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BROOKLYN-Former Brooklyn Assemblyman and Democratic Party head Clarence Norman has been convicted yet again, this time for third degree grand larceny for extorting a judicial candidate for over $20,000.
After three days of deliberations, a jury also found Norman guilty of attempted grand larceny and coercion while acquitting him of five other counts. He faces up to seven years in prison at his sentencing on April 16.
Norman already faces prison times as a result of his convictions in two other corruption cases. He has been convicted three times at four trials over the last 18 months.
Norman, 55, will remain free on $110,000 bail and said he would appeal. He continues to maintain his innocence saying that he was enforcing a "cost-sharing arrangement" between candidates in the 2002 primary.
After the verdict, Norman said "the bottom line is I was convicted of asking candidates to pay their pro rata share of campaign expenses….That's it. That's why I stand convicted of a felony. For helping people".
Norman had been accused to trying to shake down Brooklyn civil court candidate Karen Yellen. She testified that he had demanded that she pay his chosen consultant thousands of dollars and if she didn't comply, that she would lose his party's support.
On Monday, an appellate court is scheduled to hear his appeal on his previous convictions.
In December 2005, he was convicted of grand larceny, falsifying business records and filing a false instrument for stealing a $5,000 contribution check to his reelection committee in 2001.
In September, 2005, a Brooklyn jury convicted him of three felony counts of taking illegal campaign contributions and a misdemeanor count of concealing the money from his campaign treasurer.
His September 2005 convictions had automatically expelled him from the State Assembly where he was the number two man under Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan. Norman had served in the Assembly since 1982. He was also automatically disbarred as a lawyer and removed from his position as the chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.
Norman was the first black Democratic Party leader in Brooklyn, the son of a prominent Brooklyn minister who hand-picked judges and controlled Brooklyn politics. The case against Norman was initiated as an investigation into claims that judgeships were for sale in Brooklyn but the investigation of Norman led away from the judgeship issue to that of campaign finance.
In March 2006, he was acquitted of submitting false travel vouchers when he was an Assemblyman. 2-24-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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