It's gone to the grand jury!

From the Daily News:

Federal and state grand juries have begun hearing testimony in criminal investigations of Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is said to be presenting evidence in a probe of how de Blasio collected large sums of money for a since disbanded nonprofit organization called the Campaign for One New York.

The New York Times reported that Bharara's panel is examining whether the mayor or aides gave donors helpful city action in exchange for contributions in a half dozen matters. An explicit quid-pro-quo or excessive pressure to donate would be federal felonies.

Separately, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has issued subpoenas and taken witness testimony in connection with additional large sums raised by de Blasio’s team in an attempt to switch the state Senate from Republican to Democratic control through upstate elections.

Vance is focused on whether de Blasio's routing of the money constituted an end-run misdemeanor violation of the state election law.

Another Meng in legal trouble

Meng (L) and Deng (R)

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Pennsylvania grand jury has recommended criminal charges against 37 people — including the brother of Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) — in connection with the alleged fraternity hazing death of an Oakland Gardens teenager in 2013.

Chun Hsien “Michael” Deng was a student at Baruch College when he collapsed during what law enforcement sources have called a brutal ritual in which he was required to run blindfolded with a 30-pound backpack while being tackled and beaten by members of the Pi Delta Psi Fraternity.

Five Baruch students face charges of murder, according to numerous published and broadcast reports.

The Associated Press, New York Post and other sources report that Andy Meng, who was serving as national president of the fraternity in December 2013, has been charged with lesser felonies in connection with his alleged role in an attempted coverup.

The exact charges against Meng were not available from the office of Monroe County District Attorney E. David Christine Jr., which did not respond to messages left by the Chronicle.

NYPD is the wrong target

Why Did the Protesters Go After the Cops When It Was Elected Officials That Control the Prosecutorial System That Let the Garner Chokehold Cops Go?

Pols Set-Up Cops: Blame Game

Community activist Tony Herbert who introduced a family member of officer Rafael Ramos, said it the best: elected officials are using the cops, turning the community against them. 

Herbert asked why are the elected officials forcing to the cops to raise money for the city? The relationship between the community and the police is strained, Herbert said, cops are forced to give out parking tickets, act as tax collectors for government. That creates tension between the community and cops. 

Herbert also has complained about why the cops are forced to deal with people who have mental problems, when it was the elected officials who have not properly dealt with that population. Police did not cause bad schools, high black unemployment, homelessness or the inequities of the criminal justice system that puts male blacks in jail at a much higher rate, elected officials did. 

In other words, he says, the pols use the cops. Yet they have to deal with the problems that are created by government failure. The pols have escaped any blame with the Grand Jury system which they control. It was the Grand Jury run by the Staten Island DA Donovan that failed to indict the cop who put the chokehold on Garner. Yet the words out of de Blasio, Sharpton and dozens of elected officials many, who have a say on how the state's prosecutorial system works, have all been directed to blame the cops.

Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.

Looters let go

From the Daily News:

At least half the post-Sandy looting busts have been tossed out, despite much grandstanding on the part of Brooklyn and Queens DAs, the Daily News has learned.

One of the most publicized looting incidents — in which 16 people were rounded up for raiding a Coney Island Key Foods the day after the storm — resulted in just two indictments for third-degree burglary, records show.

Six other cases were dismissed by a Brooklyn grand jury late last week, and eight were knocked down to trespass raps, which are violations, not crimes.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown likewise promised “zero tolerance for looters who would exploit a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy for their own personal gain.”

Only seven of 22 Brooklyn looting cases will be criminally prosecuted. In Queens — where the cases are progressing more slowly — five of 15 Queens cases have led to felony indictments so far, prosecutors said Monday.

In the Rockaways, at least 15 people were arrested for breaking into a string of stores in at least seven separate incidents throughout the storm-ravaged peninsula. A grand jury declined to indict three of those cases, and six cases are still pending.

Federal jury indicts Liu bundler

From the NY Times:

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a top fund-raiser for the city comptroller, John C. Liu, on charges that he helped illegally direct thousands of dollars into Mr. Liu’s campaign account.

The five-page indictment against Xing Wu Pan, a New Jersey real estate developer who is also known as Oliver, did not add any new details to the original criminal complaint, which was filed in November.

But it did signify that the charges against Mr. Pan — one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of attempting to commit wire fraud, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years — had passed the next legal hurdle. It also suggested that, contrary to speculation, no plea deal appeared to be imminent.

Here come the Feds!

From the NY Times:

Federal authorities are investigating the fund-raising operation of the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, seeking records from his campaign and from a city contractor whose employees were listed as having contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Grand jury subpoenas issued last week in the inquiry followed a report in The New York Times last month detailing a number of fund-raising improprieties, including questions about the sources of Mr. Liu’s donations, whether people listed as contributors had actually given their own money and whether some donors listed even existed.

It is unclear whether the current inquiry is related to an investigation begun by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in late 2009. That investigation, which had not previously been made public, focused on whether foreign money flowed into Mr. Liu’s 2009 campaign for comptroller, two people with knowledge of the inquiry said.