Breaking News – Mount Vernon Corporation Counsel Lawrence Porcari turned himself in on the morning of Wednesday, May 29th, after being indicted in the state attorney general’s probe of the misuse of city funds.
Porcari, a resident of Yonkers, was arraigned on felony charges of offering a false instrument. Porcari was spotted being escorted by his attorney and members of the NYS Attorney General’s office to court in White Plains to be arraigned. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this morning in Westchester County Court.
Porcari was represented by Joseph Spiezio’s Florida lawyers, who are also handling Mayor Richard W. Thomas‘ corruption case.
This is the latest development in the NYS Attorney General’s corruption case against Mayor Thomas and follows an announcement the grand jury declined to indict Mayor Richard W. Thomas in the case of the use of Mount Vernon Water Department funds for Mayor Thomas’ personal legal bills, his lawyers said late Friday afternoon.
Thomas and his lawyers maintained that the mayor “received sound counsel from the Mount Vernon Corporation Council in connection with the water department payments at issue.
Porcari was indicted by the same grand jury that voted not to charge Mayor Richard Thomas after hearing evidence about the use of city water department funds to pay for the mayor’s criminal-defense legal bills, LoHud reported.
Mayor Thomas, who is running for re-election, also rejected a final plea offer – on May 17th – that would have allowed him to avoid incarceration if he pleaded to a misdemeanor and one of the six felony charges he is facing and stepped down as mayor. He also could have had the felony conviction expunged if he had completed probation.
Porcari was at one time a Yonkers Corporation Counsel, alleged to have been conflicted because he was also a confidante/stooge of Joseph Spiezio, III, reports the Yonkers Tribune.
Stay Tuned to Black Westchester for more of this developing story.
