Everyday is Halloween at State Senator's and his sister's house

NY Post 

Neighbors say they’ve been creeped out for months by an apparent concrete and plaster “art installation” in the front yard of a Brooklyn row house owned by the sister of state Sen. Kevin Parker, who lives right across the street.

Since last December, the front yard to the two-story brick home on Avenue H in Flatlands has been an ever-evolving of construction of garbage, tree limbs and odd sculptures of painted plaster, cement and aluminum foil.

“It has nothing to do with Halloween,” one rattled neighbor told The Post. “For Halloween, it’s OK, but it’s been there much longer than that.”

“Maybe to them it’s art,” another neighbor guessed.

A half-dozen neighbors reached by The Post said they are wary of complaining, given the residents’ macabre decorating sense, which they variously described as “creepy,” “terrible,” “an eyesore” and “scary.”

“A lot of people are very, very afraid of that house — I mean, honestly, I walk on the other side of the street or I don’t go down there at all,” said one person who lives in the area — and who asked not to be named or even referred to by gender. (!!!)

NY Post 

The Brooklyn home with a garbage pile “art installation” on the front lawn that’s been creeping out neighbors for months is partially owned by state Sen. Kevin Parker, records show.

The two-story blight, found on Avenue H in Flatlands, is owned by Parker’s sister but it turns out the pol has a 50% stake in the property, his most recent financial disclosure records from 2019 show.

Lawmakers are required to submit the disclosures to the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which publishes the records on their website.

Buried on page 17 of the form is a section where lawmakers must disclose properties they own and it shows Parker listed the Avenue H monstrosity and wrote he had 50% ownership.

6-year old tweeding effort exposed

From the Daily News:

State Sen. Kevin Parker’s mother got a $32,150 taxpayer-funded grant to fix up the Flatbush home he owns with her — money that was funneled to her by a nonprofit group pervy pol Vito Lopez founded and controlled.

Georgie Parker got the money in 2012 to fix the roof and replace the windows and gutters in the four-bedroom home she co-owned with her son, who also lived there.

Records show the grant came from the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which in turn got the money from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s Main Street Program.

Ridgewood was founded by Lopez, the longtime state assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic party boss who was accused of sexually harassing legislative employees. Lopez died in 2015. The nonprofit is now called RiseBoro Community Partnership.

Georgie Parker signed the paperwork for the $32,150 grant on Aug. 28, 2012, just a few days after the state Assembly voted to censure Lopez and strip him of his powerful housing committee chairmanship over the harassment allegations.

Lopez ultimately resigned in 2013 after reports surfaced that the state had paid confidential settlements to two of his accusers.

Lopez and Kevin Parker supported one another during their rocky political careers.

Finally, an honest tweeder

From the Daily News:

Controversial state Sen. Kevin Parker has raised eyebrows yet again with a fund-raising invitation that boasts: "I help you. You help me.”

"It would be simpler if he just said ‘quid pro quo’ on the invitation,” cracked Citizens Union executive director Richard Dadey.

Parker’s campaign sent out the formal invite in advance of his annual dinner-dance gala, which will be held Nov. 19 at Crystal Manor in Brooklyn.

It costs a minimum of $150 per person to attend, and supporters are asked to raise or contribute between $400 and $2,500 — or buy an ad in the program for $50 to $750.

The front of the invitation bears the slogan: “I help you. You help me. Together we build.”

Dadey, other government reformers and lobbyists who received the invite were stunned at its boldness.

“I find it breathtakingly straightforward,” said Susan Lerner of Common Cause/New York. “It gets to the heart of the deal from his point of view.”

Dadey said the language reinforces “the public’s perceptions that in order for you to represent me, I’ve got to pay up.”

Parker guilty of misdemeanors

From Capitol Tonight:

A jury has found Sen. Kevin Parker guilty of two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and he faces two years in jail, Josh Robin of NY1 reports.

That means the Brooklyn Democrat will not automatically lose his seat, which would have occurred had he been found guilty of a felony.

However, as you’ll recall, former Sen. Hiram Monserrate’s colleagues set a precedent when they expelled him in the wake of his conviction on a misdemeaor charge of assaulting his girlfriend.

