D’Amato takes stand in Skelos trial

The trial of Sen. Dean Skelos and his son Adam took an interesting turn last week, when both former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and Deputy County Executive Rob Walker were called to the witness stand.

D’Amato, a longtime friend of Skelos, took the stand and testified on behalf of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. D’Amato said that he spoke to Skelos on behalf of Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, a company where Adam Skelos worked and which the government says was a no-show job that he received because of his father.

According to D’Amato, he asked Skelos to talk to Adam about his behavior. In his testimony, the company’s owner, Anthony Bonomo, said that Adam would rarely show up to work, and was disruptive when he did. The prosecution has taped phone calls of Adam threatening his supervisor, saying that he wasn’t fit to “shine [his] shoes.”

When D’Amato told Skelos about Adam’s behavior and that it could cause him to lose his job, Skelos allegedly said that Adam really needed it because he needed the health insurance.

D’Amato, who heads the lobbying firm Park Strategies, also said that Skelos asked him to talk to Adam to give him advice. At that meeting, it was clear that Adam wanted to come work for Park Strategies. But others at the firm, including D’Amato’s son, Christopher, were against the idea. They said, and D’Amato agreed, that it would give the sense of impropriety to have the Majority Leader’s son on staff, since Park Strategies routinely lobbied in Albany.

Taking the stand a few hours after D’Amato was Deputy Nassau County Executive Rob Walker. Adam Skelos also worked for an environmental firm called AbTech, which was owned by one of the owners of Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers. AbTech won a $12 million storm water management contract from Nassau County, but the money was slow in coming.

Walker said that, because of Skelos’s position, he prioritized any requests that came from AbTech and Adam Skelos.

Skelos breached the subject to County Executive Ed Mangano at a funeral for two New York City police officers last December. Walker said he overheard the two talking about AbTech, and immediately made a call to check on the status of the funds.

Skelos, 67, and Adam, 33, are both charged with using Skelos’s former position as Majority Leader of the Senate to secure jobs and money for Adam. Over the course of a few years, the prosecution says, the two netted Adam Skelos more than $200,000 in salary and payments for work he did not do.

As of press time Tuesday, the prosecution was finishing up its case. Adam Skelos’s attorney said he would not be calling any witnesses. It was uncertain if Skelos’s defense was going to call any witnesses. It was also unclear if Skelos’s attorney was going to call Skelos himself to the stand.