said. His return by bus with other prisoners on Monday evening will be far different from his release. At that time, the president of the correction officers' union drove him to meet his family at a favorite Bronx restaurant. A spokesman for the department could not say whether Mr. Velella would take up his former job handing out candy, chips and toiletries to other inmates in the commissary at the North Infirmary Command, a 450-bed jail that is one of the oldest on Rikers Island, one that has housed John Gotti, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other celebrity inmates. Mr. Velella, who has been working several mornings a week in a soup kitchen since his release, understands yesterday's ruling "and is dealing with this," Mr. Stillman said. Junk Guy Jail Law: Mike By Stefan C. Friedman An obscure provision in the law that has allowed the clock to continue running on Guy Velella's jail sentence even as he's appealed his sentence from the comfort of his own home should be scrapped, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. Since being discharged by the Local Conditional Release Committee three months ago, Velella's one-year sentence has continued to wind down, even though his release was later deemed invalid by a reconstituted version of the LCRC. "You would think a common-sense law would stop the clock," Bloomberg said. "I think it's unfair." Bloomberg added that letting the clock run also puts "undue pressure on the courts." "You want [the courts] to take their time and make sure they consult case law, and think about it, and do what they think is appropriate," Bloomberg said. "It's hard to do when there's public outcry pushing them to do something expeditiously." On June 21, Velella was sentenced to a year on Rikers Island on charges stemming from a bribery scheme. But the disgraced former state senator was released on Sept. 28, just 100 days into his term. Two months later, after the original LCRC was disbanded and replaced following a scathing report from the city's Department of Investigation, Judge Lottie Wilkins ordered Velella and four others back to the big house. An appeals court agreed with Judge Wilkins in a decision Monday, and ordered Velella back to the pokey on Dec. 27. Guy Jail 'Break' By Dareh Gregorian Guy'll be home for Christmas?! Freed felon former state Sen. Guy Velella has been ordered to go back to jail but not until after Christmas weekend. A unanimous state appeals court yesterday found a city board's decision to release the crybaby crook and four other convicts was "illegal" but the five-judge panel also inexplicably ruled that they don't have to go back behind bars until Dec. 27. "This is astonishing. I've never seen anything like this guy," civil-rights lawyer Ron Kuby said of the once-powerful pol's latest reprieve since getting sprung from jail on Sept. 28. "Eventually, he'll have to spend some holiday behind bars maybe Martin Luther King Day or Presidents Day, maybe." The Christmas charity for Velella by the Appellate Division was especially surprising because every day Velella is out of jail counts toward his yearlong sentence meaning the judges essentially knocked another seven days off his prison term. Nevertheless, Velella lawyer Charles Stillman said: "We are deeply disappointed by the court's decision. It will not be a pleasant holiday for our clients." He said he will "seek relief" from the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. That court, however, rarely hears appeals on unanimous decisions. The Appellate Division decision upheld a Nov. 29 ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins that found the obscure city Local Conditional Release Commission acted illegally when it freed Velella, two of his co-conspirators and two other people while ignoring proper procedures. Velella, 60, who Stillman said is suffering from diabetes and prostate cancer, pleaded guilty earlier this year to felony conspiracy for a scheme to collect kickbacks from contractors doing business with the state. He began his one-year sentence on June 21 but was sprung by the LCRC on Sept. 28, following pleas from politically connected and powerful pals and his own crying fits and sob stories about how difficult his life was behind bars. After a Department of Investigation report found the board had acted improperly, Mayor Bloomberg had all the commission members replaced. The newly reconstituted commission then ordered Velella and the others to go back to jail, but they've been allowed to remain out while challenging that ruling in the courts. The reprieves have already greatly reduced the amount of jail time Velella was supposed to have served. Taking into account his "good time" the mandatory one-third of a sentence taken off for good behavior Velella would have originally had to serve 253 days behind bars. Now, because of the 90 days he's been able to spend out of jail that count against his sentence, he'll only have to serve approximately 181 days in the big house. Stillman is expected to try to knock that figure down even more by arguing that the days Velella's been out on supervised release should count toward his "good time" and yet another 30 days should come off his jail time. But city lawyers don't expect that argument to be successful. "I wouldn't be surprised if [Velella] tries to argue his Christmas dinner at home should count as 'good time,' " said Kuby, who complained the poor and not-powerful criminals he represents have never gotten the kind of breaks Velella has. Then again, he added, nobody else has, either. "In terms of both the whining and the corruption, it's hard to compare him to anybody else," Kuby said. "Who would have thought Martha Stewart would be a more stand- up convict than Guy Velella?" A spokesman for the city Department of Correction, Officer Ralph Smith, said the Velella Five are missing out by skipping the Christmas meal at Rikers. "It's a nice, big dinner," he said. "It's a meal both the inmates and the staff look forward to." Ex-State Senator Is Ordered Back to Jail By Sabrina Tavernise A New York state appeals court ruled yesterday that former State Senator Guy J. Velella and four other released inmates must return to jail next Monday, unanimously upholding a mayoral panel's order that their early release from Rikers Island was illegal. The ruling by five justices of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, First Department, appeared to give Mr. Velella little room to maneuver to stay out of jail. His lawyer, Charles A. Stillman, vowed to contest the decision before