So, it will be interesting to see how senators rationalize not seeking to oust Parker from the chamber (assuming they don’t).

He knows how to blow!

From Capital Tonight:

“Although it was the first time the senator was introduced to this tradition, the senator took the hollowed horn of the ram and with no rehearsal was able to blow consecutive blasts as a pro. Those gathered were surprised and amazed at the senator’s talent.”

If you want to caption this photo, feel free.

There's an excellent one of a young Weiner over at the Daily News as well.

The latest crooked pol roundup: Espada, Smith, Parker & the Boylands

From the Daily News:

Senate President Malcolm Smith ripped off an elderly Queens couple he'd promised to build a dream house for in a land deal under scrutiny by the FBI, the Daily News has learned.

Cora Wheeling, 70, and her husband, Eddie, 71, wound up with no home to show for the $88,200 they put down toward a split-level Smith claimed he'd build them.

They sued in 1998; Smith still owes them more than $60,000.

"I didn't know he's a rat," an irate Cora Wheeling said. "I should have known better."

The house was supposed to be part of a subdivision Smith was trying to build on 230th St. in Cambria Heights. That deal is at the center of an expanding federal probe, sources said.

The FBI is also looking at why Smith got a steep discount from an architect hired for a job at that same address. The architect then got work at nonprofits Smith has funded with taxpayer dollars.

Investigators want to know if Smith used his influence as an elected official to benefit himself financially, a possibly criminal conflict of interest.

From the NY Post:

A do-nothing Brooklyn charity created with the help of state Sen. Kevin Parker used most of the $18,750 in taxpayer funds he steered to it to hire the brother of his chief-of-staff as a "planning consultant."

The only community program the Building Blocks Local Development Corp. managed to implement since it was created in 2004 was a part-time vegetable stand staffed by local teens at a farmers market on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

Parker has been uncharacteristically mum on Building Blocks, which has no office or discernible staff and only sporadically filed IRS forms designed to provide accountability of its spending.

That didn't stop Parker from trying to fund the organization -- authorizing $75,000 in pork-barrel money in five separate member-item grants since 2004.

From the NY Post:

A hospital group linked to an influence-peddling scandal in Albany put three members of a prominent family of Brooklyn politicians on its payroll, records and e-mails obtained by The Post show.

Prosecutors say MediSys Health Network, which runs Jamaica, Flushing and Brookdale hospitals and other ventures, gave $390,000 in "corrupt payments" to crooked ex-Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio's bogus consulting firm for help with government funding and acquisition of hospitals.

It also paid three members of the Boyland family, a force in central Brooklyn politics for decades:

* Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., a Democrat who represents Brownsville, was a "patient recruiter" for the MediSys-managed Brookdale Medical Center for years while helping the hospitals get state grants and lobbying for the network.

* His father, former Assemblyman William F. Boyland Sr., spent years on Brookdale's payroll, doing "public outreach."

"I improved the image of the hospital and tried to get patients to go there," he told The Post. He said he "retired" last June, the same month Seminerio pleaded guilty to fraud.

* Boyland Jr.'s sister, former City Councilwoman Tracy Boyland, helped Brookdale get $2.6 million in grants when she represented Brownsville. After leaving office in 2005, she was hired by Neighborhood Health Providers, a MediSys health-insurance company. She did not return calls.

The US Attorney's Office said only that its probe stemming from the Seminerio case is ongoing.

From the NY Post:

State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., already slapped with two lawsuits over alleged corruption at his Bronx health centers, may still be on the hot seat for Medicaid fraud.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit asked for patient records from the Bronx Democrat's Soundview HealthCare Network, according to an October letter sent to Espada and included in court records.

The letter requests the "entire treatment history" and original charts for 259 patients.

One of those patients, Alfreda Alston, 54, of The Bronx, made repeated trips to the Soundview dental clinic over a year -- all paid for through Medicaid. Despite X-rays and exams, the staff could find nothing wrong with Alston's aching tooth, according to her daughter, Alfreda Jones.

Alston finally went to another dentist who fixed the ailment with a simple extraction.

Nutty senator goes off the deep end again

From the Daily News:

In his latest off-the-wall behavior, hothead Sen. Kevin Parker Wednesday morning accused Senate Republicans - and even some Democrats - of being white supremacists.

