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Lawyer had represented Long Beach Housing Authority and other public agencies
Former Town of North Hempstead Democratic Party Chairman Gerard Terry — who served as an attorney for the Long Beach Housing Authority and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from numerous local government contracts — was arrested on Tuesday for tax fraud, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said.
Terry, 61, of Roslyn Heights, was charged with third-degree criminal tax fraud, a felony, after he surrendered to investigators. He pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance by Nassau County District Court Judge Darlene Harris.
In a press release, Singas said that Terry, an attorney in private practice, failed to file and pay his state personal income tax return for the tax year 2010, in which he had an income in excess of $250,000 and a state tax liability of $13,000.
“Cheating on taxes is always wrong, but it's especially egregious when much of the undeclared income was paid from taxpayer-funded government accounts,” Singas said in a statement. "These allegations underscore the need for robust vetting practices at every level of government to ensure that taxpayers hire only those fit for public service. I thank the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for its assistance with this investigation.”
As a condition of his release, Terry was forced to surrender of his passport and is prohibited from traveling outside the state. He is due back in court on April 26. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
Terry’s attorney, Peter Tomao, strongly denied the allegations against his client, and said that Terry had issued a statement regarding his tax issues in January.
“Mr. Terry pleaded not guilty and intends to fight the charges in court,” Tomao told the Herald. “As I told the court, he had been dealing with the New York State and [Internal Revenue Service] to resolve his tax matter for a period of time, and we do not believe that the people will be able to prove that he made any attempt to evade his taxes, since he filed all his tax returns.”
