Silent On Big Corruption, Newspaper Realizes 'Corruption Will Linger'

Editorial: Annabi trial ends, but corruption will linger
The Journal News - EDITORIAL - March 29, 2012

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The smitten-cousin defense, novel and intriguing as it was, ultimately was no match for common sense, or the Rolex watch, car payments, airfare, cash or other valuables that moved between former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and her distant cousin, one-time Yonkers Republican Party Chairman Zehy Jereis, convicted Thursday of all charges in their federal corruption trial.  The jurors in their case, no doubt more used to hearing of politicians succumbing to pedestrian desires — such as financial gain and greed, spent five days deliberating the fate of the pair, who were found guilty of charges including conspiracy, bribery and extortion. Annabi, a Democrat, faces 12-15 years in prison; Jereis faces 14-17 years. Yonkers could use a respite of at least that long from the corrupt and salacious.  The married Jereis claimed in court that the ultimate goal of the gifts and cash was to win the councilwoman’s heart.  He offered as evidence a series of emails sent Annabi in which he declared his romantic intentions.  The jury, however, was having none of it, concluding it was inducements worth $174,000 that compelled Annabi to turn her initial opposition into support for two multimillion-dollar developments — the Ridge Hill retail and residential project and a housing development known as the Longfellow School project.  “The only love these two shared was a love of money,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone.  At trial, evidence shows numerous financial transactions between Annabi and Jereis, her campaign manager during her successful run for council in November 2001. He later received a no-show job with Forest City Ratner, developer of Ridge Hill. Prosecutors said developers worked through Jereis to control Annabi’s votes.  So went another chapter in the annals of public corruption in New York and the Lower Hudson Valley. It is an old and tedious story. In February, former longtime state Sen. Nicholas Spano, a Yonkers Republican, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, in a case where public corruption also figured prominently.

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