Everyone's favorite Bronxchester, soon-to-be former State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., makes the news twice today. Once because he has finally been charged with stealing from his nonprofit (as expected) and twice because his tone-deafness seems to know no bounds.
The gist of the charges brought against Espada and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, are relatively simple. Both men were charged with five counts of embezzling money from the nonprofit, the Soundview HealthCare Network, which Espada founded in 1978. According to prosecutors the duo's bad behavior included the elder Espada using Soundview’s corporate American Express card to pay for his personal expenses. "Among the charges were more than $100,000 worth of meals for him and his family, window treatments for his home, and tickets to Broadway shows and sporting events." Needless to say, the Espadas are denying any wrongdoing.
As for the tone-deafness? Espada this week went and sent out a curious Majority Leader Annual Report in which he "cautioned that unless ethics reform is part of overall reform in the New York State Senate, words like 'transparency' and 'accountability' will ring hollow, and 'three-men-in-a-room' government will make a strong comeback in 2011." Better yet, a Democratic official tells the News that "The document was entirely produced by Sen. Espada's office without the knowledge or involvement of the majority conference. There are no plans to print this at taxpayers' expense. We knew nothing about this, and we're not getting involved in it." All the more reason to go read it, right?
