Talk about getting in hot water!
A female aide to Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. is following in her boss’s footsteps — she allegedly demanded a cut from the bribes heading the Assemblyman’s way, and was arrested by federal authorities for it.
Last Thursday, federal prosecutors charged Ry-Ann Hermon, 33, with taking bribes — just two days after Boyland (D-Bedford Stuyvesant) was arrested — when investigators revealed that she had negotiated her own payoff from a group of undercover investigators claiming to be developers hoping to build in Boyland’s district.
The indictment filed in Brooklyn Federal Court states that Ryan took more than $2,000 in cash from the undercover operative, and talked openly about how bribes like this excited her.
“You just, like, made me hot,” Hermon allegedly told the undercover officer during one of several meetings, when the operative gave her $1,000 in cash as a “down payment.”
Hermon is facing 20-years in prison for soliciting bribes. She and her attorney refused to speak to reporters as she was released on $100,000 bail last week.
Boyland — who was just acquitted last month of taking a no-show job with Brookdale Hospital as payment for the millions in tax-payer dollars he steered to the hospital’s parent company, MediSys — was accused of soliciting $250,000 in bribes from the undercover agents, who were introduced to him by a local carnival operator working with the FBI.
U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch claims that Boyland solicited more than $250,000 in bribes as his first corruption case worked its way through the court system. Some of the money was going to pay for his legal team, he alleged, adding — on tape — that he had unfettered control over any legislative activity in his district.
“Everything here I’m in control of,” Boyland said, according to court papers. “I’m the politician. I’m the guy that can make that move over on this end, so we know the folks that can pull the triggers we’re looking for.”
Federal investigators said he didn’t want to accept the bribes personally — claiming that he had his own “bag man” for that explicit purpose — and that most of the bribes would go to the attorneys defending him in court.
“I have legal fees for this legal thing I have,” he was recorded as saying. “I have to get clear of these charges, but I have to come back in a larger sense.”
Boyland was released on $100,000 bond after he was arraigned on the new charges. His attorney, Michael K. Bachrach, said that he and his team “will fight the charges just as hard as we defended the last case.”
Rapist faces 57 years
A jury convicted a 43-year-old man of a decade-old rape on Dec. 1 — and it took them just over one hour to do it.
Court officials said that now-convicted rapist Adam Wright could face 57-years in jail for the rape that took place inside a Canarsie building back in 2001.
The jury was apparently spurred on to convict Wright after hearing the heart-wrenching testimony of his victim, who was 12 when prosecutors say Wright attacked her in a building elevator.
“[Wright] purposely exploited the naivety of a child, the trust of a child,” prosecutor Elizabeth Doerfler told jurors in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week. “You can finally hold the defendant accountable for the crimes he committed.”
The victim reported the rape, but never identified Wright. Wright was later arrested in 2008 after evidence collected from the rape was linked to his DNA on file from another arrest.
To the end, Wright, who acted as his own lawyer, claimed that he was the victim of a widespread conspiracy involving the police and several other city agencies.
Reach reporter Thomas Tracy at ttracy@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2525.
