A judge has declared a mistrial on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy and miscounduct against two former Nassau County legislators and a former North Hempstead executive in a trial concerning a plot to steer development of a New Cassel site toward a preferred developer in exchange for money.
Jurors had been stalemated on the verdicts since last week, returning , the latest one on Thursday, which had former legislator Patrick Williams guilty of two counts of fourth degree conspiracy and former North Hempstead Community Development Agency head Neville Mullings guilty of three charges including official misconduct.
Jurors had returned the final lists of guilty verdicts Monday at the in Mineola, which included fourth degree conspiracy to steal the project from other bidders against Williams. Corbin was hit with second-degree bribery and official misconduct for soliciting and accepting approximately $208,000 from developer Ranjan Batheja upon a continuing agreement and understanding that if such payments were made, Corbin’s vote, opinion, judgment, and action as a public servant would be influenced.
During testimony, Batheja had for several of the spaces in exchange for money to be paid by his architectural development firm.
The mistrial occured when one of the jurors asked to be excused for medical reasons, forcing Judge Alan Honorof to issue to mistrial ruling due to the fact that there were no further alternates to the jury.
Against Mullings, guilty decisions were rendered in fourth-degree conspiracy charges, official misconduct for agreeing to use his influence with the CDA Board to assure Hal Harris the award of three of the New Cassel sites with its attendant development rights and assisting Ramon Batista in preparation of his company’s first response to the New Cassel request for proposal submitted to the North Hempstead Community Development Agency.
Charges were dropped against former North Hempstead Building Commissioner David Wasserman in June.
“This trial concludes with one undeniable fact: that Roger Corbin, Patrick Williams, and Neville Mullings abused their positions to steal this project from the people of New Cassel for their own personal gain,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “Whether that meant bid-rigging, soliciting and receiving bribes, or the outright theft of taxpayer money, these men were not shy about taking what they wanted and their felony convictions were inevitable.”
