BY Rick Brand and Erik German
Newsday
NEW YORK — More than two years after Wayne Prospect was convicted of taking bribes to steer contracts, the former Suffolk County legislator has gone to prison.
State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle ordered Friday that Prospect’s sentence of 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years begin immediately.
Doyle added that he had “no objection” to Prospect applying for release on medical parole to receive treatment for his terminal cancer. Under certain conditions, New York State will release nonviolent inmates with fatal, debilitating illnesses so they may spend their remaining days with family. “This court is mindful of Mr. Prospect’s condition,” Doyle said.
Prospect was convicted in 2006 of receiving bribes alongside Stephen Baranello, the former Suffolk OTB executive who helped engineer Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s rise to power. The pair were caught on tape taking bribes from an undercover detective posing as a contractor looking to do business with the Levy administration. Levy was not suspected of wrongdoing.
Baranello pleaded guilty, testified against Prospect and now faces a maximum of 3 to 9 years in prison. Baranello’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 13. Prospect was sentenced in August 2006.
District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office declined to say whether Baranello will receive leniency in exchange for cooperation.
Prospect’s lawyer, Christopher Cassar of Huntington, said Friday that his client had a rare form of cancer that had metastasized from Prospect’s “leg to his lungs” and doctors had given him less that 18 months to live. He said the state could take between 30 and 60 days to process his medical payroll request. “The district attorney’s office has decided to put an emphasis on punishment instead of human life,” Cassar said.
Prospect, looking pale and leaning on an aluminum cane, waved briefly to his brother, Steven, and sister-in-law, Connie, before court officers led him to jail.
“I’ve never seen anything so appalling in my life,” Steven Prospect said outside court, adding that he has been accompanying his brother daily to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for treatments. “By the time he gets back to Sloan, he could be overcome.”
Prosecutors said they had allowed the case to be “adjourned for several months” to allow a reasonable amount of time for Cassar to arrange for Prospect’s medical needs while in prison.
“However, there comes a point in time when sentence must be executed,” Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Scileppi said. “Today is that day.”
Prospect’s former legislative colleagues reacted with resigned sadness Friday.
Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer, who served with Prospect on the county legislature, said, “the ending is not the Wayne Prospect I knew.”
But, he added, “When you commit the crime you have to do the time.”
Copyright 2008 Newsday, Inc.