New Pedro Espada tax trial set for Nov. 5

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday ordered a Nov. 5 trial for former State Senate power broker Pedro Espada on tax charges and said he wouldn't tolerate another two-month spectacle like the one that led to Espada's conviction on theft charges this year in Brooklyn.

"No judge in his right mind would permit it, and I certainly won't," U.S. District Judge William Pauley said when a defense lawyer told him the prosecution had called 103 witnesses in the Brooklyn case.

Espada, 58, was convicted in May in Brooklyn federal court of looting $500,000 for personal perks from his nonprofit Soundview health network in the Bronx. He faces charges in Manhattan that he failed to pay taxes on the money he allegedly stole.

The ex-senator also faces a retrial in Brooklyn on charges the jury could not resolve. His son, Pedro Gautier Espada, also faces a retrial in Brooklyn, and is a co-defendant in the tax case.