By Thomas TracyAnd then there were seven.
David Rosen, the disgraced CEO of Brookdale Hospital has successfully severed himself from the federal case against state Sen. Carl Kruger and will go to trial in July — long before his alleged co-conspirators do.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff approved Rosen’s motions for a severance and a speedy trial in Manhattan federal court on April 29, but warned that the former hospital administrator wouldn’t be able to file any motions that would “allege a defect in the indictment” or the more than 100,000 documents and 30,000 recorded phone conversations that authorities say establish the case against Kruger (D–Brighton Beach), who is accused of taking close to $1 million in bribes from Rosen, lobbyist Richard Lipsky, Brooklyn developer Aaron Malinsky, and other hospital officials.
The payments were allegedly sent to Olympian Strategic Development Corporation, a fictitious company set up by Michael Turano, a Manhattan gynecologist who court papers say is not only Kruger’s business partner, but his bedroom one, too.
The FBI claims that Turano and Kruger used the money to pay the mortgage on a multi-million–dollar home on Basset Avenue in Mill Island that they share with Turano’s brother and mother, Dorothy — who is district manager of Community Board 18. Kruger also bought a Bentley for Michael Turano’s brother.
In the wide-sweeping indictment, federal prosecutors claim that Rosen, who led Brookdale Hospital’s parent company, MediSys Health Network, bought Kruger’s loyalty by hiring a hospice care company in which the legislator had a personal stake.
According to the complaint, Kruger used his clout in the Senate to “benefit MediSys and its constituent hospitals as the opportunities arose.”
Federal prosecutors would not disclose the name of the hospice company, but said the negotiations between Kruger and Rosen took place in 2008.
“Rosen caused Brookdale Hospital to negotiate business with a certain third party hospice care provider,” the federal complaint states. “Rosen knew that Kruger had a personal interest in obtaining business for the hospice company and Rosen was in the process of directing the business to the hospice company in exchange for Kruger’s favorable official actions.”
The shady contract was allegedly discussed when Rosen met with Kruger at Brookdale Hospital in August, 2007.
But the deal, which authorities say was hammered out a year later, was no secret: investigators say that they found an e-mail that Rosen sent to another MediSys executive regarding Kruger’s interest in a partnership between Brookdale Hospital and his hospice company. He also discussed the deal with former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D–Queens), who was also allegedly in Rosen’s pocket.
Rosen bought both Assemblyman William Boyland (D–Bedford Stuyvesant) and Seminerio with no-show consulting jobs, prosecutors claim.
Seminerio — who was convicted of taking bribes in 2009 and died in prison earlier this year — received a $40,000 a year consulting job with MediSys. Boyland, who worked in MediSys’s community affairs department before becoming a state legislator, was never terminated and continued to be paid by MediSys after he went to Albany, according to the allegation.
Once they were on the company’s payroll, both Boyland and Seminerio earmarked millions to Brookdale Hospital and the other companies under MediSys’s control.
MediSys, which has owned Brookdale University Hospital at the corner of Linden Boulevard and Rockaway Parkway since the late 1990s, fired Rosen following his arrest, replacing the executive with his second in command.
Since the indictment, several of Kruger’s co-defendants — including Turano — have been pushing to sever their case from the legislator’s, apparently believing they’ll have a better chance with a jury without Kruger’s alleged crimes dragging them down. Severing the cases would also improve a defendant’s chances of a plea deal as they approach trial.
Yet Robert Morvillo, Rosen’s attorney, said his client isn’t looking to hammer out a deal with prosecutors.
“I don’t think anyone is worried about that,” Morvillo said. “It’s our intention to go to trial, not to make a deal. We wanted a speedy trial and we are confident that we will be able to prove Mr. Rosen’s innocence.”