the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. But city lawyers noted that the back-to-jail order yesterday would stand unless a judge on that court agreed to take up Mr. Velella's case and grant him an interim stay for another appeal. One legal expert said there was only a slim chance of that happening. "We are deeply disappointed by the court's decision," Mr. Stillman said in a statement. "It will not be a pleasant holiday for our clients." City lawyers were elated, and viewed the court's unanimous ruling as the end to a months-long effort to return the former senator, who was convicted last May in a bribery conspiracy case, to Rikers Island. Mr. Velella's early release from prison by a mayoral panel after he had served just three months of a yearlong sentence ignited a storm of criticism that embarrassed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who said he had not even known of the panel's existence before it acted in the Velella case. Responding to the outcry, the mayor then dismissed the members of the panel and replaced them with new members who quickly ordered Mr. Velella back to jail after finding his release was illegal. That set off a flurry of legal maneuvering as lawyers for Mr. Velella and four others battled the order. Yesterday's ruling confirmed a decision by a lower court judge last month that the mayoral panel, the Local Conditional Release Commission, was right when it reversed itself and ordered Mr. Velella, who is 60, back to prison in November. The central question now is whether New York's highest court will grant Mr. Velella a stay, which would allow him to remain out of jail until the seven-member court decides on whether it will accept his case. The stay is important because Mr. Velella, with six months to go in his sentence, could spend the remainder of it waiting for the court to decide. The court takes an average of 59 days to decide whether to take up a civil case and, if it agrees, 259 days to issue a decision, a spokesman for the court said, citing statistics from 2003. Each day that passes - whether Mr. Velella is in or out of jail - is subtracted from his sentence, so if the court issues a stay, he will likely spend the rest of his sentence at his home in the Bronx, an outcome lawyers for the city have opposed. Vincent Martin Bonventre, a law professor at Albany Law School who studies the court, said he thought it unlikely that it would issue a stay and accept Mr. Velella's case. The court pays particular attention to issues of constitutionality, he said, and Mr. Velella's case is more about procedure than constitutional rights. However, the case is high-profile, and the court may decide that it should not be ignored for that reason, Mr. Bonventre said. The court accepted just 8.2 percent of applications for civil cases last year, said the court spokesman, Gary Spencer. "I would give it about a 30 percent chance," Mr. Bonventre said, regarding the likelihood of acceptance. "There doesn't seem to be any big issue here. The only thing that might persuade the court is that it's a high-profile case, and perhaps the state ought to get final word from the Court of Appeals on it." The city's lawyers have argued that the panel made a mistake when it released Mr. Velella in September. They say it had often acted without enough members present, and that it let Mr. Velella reapply for release too soon after he had made an earlier application. Lawyers for Mr. Velella say that the panel did not have the power to reverse itself, and that Mr. Velella simply followed instructions that it had laid out. The Court of Appeals is not currently in session, but Mr. Spencer said that an application for a stay made this week could be considered by an individual judge. Yesterday's ruling handed a second victory to the city. Jeffrey D. Friedlander, a lawyer for the city, praised the decision in a statement, saying that "the city is pleased that the Appellate Division, like the lower court, upheld" efforts by the panel "to perform its duties strictly in accordance with the law." In its decision, the court stated directly that Mr. Velella and the four other former inmates were illegally released. What is more, it stated that a government agency like the panel has the power to change a decision "on the grounds of a significant irregularity." Mr. Stillman will attempt to contest that in Albany. Reaction to the ruling was muted in Albany, where the Velella case has become something of an embarrassment to his allies. A spokesman for Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, had no comment. Todd E. Alhart, a spokesman for Gov. George E. Pataki, said, "We're not going to comment on individual cases, but we have confidence in the justice system." In Mr. Velella's Bronx neighborhood, Morris Park, neighbors simply shook their heads. "If he's going away, you should put the rest of the politicians away," said Anthony Nardi at Sorrento Pizzeria, across from Mr. Velella's district office. "They can sit in jail and play cards with our money." Janon Fisher and Michael Cooper contributed reporting for this article. Court Orders NY Politician to Return to Jail By Tom Perrotta A state appeals court yesterday ordered disgraced State Senator Guy J. Velella to return to prison on Dec. 27, saying in a terse opinion that his early release by a controversial commission was unlawful. The ruling by a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, was delivered just two business days after the court heard oral arguments on a day when the court usually does not deliver opinions. Mr. Velella, a prominent Republican who admitted taking $137,000 in bribes, had argued that the city's Local Conditional Release Commission did not have the authority to reverse its previous decision to release him. The First Department rejected that argument and said the commission had the authority to reverse a determination "on the ground of a significant irregularity." Mr. Velella's release was abnormal in that the commission considered it sooner than it should have, the court said. Charles Stillman of Stillman & Friedman, Mr. Velella's attorney, said he would seek to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals. Jeffrey D. Friedlander, first assistant corporation counsel, said in a statement: "The City appreciates the Court's thorough, expeditious and unanimous decision." The commission released Mr. Velella, 60, this summer after he had served three months of a 1- year sentence. The decision incited public outrage, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg soon forced the panel members to resign and appointed new ones.
