Hagen, Kevin Freelance NYDN
Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for a hearing on bribery charges against him.
The ink was barely dry on Assemblyman William Boyland Jr.’s federal indictment when he solicited a $ 250,000 bribe to pay for his legal defense, according to court testimony.
Boyland was secretly recorded on April 29, 2011, in a suite at the Atlantic City Tropicana by FBI undercover agents posing as shady businessmen seeking the price tag for the Brooklyn Democrat’s help with a real estate scheme.
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“So you tell me, and don’t be bashful, what do you need now?” Special Agent Sean Pope said, according to a videotape of the meeting played Monday at Boyland’s corruption trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Boyland responded that he had “legal fees for this legal thing,” referring to an earlier corruption indictment unsealed April 7 in Manhattan Federal Court.
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“Two fifty,” Boyland said.
“Two hundred and fifty?” the agent asked.
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Boyland didn’t have a crystal ball to know that he was going to beat that federal rap later in the year, but assured the agents that he would be able to deliver local and state approval of a purported plan to develop the site of the shuttered St. Mary’s Hospital.
He told the agents he had a “bagman” who could collect the bribe money for him and reminded the agents that they would also have to grease the palms of those officials who would make the deal happen.
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Boyland, drinking glass-after-glass of wine in the hotel suite, apparently didn’t think the criminal charges would derail his political ambitions, which he shared with the agents.
Boyland said he planned to run for governor in 2016, giving up the assembly seat held for more than 20 years by his father, William (Frank) Boyland, Sr.
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“In a neighborhood like this,” Boyland said of his Brownsville district, “you turn it around and then you give the neighborhood, like, hope. Come on, we’ll be in Albany in the mansion in a minute.”
But after the boozy meeting in the hotel, Boyland’s chief of staff Ry-Ann Hermon confided to the agent that her boss thought the businesmen might be “wired.”
In his grand — or delusional — vision, Boyland wanted to create a Liberty Science Center annex in the neighborhood, a health care facility at St. Mary’s site and a residential-retail complex anchored by box stores.
Boyland described an aerial view of the development sites in his community in graphic terms: “It’s like a big pile of s— and a big gold bar.”
Although Boyland likened his elected office to inheriting the family “hardware store,” the $ 110,000 salary and perks wasn’t cutting it for him. “I would like to be able to live comfortably some day,” he said.
jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
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