Ex-Senate Leader Bruno Indicted for Abusing Office

JOSEPH L. BRUNO: Say he misused his post.

And now it's Joseph L. Bruno's turn.

The former State Senate Majority Leader was indicted by Federal prosecutors Jan. 23 in Albany on allegations of receiving money from companies seeking to do state government business and an investment firm trying to tap into union pensions.

The charges against Mr. Bruno, which he denied and vowed to fight, are the result of a three-year probe. In 2007 the media spotlight shifted from Mr. Bruno's alleged improprieties to those of his political arch-rival, then-Governor Eliot Spitzer, when gubernatorial aides and the then-State Police Superintendent Preston Felton were charged by the state Public Integrity Commission with improperly logging Mr. Bruno's travel and releasing records to a journalist in an effort to embarrass him politically by showing that he had used state aircraft to attend Republican Party events, hold fund-raisers and meet with lobbyists.

Stepped Down After Spitzer

The Spitzer administration's clumsy attempt to spotlight a practice that while questionable was not illegal might have brought public ire on the then-Governor, but the investigation of Mr. Bruno's business dealings was even then hovering over him. Three months after Mr. Spitzer resigned last March following revelations of his frequent patronage of a high-priced prostitution ring, Mr. Bruno gave up his post as Majority Leader, then relinquished his Senate seat less than a month later. He denied that his retirement from state government was related to the Federal probe.

The prosecutors investigated Mr. Bruno's Capital Business Consultants, a business he ran from his home while he was in office. According to the New York Times, prosecutors also probed private flights Mr. Bruno took that were arranged by his friend, Jared E. Abbruzzese, with whom he also had significant business dealings. The Times said on its Web site last week that "Mr. Bruno is accused of collecting more than $3 million over a 13-year period, beginning in 1993, from a handful of businessmen seeking state contracts and grants, as well as contracts to manage pension fund investments for at least 16 labor unions."

Key Union Stands By Him

The Senate Republican delegation under Mr. Bruno's leadership maintained support from numerous unions in both the public and private sector, including law-enforcement unions, the United Federation of Teachers and the nation's largest local union, Service Employees International Union Local 1199. Civil Service Employees Association spokesman Stephen Madarasz pointed out last week after the announcement of the indictment that the investigation into the firm trying to profit from the union pensions funds had nothing to do with the CSEA, and said it still supported the former State Senate leader.

"Everyone is innocent until proven guilty," he said. 'We have no reason to believe anything other than that Joe Bruno says he did nothing wrong."