Jail Judges Rip Guy and City Dareh Gregorian The fate of freed bribery felon Guy Velella is in the hands of five appeals court judges who yesterday hammered lawyers for the disgraced state senator and the city about his early jail release. Velella and four others who were sprung early by the city's Local Conditional Release Commission can stay out of jail until the Appellate Division rules on whether the board has the authority to jail them again. It's not known when the panel will rule. City lawyer Drake Colley urged the judges to rule quickly, noting that each day the five are out of jail is a day of their sentence that they won't have to serve. In court, the judges seemed skeptical of Velella lawyers' arguments that the newly reconstituted LCRC couldn't overrule the jail decision. "Doesn't it have the power to correct itself? . . . Isn't that an inherent power?" Justice David Friedman asked. Another justice, Andreas Colley, chastised the city for letting the LCRC "run amok." Velella In-law Is Out By David Seifman Guy Velella's son-in-law had better start cleaning out his desk at the Board of Standards and Appeals. Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that he won't reappoint Peter Caliendo when his six-year term on the zoning appeals panel ends Jan. 1. The mayor maintained that his decision had nothing to do with Caliendo's relationship to Velella, the disgraced former Bronx state senator whose early release from Rikers Island has created a firestorm. "What I've generally done is that when somebody that had been appointed by [a] previous administration runs out [his term], I tend to bring in somebody new that I've appointed," said Bloomberg. "I've always thought that change is good, as you know. I've been in favor of term limits . . . I would anticipate appointing somebody new, but not as a reflection on him or anybody else." Bloomberg concluded that it's generally a good idea to get "new blood." But nearly a dozen top Giuliani administration officials were held over when Bloomberg took over in 2002. They include Matthew Daus, chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, who has ties to the one of the few Democratic clubs to endorse Bloomberg in 2001; Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall; Correction Commissioner William Fraser; Housing Commissioner Jerilyn Perine and Housing Authority chief Tino Hernandez. Fraser and Perine have since left. Caliendo was named to his $127,000-a-year post by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani when Velella wielded considerable clout at City Hall and in Albany. Appointment to the board can be a sweet deal. The five commissioners are required to attend only 35 hearings, although the prep work can be time-consuming. And while three of the commissioners have to have professional licenses in engineering, architecture or planning, two don't. Caliendo fell into the latter category. The next development in the Velella saga comes Thursday, when the Appellate Division hears arguments on whether or not he should be returned to Rikers Island. Mike Holds Fate of Guy Kin's Cushy Job By David Seifman Guy Velella's son-in-law quietly holds a plum, $127,000-a-year job in city government and Mayor Bloomberg now has to decide if he'll keep it. The son-in-law, Peter Caliendo, has been collecting the hefty paycheck as a commissioner on the Board of Standards & Appeals for the past six years. But the term is up Jan. 1. And it's Bloomberg a severe critic of Velella's early release from Rikers Island who gets to say whether Caliendo remains or goes. If the mayor takes no action, Caliendo could stay until a replacement is named. "It's under review," said one administration official. The BSA has sweeping powers to overturn land-use decisions of the Buildings Department and other city agencies. The mayor appoints all five commissioners. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani named Caliendo at a time when the young man's father-in-law had enormous clout at City Hall and in Albany. Commissioners are required to attend only 35 hearings a year, although there's considerable paperwork that can easily make the job full-time. Insiders say Caliendo's performance has been less than impressive. "For the first year, he barely asked a question," one source said. Velella is currently battling to stay out of Rikers Island, where he was sentenced to a one-year term for taking bribes as a Bronx state senator to rig government contracts. His release after just 100 days made front-page headlines and led to a shake-up in the city commission that opened the jail doors. The Appellate Division will have a hearing this week on whether to uphold a lower-court ruling requiring Velella to return to jail. Earlier this year, Bloomberg made it clear he wasn't thrilled with the BSA he inherited. "This is a commission that I gather has been somewhat arbitrary," Bloomberg told a town-hall meeting in Greenwich Village in August. Earlier this year, the mayor installed his own chair, Meenakshi Srinivasan, and booted Giuliani appointee James Chin. But because Chin's term runs through July 10, 2007, he couldn't be fired, and continues to serve as a commissioner. Giuliani also named another
commissioner, Satish Babbar, whose term doesn't end until July 10,
2007. Velella Receives Treatment for Cancer of the Prostate By Michael Cooper and
