Brooklyn Democratic leader convicted of financial wrongdoing

The longtime leader of the influential but weakening Brooklyn Democratic Party was convicted Tuesday of mishandling campaign contributions in the first of four cases stemming from a wide-ranging probe of judicial corruption.

After a nearly two-week trial, jurors convicted Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. of two felony counts of violating election law by taking excessive campaign donations, and two counts of falsifying business records.

The felony convictions force Norman out of his assembly seat and party position.

Norman leaned forward in his chair but remained calm as the verdict was read. He could face up to four years in prison at a November sentencing.

“I will forfeit my assembly seat. I thought I’d be acquitted,” Norman said outside the courthouse. “Unfortunately the jury felt differently. I’m certainly not happy about it but life transitions. You can’t rewrite history.”

Prosecutors said Norman, 54, tried to conceal about $10,000 in contributions in the 2000 and 2002 Assembly primary elections.

The charges were contained in the first of four indictments stemming from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ courthouse corruption probe into whether Norman and other party leaders sold judgeships in the borough.

The indictments allege a pattern of criminal mishandling of political finances, grand larceny and conspiracy.

Hynes said Tuesday that the prospect of prison time could force Norman to cooperate with 12 simultaneous investigations into the buying of judgeships in Brooklyn. In a county where the Democratic nomination virtually guarantees victory, Hynes said, it is highly suspicious that primary winners go on to spend an average of $100,000 per campaign.

“Where is that money going?” Hynes said. “Clearly the question has been on everyone’s mind for eons; ‘Are judgeships for sale in this state?’ I certainly think we can get the question answered were he to cooperate.”

Norman’s defense attorney, former judge Edward Rappaport, acknowledged that the 23-year Crown Heights assemblyman failed to report the contributions from the New York State Association of Service Station and Repair Shops, a gas-station lobbying group. Rappaport called that failure an innocent mistake that an overaggressive prosecutor was trying to transform into a crime.

The power of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, a once-mighty machine with influence over the most heavily Democratic county in the nation, has diminished in recent years. The party maintains a heavy influence over local judicial races, however, and a Bronx judge, State Supreme Court Judge Martin Marcus, was assigned to the case to avoid any appearance of conflict.

The other three indictments accuse Norman of using the judicial nominating system to steer contracts to favored consultants, accepting more than $5,000 in reimbursements from the Assembly for travel that had already been paid for by the county party and depositing a $5,000 check made out to his re-election committee into his personal bank account.

When the indictments were announced, Hynes said Norman used the state Legislature, the county party and his re-election committee as a “personal piggy bank.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in a statement, “Wrongdoing by any public official is deeply disturbing. My thoughts and prayers are with Clarence Norman and his family at this very difficult time.”