Friday, March 14, 2008

Quid pro quo caught on tape

Assemblywoman Diane M. Gordon wanted a house. She said so on the videotape played on Thursday, the opening day of her corruption trial in Brooklyn.


Videotape at Trial Shows Legislator Discussing Deal


She wanted a $500,000 house in a new gated community that a developer named Ranjan Batheja was planning at the edge of her district in eastern Brooklyn. And it couldn’t be just any house.

“Raj,” she says on the tape, “since I am the assemblywoman, I definitely need a detached home. I don’t need to be attached to anybody. Private. Detached, detached. Detached. You can make it happen. Raj, you can make it happen.”

If Mr. Batheja could make it happen, and could sell her the house for a dollar, Ms. Gordon said, she could help Mr. Batheja be named the developer of a vacant parcel of city-owned land in her district.

“We might be able to negotiate some, uh, one hand washes another hand,” Ms. Gordon says on the tape, which prosecutors said was made with a hidden camera in 2004 by Mr. Batheja, who was cooperating after being caught trying to bribe a building official. “Swapping stuff. Swapping some stuff here.”

That, in a nutshell, is the state’s case against Ms. Gordon, a four-term Democrat who is so popular in her district that she was overwhelmingly re-elected shortly after her indictment in 2006. There are many hours of videotape and audiotape to come in State Supreme Court, but quid pro quo is what the case boils down to.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nail this crooked pig of a pol's hide to the barn door
and let it rot in the sun! What damn arrogance!

She "doesn't need to be attached to anybody"....eh?

She's joined at the f----g hip with this developer
and probably many others !

Jail time must be part of any conviction
for any official if they get caught
with their pants (or skirt) down in a crooked deal !

That's the best deterrent for anyone
considering engaging in a future criminal act !

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time !

No more special deals for the privileged class
of corrupt legislators!

Put them in with the general pop
in some tough prison lock up
with the rest of the hardened criminals!

Anonymous said...

Yeah.....
put her in a house in a gated community....
"THE BIG HOUSE" !

Anonymous said...

Let her have her detached house. A cell that's unoccupied on both sides.

Let the developer have the cell across the corridor.

Anonymous said...

She is the best, the very best. She is JOB to the devil. Keep the FAITH.
(Was Homeless and was put in a mental health ER and labeled. Now I am the madwomen on the block, for the pimps.)
The innocent is the easy target. Too easy. Just taping. So easy.
Picking on the innocent(sleeping kids).
God Bless her always. Love you.
It take a woman to know how men are jealous of their glory.
Do the hard work lazy boy.