Jennifer Steinhauer ALBANY - Former State Senator Guy J. Velella, who is waiting to learn whether an appeals court will order him back to jail this month to finish serving a bribery sentence, was treated for prostate cancer on Friday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, his lawyer said. Mr. Velella, who was a longtime Republican senator representing the Bronx and parts of Westchester before resigning this spring to plead guilty to conspiracy to accept bribes, received radioactive seed implants during an outpatient procedure, said his lawyer, Charles Stillman. "We're hopeful and anxious at the same time," Mr. Stillman said. The illness, and the treatment, are the latest twists in a year in which Mr. Velella saw his world turn upside down. After pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge, which stemmed from a case in which businesses seeking the senator's help in winning lucrative state contracts paid large sums of money to his father's law firm, Mr. Velella was sentenced in June to a year in jail. So he traded the gilded Senate chamber for a cell on Rikers Island. But he did not stay there long. In September, Mr. Velella was granted early release by an obscure mayoral panel. During the ensuing public outcry, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg replaced the members of the panel, which then ruled that his release was a mistake, and it ordered him back to jail. A State Supreme Court judge agreed last month, but Mr. Velella appealed the decision. Five judges on the court's Appellate Division are set to hear his case - and weigh his fate - next week. In the midst of the legal back and forth, Mr. Stillman announced that Mr. Velella had prostate cancer. The announcement was met with skepticism in some corners, possibly because defense lawyers had originally sought to keep Mr. Velella's father, Vincent, from being prosecuted on the grounds that he was old and sick. Vincent Velella was spared prosecution by his son's plea agreement. "Can't you hear the violins in the background?" an editorial in The New York Post asked. Friends of Mr. Velella's were outraged that his illness would be greeted with doubt instead of sympathy. "We were dismayed that people treated it as something that was maybe fabricated, or somehow designed to bring sympathy," said a friend who said that he spoke with Mr. Velella before he got his treatment yesterday. It is the same course of treatment Mr. Velella's old political ally Rudolph W. Giuliani received in 2000. Judge Orders Velella Jailed, Then Another Court Steps In
A judge ordered Guy J. Velella, the former state senator, back to jail yesterday, agreeing with the city that a mayoral panel was right to send him back. But just three hours later and with Mr. Velella's imprisonment looming, an appeals court allowed him to remain free until Dec. 16, when five judges will consider his case. The ruling ordering Mr. Velella back to jail, by Justice Lottie E. Wilkins of State Supreme Court, was an important symbolic victory for the city in a tortured case that has embarrassed the Bloomberg administration ever since that mayoral panel - albeit with different members - voted to release him in September. In her ruling yesterday, Judge Wilkins said that the panel, the Local Conditional Release Commission, was right when it reversed itself and ordered Mr. Velella back to prison last month. But lawyers for Mr. Velella moved quickly to appeal the ruling, and Justice Betty Weinberg Ellerin of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, First Department, granted him a temporary stay, until Dec. 16, when five judges will be convened to hear his case and also determine the fate of four others who have been ordered back to jail. "This has been a day of ups and downs and downs and ups," said Charles A. Stillman, a lawyer for Mr. Velella. He added that the former senator "is extremely grateful that the court is going to take the time to consider this important matter in his life." Meanwhile, every day that passes - whether he is in jail or out - is subtracted from Mr. Velella's sentence, said a spokesman for the Department of Correction. City lawyers have said that long legal proceedings could mean that Mr. Velella will spend the rest of his sentence at home, an outcome that they argue is unfair. "Every day they are at liberty is a day they will not have to serve," said Stephen Kitzinger, a lawyer for the city. Mr. Velella's jail experience began in June, when he was sentenced to a year for conspiring to accept bribes. He was released unexpectedly in September by the panel, stirring up a controversy that reached City Hall, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was forced to distance himself from the panel, although his office had appointed two of the four members. Mr. Bloomberg then forced the resignation of all four panel members in October and reconstituted the board by appointing five new members. That new panel ordered Mr. Velella and the two others who were sentenced with him - Manuel Gonzales and Hector Del Toro - back to prison. Two other inmates released this year, Kamala Stephens and Carlos Caba, were also ordered back. Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg indicated he might support eliminating the panel altogether, but reiterated his support for its decision to send Mr. Velella and the others back to prison. The newly formed panel issued its decision shortly after city legal investigators had determined that the previous panel had often acted without enough members present, and that it let Mr. Velella reapply for release too soon after he made an earlier application. As far as the treatment of Mr. Velella, Mr. Bloomberg said that "if you're ever going to err on the side of leniency it should not be with elected officials, because they represent to the public what should be a higher standard." Justice Wilkins, in her ruling, did not address the question of whether the former inmates deserved to be released, ruling instead on whether the panel had the right to reverse itself. Although no such right is spelled out in law, the panel has "implied legislative powers" that allow it to make such a decision, she wrote. "Because of its important public trust," Justice Wilkins wrote in the ruling, "and the serious potential that improper grants of conditional release may go unchallenged, it is essential" that the panel "can be counted on to police itself." After the ruling, released about 10 a.m., lawyers for Mr. Velella filed papers at State Supreme Court on Centre Street and then at the Appellate Division, at 25th Street and Madison Avenue, in a relay-style race through the court system. Time was of the essence, as Mr. Velella