The New York state Sens. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, left, Eric Schneiderman, D-Bronx, center, and Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, chat during a session at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Wednesday, July 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)
The son of New York Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is expected to resign from his new $120,000-a-year Senate job after prosecutors said they were investigating the hiring.
Senate Democrats’ spokeswoman Selvena Brooks said that former Assemblyman Pedro G. Espada is expected to resign from his job as Senate liaison between governments on Thursday. The expected resignation was first reported by The Daily News on Wednesday.
The senator and his spokesman didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.
An official in Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office told The Associated Press Wednesday that prosecutors were looking into whether the hiring violated state law against nepotism. The attorney general’s office also is investigating allegations that Sen. Pedro Espada misused campaign funds at Bronx health clinics he runs, the official said.
The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and asked to remain anonymous.
Brooks said earlier Wednesday that the younger Espada was the best choice among the candidates for the position. “Pedro G. Espada was hired on the merits and will be a valued addition to our team,” she said.
Earlier Wednesday, former Republican Congressman Rick Lazio called the hiring another example of a broken political system that is “too corrupt to be fixed by our elected officials in Albany.” He urged Cuomo to investigate the process by which it happened.
The elder Espada was the dissident Democrat who made possible a June coup in the Senate when he joined a Republican-led coalition, taking the slim majority from his Democratic party in exchange for a lucrative leadership post. He later rejoined the Democrats with the post of majority leader.
Espada said Tuesday that his son wasn’t hired in return for his rejoining the Democrats, that the hiring was not the result of any quid pro quo.
“He has been expressing a desire to return to government service in some capacity and saw this opportunity. I encouraged him to pursue it. That was the extent of my involvement,” the senator said Tuesday.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
