If you thought New York state politics couldn’t get any weirder, it just did.
Assemb. William Boyland Jr., less than three weeks after being acquitted of corruption charges in an influence-peddling case, was charged in a separate federal case with accepting bribes and soliciting kickbacks that showed possible influence-peddling over New York City government.
Prosecutors said Tuesday in an unsealed complaint that Boyland “solicited and accepted a stream of bribes” from a carnival promoter and two undercover agents from Federal Bureau of Investigation between August 2010 and June 2011, according to a statement.
The alleged payments — $14,000 — were for city permits for the carnival promoter and to secure a state grant to finance a real-estate deal for the agents, who posed as developers. Boyland also proposed a $250,000 kickback scheme in connection with the deal, a purchase and quick resale of a shuttered Brooklyn hospital in his district, the complaint said.
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And in a twist straight out of a Christopher Buckley novel, the complaint filed against Boyland alleges he sought the payments so he could afford to pay an attorney to help defend him from bribery charges.