was due to report for prison by 5 p.m. yesterday. At the appeals court, Justice Ellerin, who was appointed to the court in 1985, said at a closed-door session that she granted the stay "to give the court a chance to review and study the matter," according to one person who was present. Justice Ellerin was assigned to Mr. Velella's case randomly, according to court clerks, as will be the panel of five judges who will hear his case. The panels are assembled and assigned cases by the senior court clerk, and lawyers are not allowed to choose which judges they want to hear their cases, court clerks said. The court's members are State Supreme Court Justices who have been appointed to the appellate bench by the governor. The five-judge panel will decide whether to extend the stay granted to Mr. Velella, and hear arguments by lawyers for both sides. The panel may not decide Mr. Velella's case on that day. Mr. Kitzinger said that lawyers for the city would bring the same arguments they made to Justice Wilkins to the appeal, namely that "the actions of the commission were not done in accordance with the law, and were therefore void. The releases were in error." Though the passing days are subtracted from Mr. Velella's sentence, they do not count toward the one-third time off for good behavior normally subtracted from inmates' sentences, the Department of Correction spokesman said. Lawyers for Mr. Velella were pleased at what they said was a second chance to show that the panel had no legal basis for reversing its own decision. "I'm pleased, I'm relieved," Mr. Stillman said. As for Mr. Velella, he is still putting in his hours of community service a few times a week in a soup kitchen. Mr. Stillman declined to say where Mr. Velella spent Thanksgiving or where he was yesterday. Justice Ellerin tightened his probation restrictions, Mr. Stillman said, requiring him to check in daily. "It's not as though they're out in a park," Mr. Stillman said. Jennifer Steinhauer and Janon Fisher contributed reporting for this article Guy Stalls Return to Pokey Again By Barbara Ross Former State Sen. Guy Velella's get out of jail card has been extended for at least two more weeks. Appellate Division Judge Betty Ellerin allowed Velella and four others to remain free pending a full hearing before a panel of five appellate judges. That ruling reversed a lower-court opinion given only hours earlier that Velella had to report to jail by 5 p.m. yesterday. "This has been a day of ups and downs, and downs and ups," said Velella's lawyer, Charles Stillman. Velella, a Bronx Republican serving a one-year sentence for taking bribes, was sprung from Rikers in late September after serving only three months. The decision by the Local Conditional Release Commission triggered a torrent of controversy, prompting Mayor Bloomberg to replace old commission members with new ones who rescinded the early release and ordered Velella back to jail. Velella was supposed to return to Rikers last week, but he went to court, arguing that the new commission did not have the legal authority to reverse itself unless he violated the terms of his release, which he had not. Yesterday morning, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins upheld the commission's vote to rescind freedom. Defense lawyers took their case to the Appellate Division, where Ellerin issued her ruling after a closed-door hearing. While Velella is out, the clock on his sentence keeps ticking - so each day he's out is one fewer day he has to serve behind bars. Velella Wins Court Duel By Dareh Gregorian Talk about revolving-door justice: Hours after one judge ruled Guy Velella should go back to jail, another decided the former state senator can stay out for at least another 21/2 weeks. "It's been a day of ups and downs, downs and ups," Velella lawyer Charles Stillman said after Appellate Division Justice Betty Ellerin ruled the former Republican bigwig and four other convicts can stay out of jail at least until their appeal is heard by a panel of judges Dec. 16. The five were sprung early by the scandal-scarred Local Conditional Release Commission, sparking outrage and a city probe that concluded they were freed illegally. Stillman said his client was "relieved" and "extremely grateful" for the extra time, which he planned to use to get treatment for his recently diagnosed prostate cancer. Ellerin issued her stay about four hours after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins ruled that Velella, co-conspirators Hector Del Toro and Manuel Gonzalez, and two other prisoners would have to turn themselves in to go back to Rikers Island by 5 p.m. yesterday. "The New York City Local Conditional Release Commission and the Department of Correction acted properly on Nov. 19, 2004, when they found the previous action of the commission to be invalid," Wilkins said, referring to the newly reconstituted commission's decision to send the five back to jail. They were sprung in September by the previous incarnation of the commission after its board used what the city Department of Investigation later found were "illegal" and "invalid" procedures. Mayor Bloomberg then replaced the entire board. Wilkins had allowed Velella and the others to remain out while she weighed their arguments that their releases were on the up-and-up, but ordered them back in to the slammer after finding the new board acted properly. Their lawyers then headed up to the Appellate Division, where Stillman convinced Ellerin to allow the five to remain free until their case can be heard by a full five-judge panel. Lawyers for the city argued against the move, contending the clock on their prison sentences is continuing to run. "We believe every day they are at liberty is another day they don't have to serve," said Stephen Klitzinger. Additional reporting by David Seifman Judge Orders Ex-State Senator Back to Jail By the Associated Press NEW YORK -- A judge ordered former state Sen. Guy Velella and four others to return to jail on Monday, but the defense promised