Parker updated his Facebook status, saying he was "in Albany fighting the evil of White Supremacy!"

And Parker, who exploded in a fury during a public committee meeting Tuesday, defended his outburst during a radio interview as "par for the course of what we have to do up in Albany fighting the forces of evil."

Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) initially set Parker off on Tuesday with his formal questioning of Mark O'Luck, the first black nominee to the New York Power Authority.

In discussing an affirmative action program, DeFrancisco told O'Luck someone doesn't have to be black to walk in someone's shoes.

Parker called the line of questioning racist, even though three of his Democratic colleagues - Ruben Diaz, committee chairman Carl Kruger, and David Valesky - said they didn't believe DeFrancisco was out of line.

The next to go?

From Gothamist:

Apparently, things got downright nasty during yesterday's heated Senate debate over whether to expel glass-slashing Senator Hiram Monserrate. Brooklyn's own Kevin Parker, one of the eight senators who voted against expelling a fellow lawmaker because he assaulted his girlfriend, almost started throwing punches to prove his point. The episode began with Parker "yelling and cursing" at Senator Diane Savino during last night's closed-door Democratic conference, a source tells Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News. When the salty talk didn't get his message across, he reportedly charged at her! "We're not going to do anything with the Republicans! F*#! the Republicans!" shouted Parker, who was indicted for assaulting a photographer last year. Luckily for Savino, Senator Jeff Klein sacked up to defend her. Then Parker reportedly asked him: "You want a piece of me?" Klein shot back: "If that's what it takes to stop this, then yes."

Photo from the NY Times

Pot calling the kettle black?

From Crain's/AP:

A New York senator angry at being ordered to stay in Albany by Gov. David Paterson called his fellow Democrat a "coke-sniffing, staff-banging governor."

The comment to some reporters by Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn is one of the harshest criticisms of the governor by senators now in their third week of an internal power struggle that has shut down legislative action in the Senate.

State Senator Kevin Parker indicted

From WCBS880:

Prosecutors say a state senator has been indicted on assault and other charges after being accused of attacking a New York Post photographer who took his picture.

A Brooklyn grand jury handed up the indictment Friday against Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of the assault, criminal mischief, menacing and harassment in the Second Degree.

State Senator arrested for assault

Fox 5 News reported Friday night that sources inside the New York City Police department have said that New York State Senator Kevin Parker was detained to potentially face criminal mischief charges.

It reportedly happened at Avenue H and E 34th Street.

The source told Fox 5 that Parker assaulted New York Post photographer Miguel Lopez.

The Post was apparently outside of his home working on a story involving Parker.

From the NY Post:

Shortly after the flash went off, the hulking Parker started chasing him, the photographer said.

"I'm standing in the street, I took one photograph of him and he charged at me," Lopez recalled.

"I turned around and ran and he was actually catching up to me. I turned a corner and ran half a block and he's chasing me the entire way."

Lopez said Parker then gave up the chase and instead turned his ire on Lopez's vehicle, a 1998 Subaru Forester, going over to the SUV and sitting down on the hood.

Then, Lopez said, Parker tried to get into the Subaru -- and that's when the real violence began, according to the lensman.

"He reached in and grabbed my camera," Lopez said. "We were having a tug of war with the camera. I slide into the passenger seat with him in tow. I pulled his entire body into my car except his leg."

"He ripped the door panel off my car with his legs. He tore out my flash."

Lopez's finger was caught in the camera strap and may have been sprained, he said.

Why was he so pissed? This is why.

Jeffries & Parker try to head Bloomie off at the pass

From the Daily News' Elizabeth Benjamin:

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Kevin Parker have made good on their pledges to draft legislation that would require a referendum to change term limits and are now busily lobbying their respective colleagues for support.

"This legislation is the last stand in favor of democracy, as far as I'm concerned," Jeffries said. "We're certainly on an expidited time frame given that we're already in 2009 and this bill calls for a referendum no later than the first Tuesday in March. It's something that would have to be done before the Legislature recesses in February."

Asked if such a rapid timetable is really possible - particularly in Albany, which moves to his own, often inexplicably slow, beat - Jeffries replied:

"I think it's possible. Certainly, I think you know, there's no great sympathy for the mayor in either chamber.