More Espada Crookedness! Now With Extra Slime!

Last week Attorney General Cuomo (along with the FBI and IRS) brought a bombshell lawsuit against Senator Pedro Espada for looting up to $14 million dollars from his non-profit Soundview Medical Center. Espada, not one to take responsibility for himself, immediately lashed out at Cuomo for perpetrating a political vendetta against poor Pedro. Today the good Senator is lashing out again, this time for yet another set of crimes alleged against him and his son for their dubious operation up at Soundview.

Here's what Cuomo announced today, via The Daily Politics:

Labeling workers as "trainees" who were then paid wages far below the required state levels -- some making less than $70 per week.

These workers "typically worked for a two-week period with little training or direction and performed tasks such as cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, and sweeping - the same tasks a full-time janitor performed.".....

Cuomo says workers were duped into joining the program with promises of jobs and training that never materialized. Instead, they were just replaced by other "trainees."

The full complaint can be read in the link to the DP above. Eighteen pages isn't much in lawyerese but damning enough for Pedro Espada. He can blame the Attorney General and call it politics as much as he wants, but the facts are not boding well for him. There is a tidal wave of evidence against him and when this comes to trial, his political career will be under water. And then of course there's that place called the state penitentiary with a special cell waiting just for him.