an immediate appeal. State Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins denied a defense request for a delay. In a 12-page ruling, she ordered Velella, his two co-defendants and two others to surrender by 5 p.m. Monday. "We are disappointed but undaunted," said Velella's attorney, Charles Stillman, adding that he would go before the Appellate Division later Monday. Velella, 60, a once-powerful Republican, was imprisoned after admitting his role in a lucrative bribery scheme. The Local Conditional Release Commission ruled that Velella and his co-defendants were freed illegally in September after serving about three months of a one-year sentence. After the Velella release became public, Mayor Michael Bloomberg forced the members of the commission to resign and appointed a new panel. Velella, a Bronx political leader and state senator for 28 years, has prostate cancer, diabetes and other physical ailments, as well as stress-related emotional problems, according to Stillman. Stillman asked the court to grant protective custody for Velella if he loses his bid to stay out of jail. He had asked the court to delay the jail order until 5 p.m. Tuesday. In refusing, the judge remarked, "I'm sure the Appellate Division, like myself, has been anticipating this." Velella, his 90-year-old father Vincent, and two other co-defendants -- Hector Del Toro and Manuel Gonzalez -- were indicted in May 2002 in a bribery scheme. In a deal with prosecutors that spared his father a trial and risk of jail, Velella admitted that he accepted at least $137,000 in bribes from contractors from 1995 through June 2000. Del Toro, 52, of Mount Vernon, former vice president of the state Housing Finance Agency, was sentenced to nine months in jail. Manuel Gonzalez, 67, a consultant for social service centers in the Bronx, was sentenced to eight months. Wilkins' ruling stated: "The New York City Local Conditional Release Commission and the Department of Correction acted properly on Nov. 19, 2004, when they found the previous action of the commission to be invalid." Guy Gets 2 Months of Jail Credit for 'Free' By Stefan C. Friedman The two months Guy Velella spent outside jail on conditional release counts toward his sentence meaning the disgraced former state senator could be out of jail as early as the first week of March should he be sent back to the slammer today. The clock kept ticking away on Velella's one-year sentence when the Local Conditional Release Commission let him out of jail even though his early release was later deemed invalid by the reformed panel. "He's on probation status," a Department of Correction source told The Post. "So his time out counts toward his sentence." The Republican Bronx pol began serving his 365-day sentence stemming from charges of bribery on June 21. But after serving just 100 days, Velella was discharged on Sept. 28 by the LCRC, a largely unknown panel that was disbanded amid an uproar stemming from his early release. The reconstituted panel voided the release earlier this month, calling it "invalid," and ordering Velella back to the clink. Judge Lottie Wilkins will decide today whether or not Velella will return to Rikers. Guy'll Be Home for Christmas? Not this One, Sez Judge The Associated Press A judge ordered former state Sen. Guy Velella and four others to return to jail on Monday, but the defense promised an immediate appeal. State Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins denied a defense request for a delay. In a 12-page ruling, she ordered Velella, two co-defendants and two others to surrender by 5 p.m. Monday. Velella, 60, a once-powerful Republican, was imprisoned for three months after admitting his role in a lucrative bribery scheme. The Local Conditional Release Commission ruled that Velella and his co-defendants were freed illegally in September after serving about three months of a one-year sentence. Velella, a Bronx political leader and state senator for 28 years, has prostate cancer, diabetes and other physical ailments, as well as stress-related emotional problems, according to his lawyer, Charles Stillman. Velella, his 90-year-old father Vincent, and two other co-defendants Hector Del Toro and Manuel Gonzalez were indicted in May 2002 in a bribery scheme. In a deal with prosecutors that spared his father a trial and risk of jail, Velella admitted that he accepted at least $137,000 in bribes from contractors from 1995 through June 2000. Del Toro, 52, of Mount
Vernon, former vice president of the state Housing Finance Agency,
was sentenced to nine months in jail. Manuel Gonzalez, 67, a
consultant for social service centers in the Bronx, was sentenced to
eight months. Velella Case Could Send Four Others Back to Jail By Jennifer Steinhauer Carlos Caba and Kamala Stephens have never met former State Senator Guy J. Velella. Until recently, they knew nothing about his celebrated tenure as a powerful Bronx rainmaker, or his humiliating fall from grace when he was convicted of conspiracy to accept bribes. Indeed, neither had even heard of the man until recently. But their fates would become intrinsically linked: when a mayoral panel granted Mr. Velella release from jail three months into a yearlong sentence, it prompted such fierce criticism that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg replaced all the panel's members. And that newly reconstituted board voted to return not only Mr. Velella to jail, but the four others it had released over the last year, including Mr. Caba and Ms. Stephens. The fate of the two is, in some ways, a tale of the unforeseen consequences of a municipal scandal. Mr. Caba and Ms. Stephens were petty criminals, two of thousands whose transgressions landed them in city jails. But the mayoral panel's original members found their cases compelling enough that they granted them release from Rikers Island before their yearlong sentences were up, and the two went on trying to put their lives back together. But now, they may be headed back to jail on Monday along with Mr. Velella and