Levy’s supporters say that Ellner and Guldi are both unbelievable. The county executive’s spokesman Dan Aug told Newsday last month, “How can anyone believe anything coming out of the mouths of these defendants when even Mr. Guldi, in his opening statement, stated that Mr. Ellner is so desperate that he is willing to throw his own mother under the bus to soften his sentence?”
John Jay LaValle, chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Committee, put it bluntly that Guldi is “obviously a dishonest man. A jury of his peers saw through his lies and convicted him of a very serious crime,” he tells the Press. “I think his tactics were deplorable. It was simply a crooked man who got in trouble and decided to besmirch the reputation of the most famous person he knew. And this guy Ethan Ellner is another dirtbag.”
A veteran observer of East End politics who asked not to be named because of his professional objectivity was skeptical of the “pay to play” allegations that came to light because the county executive is totally out front about his solicitations.
“Levy is the kind of guy who will say to everybody who shakes hands with him, ‘Have you contributed to my campaign?
We need to keep this important work moving forward,’” he says, the words “important work” dripping with sarcasm.
Guldi told the Press that he’s been singled out by the district attorney’s office because of some political machinations between Spota and the county executive, a claim that’s hard to substantiate, to say the least, given the animosity Spota had in December over Levy’s severe budget restrictions that prevented the district attorney from filling his vacant prosecutor positions.
In a statement to Newsday last month, the county executive explained:
“As I’ve said before, Mr. Ellner was once a friend and we had occasional business interaction. But to suggest that these mortgage fraud and forgery indictments against Mr. Guldi were somehow brought by the D.A. because I didn’t like Mr. Guldi is the height of absurdity. Next, Guldi will say I framed Roger Rabbit.”
So far that’s one claim that Guldi has not made.
