New York Post
by Mitchel Maddux, Kate Kowsh and Dan Mangan
May 18, 2012

The state Department of Health yesterday moved to close financially crippled Soundview Healthcare Network ­ whose founder, Pedro Espada Jr., was convicted Monday of looting the Bronx nonprofit’s coffers of nearly $500,000.

“They are trying to shut us down,” said Rachel Fasciani, spokeswoman for Soundview, which serves thousands of poor South Bronx residents.

“They’re requesting we turn over our ... operating certificate,” Fasciani said, referring to a letter the Health Department sent to Soundview.

On Monday, a Brooklyn federal jury convicted Espada of looting the taxpayer-funded clinic to pay for lavish personal expenses such as lobster and champagne dinners, birthday parties, vacations and home improvements.

Just $ickening!
New York Post
by Mitchel Maddux, Erin Calabrese and Dan Mangan
May 17, 2012 12:35 am

His greed knows no bounds.

Not only did convicted ex-state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., treat the Soundview Healthcare Network as his personal piggy bank ­ he also made the taxpayer-funded clinic pay for his defense team, The Post has learned.

The financially crippled Bronx medical charity that Espada founded ­ and from which he was convicted this week of stealing nearly $500,000 ­ has forked over an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million more to pay for the thieving pol’s lawyers, sources told The Post.

“Soundview has been paying for his criminal defense,” a source said of Espada’s fees for his lead defense lawyer, Susan Necheles, and her assistants.

The astounding double dip into Soundview’s coffers has left the once-vital health-care provider on the brink of closing, as it turns away poor patients in the South Bronx, unable to pay its malpractice insurance, staff salaries and other bills due to lack of funds.

Espada’s son Alejandro now heads the nonprofit.

The lapse left doctors at Pedro Espada's clinic exposed to huge risk
New York Daily News
by John Marzulli
May 16, 2012 2:00 am

Convicted crook Pedro Espada Jr.’s cash-strapped Bronx clinic didn’t pay for medical malpractice insurance for more than a month, keeping doctors in the dark as they continued to see patients, the Daily News has learned.

The doctors only got wind of their enormous financial risk on May 1, when St. Barnabas Hospital informed them that their patient admitting privileges had been cancelled due to lack of coverage, a source told the Daily News.

Espada was convicted Monday of stealing more than $450,000 in funds from Soundview for lobster dinner, beach getaways and spa treatments.

New York Times
by Winnue Hu
May 16, 2012

Federal prosecutors will try to recover nearly $500,000 that Pedro Espada Jr., a former Democratic state senator from the Bronx, was convicted this week of stealing from a nonprofit health care network, as they seek a retrial for Mr. Espada and his son, according to a person familiar with the case.

Mr. Espada, whom a federal jury found guilty on four counts of theft, will face a retrial on four other counts of theft, fraud and conspiracy on which the jury failed to agree after his six-week trial in United States District Court in Brooklyn.

His son, Pedro G. Espada, will be retried on all eight counts, the person said; the jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges against him.

Federal prosecutors, who have not formally announced their decision, are expected to notify the federal court in Brooklyn about their plans by June 5. Previously, they said after the verdict that they were unsure if they would seek a retrial for the two men on the unresolved charges.

Wall Street Journal
by Amelia Harris and Tamer El-Ghobashy
May 15, 2012, 9:15 p.m. ET

Pedro Espada, Jr., the former state senator convicted Monday of stealing from the Bronx health clinic he founded, will be tried again on the four federal counts on which a jury couldn't agree, a person familiar with the matter said.

Federal prosecutors are expected to inform U.S. District Judge Frederic Block of their decision by June 5, the person said. A new trial date hasn't been set for Mr. Espada, 58 years old, a former Senate majority leader who faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Mr. Espada's son, Pedro Gautier Espada, will also face a new trial, the person said. The younger Mr. Espada's case was declared a mistrial Monday after jurors couldn't reach agreement on the same charges his father faced.