two others convicted with him. Mr. Caba and Ms. Stephens were two of five people released from jail this year by the Local Conditional Release Commission, a once-obscure mayoral panel that considers which of the thousands of inmates placed in city jails each year should be released early. Mr. Caba, 22, was arrested in October 2003 when he was caught carrying a bag of amphetamines near his apartment in upper Manhattan. He was convicted of criminal possession of a controlled substance and began to serve a one-year term at Rikers. Four and half months into his sentence, he found out that the release board was considering him for release, and he filed the needed papers. Unlike Mr. Velella, who made tearful calls to the board complaining of his fate almost from the day he was incarcerated, Mr. Caba was resigned to his fate, said his lawyer, William D. Gibney of the Legal Aid Society. "I don't think his release was based on his adjustment to Rikers," Mr. Gibney said, "I think it was based much more on his mother's health conditions." Mr. Caba's mother, Candida Nieves, has a rare autoimmune disease that limits her vision and leaves her in constant pain, and Mr. Caba, who agreed to be interviewed but then did not show up yesterday, spends much of his time caring for her, Mr. Gibney said. He works part time for his building superintendent doing sheetrock projects, and attends the Katharine Gibbs School, where he studies computers, his lawyer said. It was only a week ago, after weeks of media attention to Mr. Velella's case, that Mr. Caba got wind of his own entanglement in the scandal, when he received a letter saying he had until Monday to turn himself in. Even when he received notice that he had to reapply, he was not overly concerned. Mr. Gibney said, "The people at probation downplayed the seriousness of it. They said, 'Don't worry, they're going after the big fish.' " Mr. Caba nearly escaped the fate of the other four. The panel voted three to two to send him back to jail, while it voted unanimously to send the four others back. In their first public meeting, the panel's new members seemed loath to be in the position of second-guessing the sentencing judges. In papers filed to Mr. Gibney, the board members wrote, "He has presented no compelling reason to persuade us that he deserves any leniency from this commission." Ms. Stephens, 28, who declined to be interviewed, was also trying to put her crime behind her, her lawyer said. Convicted of petty larceny after using her boss's credit card, she was sent to Rikers last March. Her 5-year-old son went to live with her mother in Florida, and she was prepared to do her time, said her lawyer, Daniel Ferreira, until she got a call from Eileen Sullivan, the release commission's director, telling her that she had been selected for early release. Ms. Sullivan may not have been aware that Ms. Stephens had been convicted 10 years ago, when she was a teenager, on a minor drug offense. According to the guidelines the old board operated under, those with prior convictions would not be considered for early release. Ms. Stephens was released four months and two days into her sentence, and has about five weeks left to serve. But in those five weeks, the college courses she is taking would be jettisoned, her job as a wardrobe coordinator for music videos lost, and her son with whom she had begun to reconnect with would likely be sent back to Florida, her lawyer said. In the view of Mr. Ferreira, who is working on Ms. Stephens's case pro bono out of pity, his client illustrates the intended purpose of the board, which is to reduce prison crowding by releasing deserving inmates. Ms. Stephens first learned that she might be sent back when she was notified that she had to resubmit her application for release, and her probation officer reapplied for her. "She is doing everything she has to do," Mr. Ferreira said. "She has never missed a probation appointment; there are no new arrests and no new troubles." Just two hours before Mr. Velella and the four others were to return to jail on Monday, Justice Lottie E. Wilkins, a State Supreme Court judge, said she would take another week to consider whether the newly reconstituted panel acted legally in ordering them back to jail. Guy's Jailhouse Return Delayed By Dareh Gregorian and
Stephanie Gaskell Guy Velella won a last-minute reprieve yesterday when a state judge delayed for one week the order that would have sent the once-powerful state senator back to jail. "This will be a nice Thanksgiving in the Velella household," said his lawyer, Charles Stillman. Stillman said he spoke with his client, who was "relieved" by the ruling, which came two hours before Velella was scheduled to surrender to authorities. State Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the surrender and said she would rule by next Monday on the complex legal issue concerning the release of Velella and four other former convicts by a controversial commission. Lawyers for both the city and the defendants were pleased by the delay. Velella was set free Sept. 28 after serving just three months of a one-year sentence for bribery. But amid a firestorm of criticism of the body that sprang him, the Local Conditional Release Commission, Mayor Bloomberg reconstituted the panel. A city probe found the commission had acted illegally when it let Velella and his cronies go free. On Friday, the new panel ordered Velella, his two co-conspirators, Hector Del Toro and Manny Gonzalez, and two others unconnected to the case who had also been released early by the old panel to surrender by 5 p.m. yesterday and be returned to Rikers Island. At a hearing yesterday, Stillman appealed to Wilkins, saying there were "serious issues in our favor" that should be heard before anyone is ordered back to jail. He said Velella "was released by a legally constituted board" that then "got fired." Stillman said that if Velella and his co-conspirators are ordered back and a court later finds in their favor on the legal issue "How do we make