Linda and Edward Mangano arrive at federal court in Central...

Linda and Edward Mangano arrive at federal court in Central Islip on Monday as their retrial continues. Credit: James Carbone

This story was reported by Nicole Fuller, Bart Jones, Robert E. Kessler and Andrew Smith.  It was written by Jones.

A key witness in the retrial of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his wife, Linda, on Monday testified that the politician was the only one with the authority to direct the emergency no-bid contract to serve food to county workers during superstorm Sandy to a close friend of the couple.

The contract is one of the kickbacks prosecutors say Edward Mangano provided to Harendra Singh, who testified during the first trial that he bribed the county executive and longtime friend with gifts and a $450,000 “no-show job” for Linda Mangano in exchange for lucrative county contracts and $20 million in Oyster Bay Town-backed loan guarantees.

Singh pleaded guilty to bribing Mangano and is awaiting sentencing.

Laura Munafo, who worked under Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker and then under Mangano, testified Monday about how Singh came to supply food at the county Office of Emergency Management after superstorm Sandy in 2012. Munafo did not testify during the first trial but was mentioned often.

Questioned Monday by Edward Mangano’s attorney Kevin Keating on her text messages with Singh on Nov. 4, 2012, Munafo said: “The county executive advised me the state was giving approval on food.”

Munafo, answering a question from one of the prosecutors, said that in 2010 Walker — who had previously overseen all county purchases — had made a purchase of equipment that was “not necessary.”

As a result, Edward Mangano “was not happy,” and after that OEM and police contracts went directly to the county executive for approval, she testified. In October 2012, when Sandy struck, OEM contracts would have been OK’d by the county executive.

Attempting to dissuade the notion, put forth by Keating, that the county executive was too busy dealing with the storm to worry about a $238,000 food contract, prosecutor Lara Treinis Gatz asked: “With all the disaster going on, did Ed Mangano make time to talk about the food contract?”

“Yes,” Munafo said.

Munafo testified that on Nov. 5, Singh, who billed the county $20,800 per day to supply food to the command center, showed up at OEM and asked her to speak to Edward Mangano.

“He told me he wanted to get paid for the food,” Munafo said. When Munafo told Mangano, she said he turned to Walker and “said for him to take care of it.”

Other witnesses provided details of the food contract Monday.

Chris Seidl, the executive chef for the Dover Group, testified that after Sandy struck Long Island, his boss Butch Yamali called him and said the county needed them for “a pretty big job” providing food to OEM.

Seidl said Dover could provide 100,000 meals per day “easily” and would have had no problem doing the OEM job.

But the contract never came through and instead went to Singh.

Edward and Linda Mangano, of Bethpage, have both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them — the same ones they faced during their first trial. The former county executive faces seven felony counts, including federal program bribery, honest-services wire fraud, extortion and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Linda Mangano faces five felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI.

Defense attorneys have argued the gifts from Singh, which included a massage chair, a $7,300 Panerai Luminor watch and vacations to the Caribbean and upstate New York, were part of the 20-year friendship between Singh and the Manganos. Additionally, defense attorneys produced evidence during the first trial that Edward Mangano gave Singh $2,500 toward the watch — a 21st birthday present for Mangano’s son Sal — and contributed money for meals and activities during the vacations.

Keating has argued that the days after Sandy struck were simply too chaotic and busy for the county executive to be involved in giving Singh a contract.

After Sandy hit in October 2012, the county jail provided food for county employees, some working nearly around the clock to manage the storm’s aftermath. During the last trial, witnesses testified that a state inspector put a stop to providing the meals after servers were spotted washing utensils in a men’s restroom.

Seidl said Monday he was clear Dover could do the job and adhere to all safety specifications — either setting up cooking stations at OEM or making the meals at the Coral  House in Baldwin and then transporting them to OEM in refrigerated trucks. Seidel said Dover had its equipment stored in a warehouse in Plainview.

“It seemed like we were going to be doing it,” Seidl said.

