Espada pleads not guilty, says he will be vindicated

State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzling more than $500,000 from the federally funded not-for-profit Soundview Healthcare Network at a Brooklyn courthouse on Dec. 15.
The soon-to-be former state senator of the 33rd District was charged a day earlier, on Dec. 14, for using money from the Soundview Healthcare Center, which he founded in 1978, to pay for personal expenses, including $110,000 on personal meals for him and his family.

Both men were ordered to surrender their passports and told they must remain within New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. They were released after each of their wives posted $750,000 bail, according to news reports.

Ever since Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Espada in April for stealing $14 million from Soundview, the senator has repeatedly said he is not guilty of any crime. After posting bail, he did so again.

“I do have abiding faith in the justice system, in the people who decide these matters, and I look forward to a full and complete vindication in court,” Mr. Espada told reporters.

After news of the indictment broke on Dec 14, Mr. Espada was immediately stripped of his Majority Leader title and removed as chairman of Senate’s Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development by the New York State Democratic Conference.

No one will fill the Majority Leader position for the time remaining. Republicans have now taken control of the Senate and Dean Skelos will soon hold the position of state Senate Republican leader.

Democratic Conference leader John Sampson of Brooklyn said taking away Mr. Espada’s title was the “appropriate action for the time remaining.”

Mr. Espada stands accused of spending Soundview funds on a long list of personal expenses including construction on his home in Mamaroneck, N.Y., tickets to Broadway shows, concerts and sporting events, thousands of dollars worth of sushi, a petting zoo and caterer for a member of his family’s birthday party, a down payment on a Bentley automobile and much more.