Witness: Donation won him county work

A key witness in the insurance fraud case against former Suffolk County legislator George Guldi testified Monday that an elected official, whose name he did not disclose, told him how much to pay in campaign contributions and that he got county title work as a result of his relationship with the official.

Appearing tense and at times combative as he was cross-examined by Guldi, who is defending himself, Ethan Ellner said the official requested the campaign contributions at a meeting in a governmental office and that he donated "in excess of $8,000."

Dan Aug, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, said Ellner's testimony is a fabrication.

"To save his own skin, this individual had to come up with something," Aug said. "Since he already made donations, he simply lied without substantiation that he was told to give them. It never happened, and no one in the county executive's 25-year career other than this individual facing years in prison, ever made such a claim."

Jurors appeared riveted as Ellner confirmed a long friendship with the unnamed official, saying they had met in law school, that he had rented an apartment from the official and that they had traveled together.

County Court Judge James F.X. Doyle, who is presiding over the trial in Riverhead, has ruled that the official's name cannot be disclosed, but that Guldi could ask about the campaign contributions. As a result, Guldi referred several times to "he who must not be named."

Guldi is on trial on charges that he stole the insurance proceeds paid after his father's Westhampton Beach house burned down in 2008. He and Ellner were arrested in March 2009 in connection with a separate $82-million mortgage fraud case. Ellner pleaded guilty to grand larceny and related charges and agreed to testify for the prosecution against Guldi.

SEE PHOTOSGeorge Guldi

Ellner said Monday on the stand that under his cooperation agreement with the Suffolk District Attorney's office, he must testify truthfully.

Newsday has reported that a title company partly owned by Ellner, Suburban Abstract of Stony Brook, got more than $85,000 in county title work from 2005 through early 2009. Levy has said he recommended that Ellner get the work, even though he knew he had been convicted of attempted tax evasion, because Levy had used him in his private law practice and found his work to be "spotless."

Court papers released last month in the Guldi case show Ellner told prosecutors he paid what he characterized as a "bribe" to an unnamed official in exchange for county work. State campaign records show a Lee Holding Corp. contributed $8,900 to Friends of Steve Levy from May 21, 2006 through June 25, 2007. State business records list Ellner's mother, Gladys Ellner, as the chairwoman or chief executive officer of Lee Holding.

Last week, while the jury was out of the courtroom, Guldi complained to the judge that he found it "completely impossible to defend myself" without "naming names" and that he needed to question Ellner about an alleged "bribe to the County Executive."

In response, Doyle told him, "You're not trying other cases here."