In Yonkers corruption trial, feds bet big on Mangone's history

In Yonkers corruption trial, feds bet big on Mangone's history
Mar. 24, 2012
Written by
Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Jonathan Bandler and Erik Shilling

NEW YORK — For more than a decade, Anthony Mangone was an inside man in some of the Lower Hudson Valley’s most notorious public-corruption scandals. He is a convicted criminal, gambling addict and political bully who admitted he lied to a grand jury to protect his boss.

The U.S. Attorney’s latest corruption case now hangs on his credibility as a key witness.

The federal jury that resumes deliberations Monday in the case against former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and onetime city GOP boss Zehy Jereis have to weigh whether Mangone told the truth on the witness stand — or said what prosecutors wanted to hear to get a lighter sentence for himself.

Working against prosecutors is Mangone’s sordid history as a political operative with a gambling habit that pulled him into a financial morass, including an $11,000 judgment filed Friday.

“He didn’t have a reputation as an honorable guy,” said lawyer and GOP political consultant Mike Edelman. “He had a reputation as a tough guy, a tough-guy wannabe who was almost the equivalent of the muscle end of the business, even though this is not an organized-crime situation.”

“I think the government wanted to go after Zehy and Annabi, and in order to do that they had to cut him a deal,” Edelman said. “Whether they should have or not, that’s another story. I think the government should’ve assessed its case better going in and decided whether or not it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a bribe was given before they cut a deal with Anthony Mangone.”

Mangone, 38, could not be reached for comment. He did not respond to a message left with a woman identifying herself as his wife at the couple’s home in Purchase.

Mangone was indicted with Annabi and Jereis in January 2010 on charges of conspiracy, bribery and extortion stemming from $174,000 that Jereis gave Annabi over several years, presumably to buy her vote on Yonkers City Council. Prosecutors alleged that the money prompted Annabi to change her vote and approve two major development projects in the city: a housing plan at the former Longfellow School and the $842 million Ridge Hill development. Ten months after the indictment, Mangone pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

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On the witness stand, Mangone said he received a $20,000 bribe from the developers of the Longfellow project, then gave the money to Jereis outside a White Plains bar. Mangone said Jereis solicited the money for Annabi, Jereis’ distant cousin and political protege.

Mangone also testified about his deal with prosecutors, saying there were no guarantees and that he could face a sentence that ranges from probation to 45 years in prison.

“My obligation is to testify truthfully, help the government with questions they may have on other investigations,” he told the jury.

But defense attorneys went for the throat.

“He’s incredible from the first time he opens his mouth to the last time he opens his mouth,” Anthony Siano, Jereis’ lawyer, said during the five-week trial. “No reasonable jury can choose to believe Anthony Mangone.”

Raised in Yonkers, Mangone hustled his way into the city’s potent political machine. He graduated SUNY Purchase and earned a law degree from St. John’s University. By then he had worked as a campaign manager and staffer for former state Sen. Nick Spano, a powerful Yonkers Republican who pleaded guilty to tax evasion in February. He also had worked as a clerk for Spano’s father, Leonard Spano Sr., when the elder Spano was Westchester County clerk.

Mangone also had held the post of deputy county election commissioner.

“His reputation was as an energetic, up-and-coming person,” said former Westchester Republican Chairman Jim Cavanaugh, who worked for Nick Spano before Mangone’s tenure there.

But even as Mangone was waiting to be admitted to the bar, he became embroiled in controversy. He was accused of rigging Green Party ballots for Nick Spano in 2000, and later agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor in exchange for his testimony. He was never charged at all after a Westchester grand jury declined to file felony charges against him.

Mangone went on to join the connected White Plains law firm of Servino & Santangelo, which would eventually evolve into Santangelo, Randazzo & Mangone. On the witness stand, Mangone said the firm began making cash payments to a state senator after it was awarded a lucrative $450,000 legal services contract by Putnam County. Though the senator wasn’t named, former state Sen. Vinnie Leibell is serving a federal prison term after pleading guilty in December 2010 to obstruction and failing to report $43,000 in kickbacks he received from former Putnam County Attorney Carl Lodes, who worked for Leibell’s nonprofit housing foundation, and from an unnamed law firm who did the county’s outside legal work.

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Then in December 2008, Mangone flashed his tough-guy image when he was charged with misdemeanor assault, accused of head-butting attorney and former Assembly candidate Max DiFabio at a ritzy White Plains restaurant. DiFabio, who also claimed Mangone and two other men also held him down while one of the men kicked him, later dropped the charges.

Mangone also admitted on the witness stand that he gambled away tens of thousands of dollars, part of a gambling habit that drew him deeper and deeper into debt.

Records on file with the Westchester County clerk show in June 2009 the Borgata casino in Atlantic City sought more than $21,000 from Mangone, in addition to the more than $8,300 he owes a company representing Caesars Atlantic City. An auto financing arm of Daimler Chrysler filed for $22,377 in February 2011 for back lease payments and other fees associated with a 2009 Mercedes-Benz that he apparently stopped paying on.

In July 2010, JPMorgan Chase was granted a judgment for $8,337 in apparent credit card debt and fees, and on Friday, a second credit card company, FIA Card Services, also known as MBNA, filed a judgment against him for more than $11,000.

There’s also been a series of state tax judgments since 2008, in addition to several late tax payments to the state Tax Commission, who annually ordered Mangone to pay back taxes of hundreds of dollars beginning in 2008. But some of those back taxes appear to have been paid, according to court documents.

All of it could prove costly as jurors contemplate his credibility. Regardless of the outcome, Mangone faces the real possibility that he will join Leibell in a federal prison. The severity of his sentence could hang on how the jury decides the fates of Annabi and Jereis.

“Sometimes the biggest malefactors get the best deals,” said Bennett Gershman, a legal expert and professor at the Pace University School of Law who’s followed the trial. “If you want to put a hierarchy on who the worst malefactors are here, maybe Mangone stands atop. But the fact is he elected to cooperate.”