Two former legislators indicted on slew of charges

Former Nassau County Legislator Roger Corbin, who was sentenced June 28 to 18 months in federal prison for tax evasion, is now facing charges from Nassau County.

Last week, the Nassau County district attorney's office indicted Corbin and former County Legislator Patrick Williams on corruption, larceny and bribery charges for their alleged involvement in multiple bid-rigging and bribery schemes in the New Cassel Redevelopment Project. The charges resulted from a three-year investigation of the multimillion-dollar community revitalization project that began in 2003 and has yet to be completed.

Corbin, 63, had represented parts of Lakeview and West Hempstead until he was ousted last year from the 2nd Legislative District seat, which he'd held since the Legislature's inception in 1995. Williams, 62, a Democrat, held the 1st Legislative District seat, which includes parts of Baldwin, Hempstead, Roosevelt and Uniondale, among other areas.

Williams resigned in the middle of his second term in 2002 after he pleaded guilty to federal charges related to fraudulent mortgage applications during his job as a banker. According to published reports, Williams was fined and spent several months in home detention. Shortly after his resignation, he was appointed by the county to serve as the director of Human Resources for Nassau OTB.

The pair, along with a former Town of North Hempstead official and the executive director of the town's Community Development Agency, had collaborated to steer the project to a selected developer in return for bribe money, and stole $150,000 in public funds, according to District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

The alleged scheme began in 2003, when the Town of North Hempstead, the CDA and the Nassau County Economic Development Corporation issued a request for proposals for seven New Cassel land sites that were to be redeveloped. To rig the selection of a developer, prosecutors said Williams worked with TNH Building and Planning Commissioner David Wasserman and CDA Executive Director Neville Mullings, both of whom sat on the CDA selection committee, whose purpose was to review developers' proposals and recommend the best ones.