Jurors heard wiretapped conversations between state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, at day 2 of their corruption trial. Bobby Cuza filed the following report.
It was last December, and Governor Andrew Cuomo had just announced his decision to ban hydrofracking.
Adam Skelos, who had a vested interest in fracking because of his job at an environmental technology firm, fumed to his dad, state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
"He's such a [expletive]. How do we beat him in an election?" Adam says. Dean replies: "We will. I'm going to run against him."
In another conversation, Adam questioned his dad's power-sharing arrangement with Bronx Senator Jeff Klein, head of the Independent Democratic Conference. Dean Skelos said the idea was to keep Klein and the rest of the Senate Democrats "at each other's throats," helping Republicans maintain power.
Prosecutors played the wiretapped conversations for jurors Wednesday. They say Dean Skelos strong-armed three companies with business before the state into giving Adam a series of mostly no-show jobs.
Chris Curcio, Adam's supervisor at one job, for a medical malpractice insurance firm, testified Wednesday that he kept a hand-written log of Adam's poor attendance. On January 8, 2013, for example, he wrote "Worked one hour. Went to lunch, never came back."
The defense, though, argued that Adam was busy taking a 99-hour training course and had an arrangement with the company's CEO, the politically connected Anthony Bonomo, to work just two days a week.
Queens Senator Tony Avella also took the stand Wednesday, describing Skelos' almost unchecked power as majority leader. He said if he'd known about Adam's jobs, he may have sought an investigation, calling it inappropriate and absolutely disgraceful.
The last witness Wednesday was Charles Dorego of the powerful real estate developer Glenwood Management, which also arranged work for Adam.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, who, of course, brought the case against Skelos and that against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, was in the courtroom for a second straight day Wednesday, watching testimony quietly from the back row. This trial resumes Thursday morning, with Charles Dorego back on the stand.