LEAVE PEDRO ALONE! State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr. has not disappointed with his indignant retaliation against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's legal actions. Yesterday Cuomo filed another lawsuit against Espada, accusing him of taking advantage of desperate, unemployed New Yorkers by roping them into a phony, barely-paid job training program at his non-profit Bronx health clinics. The training allegedly consisted of working as janitors for two weeks, after which they were not given the promised jobs, but sent away with a bogus certificate. Of course, Espada has a simple explanation, and it underscores why Albany desperately needs to pass some Anti-Bullying legislation.

"Cuomo the bully strikes again," Espada told PIX 11 News yesterday outside his Soundview Health Clinic. "No one was ripped off. We gave opportunity to people. Cuomo is a political assassin. We will see him in court...hopefully tomorrow. There is no basis...it's just a political motivation from The Dark Prince himself." Espada claims the trainees were given a "stipend" but would not say how much.

The Dark Prince had his own press conference yesterday, telling reporters that both Espada and his son Pedro G violated state labor laws and abused unemployed job-hunters through the sham job training program. "These people are vulnerable, desperate, needy people, who go for help, who go for training, who are trying to better themselves to get a better life for themselves and their families," Cuomo said in a press conference. "And they’re exploited by Mr. Espada."

Some of the estimated 100 "trainees" were paid as little as $1.70 an hour. The AG put the Times in touch with one of them, Shahking Gomez, who actually blew the whistle on the whole thing by going to the Better Business Bureau. "There was no training whatsoever," Gomez, 30, tells the Times. "They just handed me a mop and bucket and told me to get to work. After the two weeks they gave me a personal check for $200 and a certificate of completion, and then they basically sent me on my way. They told me there was no permanent work."