Feds: Linda Mangano's bail bid is 'effort to avoid serving prison sentence'

Federal prosecutors have formally opposed a request to allow the wife of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano to stay out of prison while appealing her 2019 criminal conviction for obstructing the corruption investigation into her husband and lying to the FBI, a newly filed memorandum shows.

In the Wednesday memo, federal prosecutors said Linda Mangano’s arguments to remain free on bail while her appeal is processed have failed to raise a substantial question of law likely to result in the reversal of her conviction or a new trial. Prosecutors said her claims, which included concerns about COVID-19 conditions in federal prisons, amounted to “an effort to avoid serving her sentence" and said she had been convicted by “overwhelming evidence.”

“Bail is not the appropriate remedy here; what Mangano should do is request an expedited appeal if she is concerned about the length of the appellate process,” prosecutors wrote.

Linda Mangano, 59, of Bethpage, is scheduled to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons on July 27 to begin serving her 15-month sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut.

In response to the prosecution’s memo, her defense attorney John Carman, of Garden City, said Thursday: “Linda Mangano continues to fight because she believes she committed no crime. She has a constitutional right to appeal, which is based on the notion that the trial process is susceptible to mistakes.”

Carman had argued in a motion last month that Linda Mangano would likely serve her 15-month prison sentence before her appeal would be decided, citing a “statutory 15% good-time reduction as well as up to six months of halfway house time.” Carman also cited a COVID-19 resurgence and what he said was a lack of sufficient proof to convict her of two counts of lying to the FBI “because neither her exact statements nor the questions she answered were in evidence.”

Linda Mangano was convicted at trial in 2019 of conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and two counts of lying to the FBI. Her husband was found guilty of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, federal program bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with a quid-pro-quo scheme that had the then-county executive accepting bribes from the politically connected restaurateur Harendra Singh, who was also a longtime Mangano family friend.

In exchange for the bribes, which included a $454,000 "no-show” job for Linda Mangano, free meals and vacations, two luxury chairs, flooring for the Manganos’ bedroom and a $7,300 watch for one of their sons, the jury found that Edward Mangano used his position to influence Town of Oyster Bay officials into indirectly backing $20 million in loans for Singh, who was also a longtime town concessionaire.

In the prosecution’s memo, they said Linda Mangano had “utterly failed to demonstrate that the pandemic poses a greater risk to her than any other similarly-aged defendant currently serving a term of imprisonment” and said she failed to provide the court with any relevant information including any medical conditions that would place her at higher risk.

“She does not advise the Court as to whether she is vaccinated, or whether she has previously contracted COVID-19 and how it affected her,” prosecutors wrote. “Nor does she contend that she has lived a life of isolation during the pandemic to has avoid exposure to all individuals who may have contracted the virus. Furthermore, to follow Mangano’s argument to its logical conclusion would require courts to release every defendant who is 58 years or older. That is simply not the law.”

Prosecutors also responded to what they derided as Carman’s “baseless” allegations in his motion that Assistant U.S. Attorneys Catherine Mirable and Lara Treinis Gatz, who prosecuted the case and were present during law enforcement interviews with Linda Mangano, “made sure that her exact words were not recorded and that the evidence of those statements was ambiguous.”

“The AUSA’s [the assistant U.S. attorneys] did no such thing,” the memo said. “These personal attacks on the integrity of the AUSA’s is an all too common tactic employed by Linda Mangano. It is insulting, unfounded and unfair.”

U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack is expected to make a ruling before the defendant surrenders to prison officials.  Edward Mangano has also asked the judge to stay out of prison during the appeal process, but the judge has not yet ruled on that request.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.