that up to them?" But the city argued that the clock on the defendants' sentences is running. If it takes a month to resolve the thorny legal issue while the former prisoners remain free that would be one month they never have to serve, the city said. "Every day they remain at liberty will count against their sentence," city attorney Paula Van Meter argued. Stillman said the defendants would agree to stop the clock on their sentences while the underlying legal issues are resolved, but the city said the agreement would not be valid. Guy Escapes Being a Turkey Day Jailbird By Barbara Ross A Manhattan judge gave the disgraced Bronx Republican a week-long reprieve yesterday as she decides whether to ship him back to Rikers to finish his one-year sentence for taking bribes. "He was relieved," his lawyer, Charles Stillman, said after the hearing. "Although potentially temporary, at least it'll be a nice Thanksgiving for the Velella household - as nice as it can be under the circumstances." An obscure city panel made the controversial decision to spring Velella from Rikers Sept. 29, after he had served just 100 days of a year-long term for taking $137,000 in kickbacks. In the ensuing backlash, each member of the Local Conditional Release Commission was forced to resign by Mayor Bloomberg. The newly configured board yanked the fallen pol's get-out-of-jail-free card Friday and ordered him and four others who won early releases back to the clink by 5 p.m. yesterday. Velella - who was not in court yesterday - appealed the decision to Supreme Court Justice Lottie Wilkins. She said she will rule on the legality of the new panel's decision by Monday. City lawyers said the convicts belong behind bars while Wilkins decides their fates, arguing their jail terms technically could be reduced by the amount of time they are free. "Every day that passes by is one day that takes away from their sentence," Deputy Corporation Counsel Stephen Kitzinger said. The defense lawyers disagreed, but offered to have their clients sign statements saying they would "stop the clock" and serve every day of their sentences if they were free until Wilkins rules. Velella, who was diagnosed last week with prostate cancer, was to decide this week whether to go for radiation treatment or surgery, Stillman said. Co-defendant Manuel Gonzalez also has cancer, his lawyer said. Guy Will Fight for Freedom By Stephanie Gaskell and
Tatiana Deligiannakis Has prostate cancer. Former state Sen. Guy Velella isn't going quietly back to jail today. Instead, he'll head to court this morning to fight an order by the Local Conditional Release Board to go back to Rikers Island. Velella's attorney, Charles Stillman, told The Post that he would ask a judge and keep his client out of jail while he fights the order in court. Velella was set free Sept. 28 after serving just three months of a one-year sentence for bribery. The board that released him was dismissed after the city's Department of Investigation found that Velella was freed illegally. Mayor Bloomberg quickly replaced the board with five new members. On Friday, the new board voted to send Velella and two co-conspirators, Manny Gonzalez and Hector Del Toro, back to the slammer. The three have until 5 p.m. today to surrender to authorities at 100 Centre St. From there, they would be transferred back to Rikers Island where they would again go through standard admitting procedures, including psychological tests and a security evaluation. There was no sign of Velella, 60, at his Bronx home yesterday. The shades were drawn all day but several family members, including his wife, Pamela, could be seen coming and going. Immediately after Friday's decision, Stillman announced that Velella has prostate Velella's Weekend Getaway By Joe Mcgurk and Stefan C.
Friedman Former State Sen. Guy Velella, facing a trip back to a Rikers Island jail cell in just two days, emerged from his Bronx home yesterday to take a spin in his neighbor's luxury car. The disgraced 60-year- old pol suffering from prostate cancer, according to his attorney was seen in the passenger seat of his neighbor's Jaguar, as the duo left the Morris Park area shortly before noon. Although the neighbor returned a short time later, Velella was not in the car. He hadn't returned home by the time the sun set on what might be his second-to-last full day of freedom. On Friday, Velella was ordered to return to jail less than two months after a little-known city panel illegally set him free after just 100 days of a one-year sentence for taking bribes. The newly reconstituted Local Conditional Release Board found that his earlier release was "invalid." Velella must report to 100 Centre St. tomorrow at 5 p.m. to be taken back to Rikers unless a judge grants a stay earlier in the day. Although one source close to the board proceedings questioned why the 28-year state senator was allowed to avoid jail for the weekend, a Correction Department spokesman said that his agency was simply following the law. "We had to allow for sufficient time for the parties to receive official notice," said Tom Antenen.
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The
little-known commission that released former State
Senator Guy J. Velella from jail most likely violated
state law by voting without enough of its members
present, an informal practice that it apparently
followed for years, according to a City Council report
released yesterday.
Several people who were asked to write letters of
support for Guy J. Velella now say they had no idea his
lawyers were going to use those letters to help Mr.
Velella get out of jail after serving only a fraction of
his sentence. 
ALBANY
Disgraced former Bronx state Sen. Guy Velella got an
extra $10,000 sweetheart "lulu" payment late last week
even though he's serving a year on Rikers Island for
soliciting a bribe, The Post has learned. 
He
didn't apologize; he didn't elaborate. 
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A Feast
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