The jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan found James Grant, a former New York City deputy inspector, not guilty on all charges, but still decided to convict one of the businessmen, Jeremy Reichberg, on several bribery and conspiracy charges involving other officers.
The jury found Reichberg not guilty on one count — that he had paid bribes to Grant. After the verdict, Grant turned to Reichberg and quietly said: “You’re going to be OK.”
The case had cast a shadow over the Police Department and had even tarnished the reputation of Mayor Bill de Blasio, though he was not accused of wrongdoing.
The verdict appeared to reflect the higher bar the U.S. Supreme Court has set for public corruption cases with its 2016 ruling that reversed the bribery conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. In that ruling, the court determined that making introductions or setting up meetings, even in exchange for gifts or financial benefits, did not constitute a crime.
Over nearly seven weeks, federal prosecutors presented evidence — witnesses, wiretaps, and text and email messages — that they said documented years of corruption “big and small” in which high-ranking police officials provided favors to Reichberg and a second businessman, Jona S. Rechnitz. In return, prosecutors said, the officers received lavish gifts, all-expenses-paid trips on private jets, dinners and access to prostitutes.
“The favors happened because of the gifts,” Kimberly J. Ravener, a federal prosecutor, told jurors. “They weren’t part of a special, unique friendship. They were part of a worn playbook.”
But after deliberating over three days for nearly 17 hours, the jurors said that prosecutors failed to prove that Grant had done favors in return for the gifts. One juror noted that Reichberg and Grant were longtime friends.
Throughout the trial, the defense maintained that there was nothing criminal about the friendship between Grant, 45, and Reichberg, 44. Showing photos of the two men at a dining table inside Reichberg’s home, Susan R. Necheles, Reichberg’s lawyer, told jurors in her closing remarks: “We ask for help from our friends, and they ask for help from us. In life, it’s called friendship.”
Grant’s lawyer, John Meringolo, said his client and Reichberg had met in Borough Park — a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn — more than a decade ago. Grant’s rise through the ranks, Meringolo told jurors, was the result of hard work. “We know bad cops,” he said in his closing argument. “That is not a bad cop.”
Jurors said the panel determined almost immediately that Reichberg was guilty on most of the charges against him. But a majority of the panel — all but two members — were also convinced at the start of the deliberations that Grant was not guilty of accepting bribes.
“Grant was a flunky, a pawn to Rechnitz and Reichberg,” said one juror, Ives Bonilla, 67, of the Bronx. “He was overwhelmed by their wealth. He was razzled, dazzled by the millions they were talking about and spending.”
Part of the government’s case relied on testimony from Rechnitz, the wealthy son of a real estate developer who pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud as part of the investigation that led to charges against the two defendants.
Rechnitz was also a witness at the federal corruption trial of Norman Seabrook, the once-powerful leader of the correction officers’ union. He testified that he had a close relationship with de Blasio and that the mayor had accepted large donations from Rechnitz and Reichberg.
At the trial of Grant and Reichberg, both sides agreed that Rechnitz had a history of lying and had long pretended to be someone he was not to cultivate relationships with Reichberg and others who he believed could make him appear important. Defense lawyers argued that Rechnitz was testifying because he was seeking a lighter sentence.
Some jurors said parts of Rechnitz’s testimony was believable, but one juror, who declined to be named, described him as a liar.
Prosecutors said Reichberg was a “fix-it guy” who used his relationships in the Police Department to help people with arrests and moving violations for a fee.
But Reichberg also used his connections for his own benefit, prosecutors said, describing how he arranged a police escort to a nail salon for a nurse he was romantically interested in and, on another occasion, he was taken to a barbecue by a police boat.
“Citizens can’t get official action like this for no reason,” Ravener said.
During the trial, Rechnitz described himself as the “money man” who paid for expensive gifts and trips at Reichberg’s direction. He said Reichberg told him that they were indebted to Grant for all he had done for them.
Rechnitz said he spent nearly $59,000 on a private jet to fly Grant and others to Las Vegas during Super Bowl weekend in 2013. Reichberg recruited a prostitute to be part of the trip.
Grant and the prostitute, Gabriella Curtis, shared a room, and Curtis testified that she had sex with him. In an interview, Curtis said she felt like she had been chosen for Grant. “It was like it was planned, but no one told me,” she said.
On Christmas Day of that year, Reichberg and Rechnitz dressed as Santa to deliver gifts to high-ranking police officials, including Grant, who got diamond earrings for his wife and toys for his children. Rechnitz testified that he also paid for Grant and his wife’s stay at a luxury hotel in Rome, meals at upscale restaurants and upgrades to his home.
In return, prosecutors said, Grant would escort Rechnitz to the airport using lights and sirens, and provided special access to events. He also used his connections to expedite a gun license for Reichberg. Reichberg had submitted bogus and incomplete documents to obtain the license, but officers did not check the paperwork after learning that Reichberg was “Jimmy’s guy.”
Martin Bell, lead prosecutor, remixed a theme song from the television show “The Golden Girls,” noting that Reichberg and Grant’s relationship “wasn’t a Golden Girls friendship. All of the financial benefits went one way and the favors went another.”
Much of the trial featured testimony about a number of co-conspirators, including top police officials, several of whom were not charged, causing some jurors to wonder why.
Rechnitz had testified that he and Reichberg had courted Philip Banks III, a former chief of the department who was the highest ranked uniform officer. They showered him with gifts and took him on several trips, including to Israel.
But Banks’ lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Banks “did zero for anybody that was even remotely corrupt.”
Banks was not charged with a crime. He resigned in 2014, citing professional reasons for his departure.
Rechnitz said another official, Stephen McAllister, a former police inspector who is now the commissioner of the Floral Park Police Department on Long Island, had used his connections in other police departments to close a lane in the Lincoln Tunnel to make the drive easier for a diamond dealer. McAllister was not accused of wrongdoing.
Prosecutors presented evidence suggesting that Reichberg’s interactions with another official, Michael Harrington, a former deputy police chief, had resulted in the promotion of several officers. Prosecutors said Harrington had accepted gifts from the men and in return had, among other things, arranged the police boat ride to the barbecue.
In March, Harrington pleaded guilty to dispatching police resources without permission and was sentenced to two years of probation.
But all three of the men, Bonilla said, “should have been” seated at the defense table.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.