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Espada Allegedly Stole Money From Clinic To Build Picket Fence, Buy Chewing Gum

By

John Del Signore

Published Apr 18, 2012

Modified Jun 15, 2012

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By

John Del Signore

Published Apr 18, 2012

Modified Jun 15, 2012

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The disclosures in the embezzlement trial of disgraced State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. just keeps getting more Pedriculous. In yesterday's testimony, it emerged that the the Bronxchester Senator submitted receipts to the nonprofit Soundview Health Clinic so that he could be reimbursed $697 for a new picket fence outside his Westchester dream home. To be fair, it is a pretty sweet fence—the Daily News has a photo of it. But here are a few other noteworthy items Espada submitted receipts for:

Soundview also paid for $2,000 worth of sports tickets at Madison Square Garden. Those receipts were accompanied by a handwritten note from Espada explaining it was a “staff outing," which is totally plausible considering several of his family members were on the Soundview payroll. It's worth mentioning again, in case anyone has blocked it for the sake of self-preservation, that Soundview received millions of dollars in taxpayer funds—funds which were "earmarked" by Espada himself. But hey, a guy's gotta eat... $60,000 in sushi.

It was also revealed yesterday that Soundview paid Espada $256,195 payout for accrued “unused vacation time”—the equivalent of 54 weeks of full time work—so that he could use the money to—wait for it—reimburse Soundview for all the shady "personal expenses" he racked up on the charity's corporate AmEx card. But even after that, Espada still out $30K, so Soundview granted him his full, annual eight weeks of vacation on January 1st, 2009 so he could take another payout, Soundview CFO Philip Valdez testified.

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corruption

pedro

pedro espada

picket fence

soundview

trial

John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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