Jurors seek testimony on $28G at Norman Seabrook’s home

Jurors appeared to be pondering the source of $28,000 found in former New York City jail-union boss Norman Seabrook’s home when he was arrested as they finished a fifth day of deliberations in his Manhattan federal court bribery trial without a verdict on Wednesday.

Prosecutors at trial said the cash was left from a $60,000 bribe Seabrook allegedly got 18 months earlier for moving $20 million in union funds into the Platinum Partners hedge fund, while the defense argued it came from Seabrook’s gambling, including a $100,000 payday in Atlantic City.

The jury, in its third note of the day Wednesday, said it wanted to review testimony about Seabrook’s “purported” Atlantic City winnings — setting off speculation among lawyers both that the panel was buying the defense explanation for the cash, and that the panel was skeptical.

Seabrook, 57, is accused of taking the bribe in December 2014, from co-defendant Murray Huberfeld, a Platinum Partners founder. Jona Rechnitz, the prosecution’s star cooperating witness, testified that he set up the bribe and delivered it to Seabrook in a Ferragamo bag.

The trial lasted two weeks, and jurors have been deliberating for five days. On Tuesday, they reported they were deadlocked, and U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter told them to keep working. The note about gambling winnings was one of three requesting evidence on Wednesday.

Testimony from Rechnitz, a linchpin of federal probes of NYPD and City Hall corruption last year, was the centerpiece of the prosecution case at trial. But the defense attacked his credibility, and he admitted lying many times to many people while making his way as a city real estate investor.

Prosecutors pointed to the cash — much of it in a safe — found at Seabrook’s Bronx home along with the Ferragamo bag when he was arrested last year as corroboration of Rechnitz’s story.

But one member of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association executive board, Daniel Palmieri, testifying about the decision to move money to the hedge fund, had also testified that he had “heard” about Seabrook having a $100,000 payday gambling at Atlantic City.

Seabrook defense lawyer Paul Shechtman relied in his summation on that shred of testimony, along with evidence of Seabrook’s gambling at the Mohegan Sun casino and bank records of cash withdrawals, as possible explanations for the cash seized when Seabrook was arrested.

It apparently stuck with the jury. “Can we please . . . be shown the transcript of the any testimony that refers to Seabrook’s purported Atlantic City gambling winnings?” the Wednesday note from the foreman said.

The judge sent in Palmieri’s testimony, and a brief reference by Rechnitz to Seabrook’s gambling. Jurors are scheduled to resume their deliberations on Thursday.