The list of New York officials who’ve abused the public trust could fill this column, and most have spent big chunks of their time in Albany: Sheldon Silver, Joe Bruno, Brian Benjamin, Joe Percoco, Malcolm Smith, John Sampson and on and on. Add now to the list pure city pol Eric Ulrich, who stands credibly accused (but yes, innocent until proven guilty) of 16 felonies for pocketing gifts in return for government favors.
In the telling of prosecutors from the office of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, the quids — what Ulrich got — were cash to finance his gambling habit, Mets season tickets valued at nearly $10,000, a discounted two-bedroom apartment with full furnishing and a parking space, and a bespoke suit. Ulrich’s girlfriend also got a painting by a Salvador Dali apprentice. Don’t call it surreal; this is reality.
The quos — what Ulrich gave — were an expedited health inspection, the removal of a vacate order, a job for a gift-giver’s daughter and assorted attempts to influence policy or grease policy wheels.
“Attempts” is a key word there, because, the state of corruption prosecutions being what they are, the DA will have to prove not just that Ulrich got something from some deep-pocketed interest with business before the city, and not just that he gave something of value in return, but that there was a clear cause-and-effect nexus between the two. Surely Ulrich will argue that many of the things Bragg calls illicit favors were attempts to help people, even when those people happened to be generous friends.
Ulrich’s alleged bad deeds preceded being brought into the fold by Mayor Adams, back to his time as a member of the City Council. But, even as we have no reason to believe the mayor had any knowledge of Ulrich’s ways, it can hardly be considered a feather in his cap to have tapped Ulrich first as a senior adviser, then as buildings commissioner.
Indeed, some of those on the other side of the alleged bribes raised big money for Adams’ 2021 campaign. And as the Daily News reported this week, just three days after Adams allegedly told Ulrich to “watch your back and watch your phones,” he placed his cellphone 10 feet away from him while meeting with an implicated businessman.
As for Bragg, it looks like he’s built a detailed case, complete with wiretaps in which Ulrich sure seems to be connecting a particular use of influence to a particular gift. If Ulrich is guilty, should it all add up to prison time, as it did for Silver and Smith and others?
We’ll take the moment to remind the DA that in his Day One memo, he called for “reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm,” and pledged that his office will not seek a carceral sentence “other than for homicide or other cases involving the death of the victim, a class B violent felony in which a deadly weapon causes serious physical injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses…” and also “public corruption, rackets or major economic crimes.”
In other words, save “extraordinary circumstances,” many violent crimes are off the might-go-to-prison list — but public corruption is on it. For someone who’s supposed to believe in reserving prison for the most serious offenders, what is that about?
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