Power on Trial: Sinnreich spars with Mangano’s defense attorney

Nobody asked

Jonathan Sinnreich, Oyster Bay’s outside legal counsel, and Kevin Keating, defense attorney for Edward Mangano, Nassau’s former county executive, spent much of the morning engaged in a verbal tennis match.

Keating would ask whether Sinnreich agreed with the defense attorney’s characterization of — well, just about anything.

And Sinnreich would fire back, mostly with “no,” along with a detailed explanation of why Keating’s characterization of discussion during an April 28, 2010, meeting — how construction loans are structured, what he said or did not say to a grand jury or to federal investigations and on and on and on — was wrong.

At least twice, Sinnreich also disagreed with how his statements to federal prosecutors were stated in FBI notes.

At one point during the trial of Mangano, his wife, Linda, and former Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, Keating pressed Sinnreich on whether he mentioned in grand jury testimony that Mangano placed a hand on Singh’s shoulder during the 2010 meeting in the campaign headquarters of John Venditto, then-Oyster Bay’s town supervisor.

“I don’t think so, but I wasn’t asked a question that would have elicited that response,” Sinnreich replied.

Just say yes

Sinnreich, under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine M. Mirabile, testified that he was pretty much out of continued discussions about how to have the town legally back loans for former restaurateur Harendra Singh — after he continued to oppose many proposed iterations of a deal.

During an April 28, 2010, meeting, Sinnreich testified, he laid out his concerns and had some back and forth with William Cornachio and William Savino, attorneys for Rivkin Radler, Edward Mangano’s former law firm.

By May, he testified, he was out of the loop.

“It had become obvious to me through the town’s silence that the town was looking for Rivkin Radler to say yes to the dress,” he told jurors Thursday.

He said he did not learn until much later that the town had amended Singh’s concessions to help him get loans.

Lawyer needed

Sinnreich testified that in 2015 Leonard Genova came to him after federal agents visited the then-town attorney’s home.

Genova, Sinnreich, testified, was upset.

And, he said, that Genova, who had just lost his wife to cancer and has two young children, asked the agents to return later.

He told Sinnreich that the agents had agreed to do so.

“I asked him if he had a lawyer,” Sinnreich testified. “I told Mr. Genova that he needed his own lawyer, that I couldn’t do it because I am not a criminal attorney.”

“I also told him the supe ought to have criminal lawyers,” Sinnreich testified, referring to Venditto.

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