Ex-Senator Huntley will cop to mail fraud; pol still faces charges in $30G charity 'sham'
- Last Updated: 4:44 PM, January 25, 2013
- Posted: 2:52 PM, January 25, 2013
Former New York state Sen. Shirley Huntley is planning to plead guilty to mail fraud charges in a new federal case leveled against her, The Post has learned.
The Queens Democrat is expected to admit that she used funds from a non-profit organization to benefit herself and family members, a source said.
The embattled ex-legislator was indicted originally on Aug. 27 by state authorities on charges that she falsified documents to conceal the fact that her niece and an aide allegedly siphoned $30,000 from a sham charity she created. She pleaded not guilty to those state charges.
But Brooklyn federal prosecutors working in the US Attorney's Office's public corruption unit quietly opened a mail fraud case against Huntley â and now she is poised to surrender to authorities soon with the intention of entering a guilty plea, sources said.
A spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the case against Huntley.
At the same time, the earlier criminal case that was brought against Huntley last summer by New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is still pending in Nassau County Supreme Court.
Several months ago, Huntley was bounced out of office by voters who rejected her in a Democratic primary vote.
The Queens lawmaker was trounced by Councilman James Sanders, who got 4,979 votes, or 57 percent of the tally, to 3,477 votes, or 40 percent, for Huntley, records show.
On her way out the door, Huntley paused long enough as a lame-duck legislator, however, to showered loyal staffers with lucrative pay raises.
The Queens Democrat promoted several pet staffers and granted them salary hikes, records show.
mmaddux@nypost.com