But Seidl said they never got the call.

On cross-examination, one of Edward Mangano’s attorneys, Matthew Brissenden, attempted to show that the county decided not to use Dover Group because it was too far away from OEM, especially with the gas shortages that engulfed the Island after the storm. Additionally, all of Dover’s five properties, including the Coral House, were located south of Sunrise Highway and were damaged by Sandy.

John Maguire, the emergency operations manager at OEM, testified that state officials came to him about the utensils being used to serve food being washed in the men’s bathroom, which Maguire called a “blatant violation” of health standards.

Maguire said he asked one of the high-ranking state officials what to do and was told to get an outside contractor and follow procurement policy.

Maguire said he immediately thought of Michael Schlenoff, whom he knew to be a high-ranking employee in the purchasing department. Schlenoff provided him with three “approved vendors,” none of whom was Singh, and told him to pick one. Maguire said he asked Schlenoff if he needed to seek bids to get the lowest price, but Schlenoff told him he could just choose.

But first, Maguire said, he went to his boss, then-Nassau OEM chief Craig Craft, who told him: “Handle it. Call Butch.”

Maguire said he got Yamali’s number from OEM and called him and then arranged for someone from the sheriff’s office to pick up Yamali’s executive chef, who assured Maguire they could handle the job.

Maguire said that soon after, he had a “heated exchange” with Munafo, who came into his office and said: “Who the [expletive] are you to pick the caterer?”

Maguire said he replied: “I don’t give a [expletive] who the caterer is, I can’t have people [getting sick].”

Maguire said that Munafo replied, “Butch gets enough,” and she walked out.

State health department official John Morrissey testified that he was deployed to work at Nassau County’s emergency management center after Sandy struck and noticed the food was being served to workers in unsanitary conditions. He did not testify at the first trial.

Morrissey said he saw jail inmates “going into the men’s bathroom to clean utensils that were being used to serve the food,” which he described as “not sanitary.”

“It’s a major problem,” Morrissey said during questioning by U.S. Attorney Christopher Caffarone.

“Larry said he was gonna talk to the county executive,” Morrissey said, referring to then-health Commissioner Lawrence Eisenstein.

Morrissey, who said he had a 45-minute conversation with the health commissioner the next day, said he thought that meant the vendor was preapproved by the county.

He said the county executive has a “favorite vendor he likes to use for this sort of thing.”

Asked by Caffarone if the favorite vendor was the same one that eventually got the contract, Morrissey answered: “Yes, it was.”

Morrissey said there was an “immediate improvement” to the food once the new supplier came on.

On cross-examination, Keating asked Morrissey if he knew the new vendor was “three minutes from OEM.”

Caffarone objected, so Keating asked if the closeness of the new vendor helped facilitate the delivery of the food. Morrissey said: “I can’t comment on the logistics of getting there.”

But when asked about having a choice between a vendor three minutes away and another a half-hour away during an emergency, Morrissey conceded that closeness “operationally makes sense.”

Meanwhile, in a letter sent Sunday to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, who is presiding over the trial, prosecutors contended that John Carman, the defense attorney for Linda Mangano, “came very close to causing a mistrial” during his opening statement Jan. 22.

The prosecutors said Carman used the prosecutors’ names improperly when he referred to them, and made inaccurate statements to which they could not respond. They said Carman criticized them for failing to record Linda Mangano’s interviews with FBI agents but noted that Carman himself was present and could have recorded them.

The prosecutors asked the judge to order Carman to refrain from such conduct going forward in the trial.

“The government impugns my advocacy to distract from their own poor decision-making,” he said. “Once again, they look to the court to save them.”

Also Monday, a juror was dismissed, delaying the start of testimony for more than an hour.

The reason was not disclosed in open court, though attorneys conferred with the judge at sidebar three times before testimony finally began at 10:40 a.m. By then, juror No. 1 was gone, replaced with an alternate. It is the second juror to be replaced during the one-week-old trial.

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME