Skelos corruption trial set to start, with father-son relationship at its core

For Adam Skelos, Dec. 17, 2014, was not a great day.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had just announced he wouldn't allow hydrofracking, blocking a potentially lucrative market for AbTech, the environmental technology firm Skelos represented, and he immediately dialed his father, Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, to vent.

"Ahhh! This day sucks!" Adam Skelos complained, according to a transcript of a federal wiretap of the call.

Dean Skelos tried to calm his son: "Well, we're going to totally focus on that other thing now, OK?"

When his son answered, "Oh my God," Skelos repeated the advice to "refocus" on "other stuff" and finally seemed to get through.

"All right, all right, that's good," Adam Skelos said.

Such wiretapped exchanges are expected to play a central role when the Skeloses go on trial in federal court in Manhattan starting Monday in a case that is at its core about the stunning lengths a father will go to help his son, alleging that one of New York's most powerful men "monetized" his office in a bid to get his child's career on track.

Skelos, the charges say, used his clout on state issues as wide-ranging as rent regulation, fracking and malpractice insurance to squeeze AbTech and two other companies to give his son work, and then corruptly pushed to fund contracts in Nassau County and elsewhere -- the "other stuff" he consoled his son with in code last December -- to help him succeed, while Adam Skelos bullied and bragged about what access to his powerful patron could do.

Family loyalty angle But legal and political experts alike expect the Skelos lawyers to try to turn the family narrative to their advantage, recasting the ugly allegations as a more sympathetic story of parental love for a child who needed help that may resonate, and arguing that any quid pro quos were imagined by people who wanted to curry favor with the GOP leader.

"The jurors are going to be parents," predicted Joe Conway, a Mineola defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. "The defense will focus on a father doing what he could for his son."

Dean Skelos, 67, and Adam Skelos, 32, both of Rockville Centre, face charges of conspiracy, extortion and bribery for allegedly using the state senator's power to get New Hyde Park developer Glenwood Management, Roslyn malpractice firm Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, and AbTech, an Arizona company, to pay Adam more than $300,000 in fees, salary and benefits.

After a court hearing Friday, Dean Skelos spoke about the case publicly for the first time, calling the charges -- a key piece of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's crusade against Albany corruption -- a "prosecution that should never have been brought" and predicting the jury "will find my son and myself innocent."

An uphill battleThe trial will be part of an unprecedented corruption double-bill, with former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver simultaneously fighting corruption charges in a neighboring courthouse. In that environment, defense lawyers say the Skeloses face an uphill battle overcoming public cynicism about politicians.

"How do you pick 12 who can be fair when you have two leaders on trial for much the same thing in the same place?" said Steve Zissou, a Manhattan criminal defense lawyer who wonders if U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood will warn jurors not to read about Silver when she orders them to avoid publicity on the Skelos case.

Adam Skelos, according to news reports, is a Hofstra graduate who was once arrested on burglary charges involving a girlfriend and held a series of internships linked to his father and title company jobs in the 2000s. The federal charges leave little doubt Dean Skelos was concerned about his son's success, telling those he solicited for work that Adam was "suffering" financially and struggling to afford a house and insurance.

The defense has also signaled that it may introduce "sympathy" evidence that Adam Skelos was adopted and has an autistic child, and has said it hopes to show that at least one of those who hired him -- Anthony Bonomo, the insurance company CEO -- acted out of friendship to Dean Skelos, not pressure or concern about legislation his company needed.

But legal and political observers are skeptical the defense will be able to explain away all the evidence. A human motive or an element of friendship doesn't absolve Skelos if he also knew his official power to threaten or reward was influencing the outcome, notes Fordham criminal law professor James Cohen.

"You as the alleged perpetrator may have more than one motive," Cohen said. "You don't have to be 100 percent devoted to evil. If there is a quid pro quo, you're still in the soup."

"It's a natural phenomenon in life for parents to help their kids, but it becomes a corrupt act when there's an actual or implied quid pro quo," added Gerald Benjamin, a longtime Albany watcher who teaches political science at SUNY New Paltz. "I do think it's mitigating, but I don't think it's decisive."

Wiretaps the wildcardOne problem: the wiretaps. In addition to testimony from officials of the three companies that Skelos allegedly shook down, prosecutors have a repository of dozens of wiretapped conversations from the Skeloses. That is evidence Silver doesn't face.

No tape has yet surfaced of the senator explicitly putting the squeeze on one of the three companies, and lawyers expect him to argue that he behaved no differently on legislation because of his son. But transcripts in court filings do appear to capture Skelos pressing for a $12 million storm-water contract for AbTech with Nassau County.

Others reveal gossipy strategizing by the pair about using Cuomo's girlfriend to put him on the defensive and get provisions to help AbTech in the state budget, as well as suspicious references to the looming presence of Bharara and "dangerous" times and "coded" language that prosecutors say show the Skeloses knew they were up to no good.

"It's much easier to defend a case when a witness gets on the stand -- you can ask about memory issues, changes in their statements," Conway said. "With a tape recording, there's no question about what was said."

The other burden for the defense, experts say, is an array of evidence painting Adam Skelos in an unflattering light.

Prosecutors, for example, are expected to call a supervisor from Physicians Reciprocal Insurers who will testify Adam Skelos was a no-show at work but claimed he was untouchable because of his father, and that his boss wasn't qualified to "shine my shoes."

In taped conversations, according to court papers, Adam Skelos took a similar tack -- threatening in one that Nassau County would be punished by his father in Albany if it didn't fund the AbTech contract, and in another warning the head of an association of Greek diners who didn't respond quickly enough to a business offer from Adam Skelos that he would live to regret losing his father's good graces.

Dean Skelos will look bad if he tries to distance himself and appears to be throwing his son under the bus, experts say, but that kind of talk will make it difficult to evoke sympathy from jurors.

"It's so egregious, and especially on the part of the son," said Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College political science professor. "His base crudeness makes him a really difficult defendant. The son reflects badly on the father. The son needs help. He didn't need illegal help."