An attorney for the elder Mr. Espada, Susan Necheles, wouldn't comment Tuesday. "I haven't heard anything official," she said.

New York Post
by Andrea Peyser
May 15, 2012 6:37 am

In the blink of an eyelash, former state Sen. and miserable crook Pedro Espada Jr. was reduced from enjoying $60,000 worth of sushi and lobster feasts to subsisting on Meatloaf Surprise and communal showers.

My advice to Pedro: Don’t pick up the soap.

Yesterday, a Brooklyn federal jury nailed Espada to the wall, finding the formerly powerful state Senate majority leader guilty of four counts of theft, embezzlement and misapplication of federal funds.

SMILE WIPED OFF PEDRO'S FACE

In plain English, jurors saw that the greedy gourmand robbed the government-financed clinic that he controlled of some $480,000.

Ex-legislator who robbed the poor and gave to himself convicted on four counts
New York Daily News
Editorial
May 15, 2012 4:10 AM

There it was, for all New York to see: the moral rot of former state Sen. Pedro Espada laid bare in court testimony that captured his grotesque combination of megalomania and kleptomania.

Espada stole because he felt entitled to riches and because, long accustomed to Albany’s ethics-free ways, he had no reason to fear prosecution until his brazen dishonesty made even the Legislature blush.

When finally federal prosecutors took note, they presented as slam-dunk a corruption case as any in memory. Bribery wasn’t Espada’s thing, theft was ­ in service of supporting a lifestyle far beyond the imaginings of his impoverished Bronx constituents.

He ripped off a half-million taxpayer dollars from the nonprofit health care network he founded and ran in Soundview. The money came largely from the Medicaid program for the poor.

Never has convicted Bronx pol showed a hint of shame
New York Daily News
by Bill Hammond
May 15, 2012, 2:00 AM

Never were Pedro Espada Jr.’s delusions of grandeur more vividly on display than when he clutched a rosary and claimed he needed the beads to ward off “evil powers” that prosecutors were marshaling against him. In the funhouse mirror in his mind, Espada believed that in standing trial for embezzling money from Medicaid clinics he was doing battle with Satan himself.

Chances are, he’ll claim the guilty verdicts rendered Monday were signs of martyrdom on his road to sainthood ­ and with a straight face, too. Because never in a long career of ducking one scandal after another has Espada lacked self-glorifying justifications for his sleazy behavior. And never has he shown a hint of shame.

When he switched parties in the state Senate to grab for power ­ and paralyzed Albany for a solid month in 2009 ­ he claimed to be doing his best to “deliver for his constituency.”

New York Post
Editorial
May 15, 2012 12:37 am

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

You can finally add the name of Pedro Espada, Bronx Democrat and former state Senate majority leader, to the ever-growing list of New York lawmakers turned convicted lawbreakers.

Frankly, the government probably needs a separate branch of the Census Bureau just to count them, the list is so long.

Not to mention a new wing at Otisville Federal Prison to handle all the business.

Crooked Bx. pol convicted of looting health firm
New York Post
by Mitchel Maddux, Laurel Babcock and Dan Mangan
May 15, 2012 12:34 am

He’s not smiling anymore.

A jury convicted ex-state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. of a grand slam of theft charges yesterday ­ finding he swindled nearly $500,000 from the taxpayer-funded Bronx health clinic he founded in order to finance a lavish lifestyle for himself, friends and family.

After 11 days of acrimonious deliberations and six weeks of testimony, the Brooklyn federal court panel convicted the former Senate majority leader of four counts of stealing from the nonprofit Soundview Healthcare Network between 2005 and 2008.

“We knew he was guilty. It was clear from the evidence,” Anita Coleman, Juror No. 5, said about the raft of receipts and other documentation detailing how Espada and his family lived high on the hog on the taxpayers’ dime for years.

“The prosecution laid it out beautifully for us,” she said.