Politician From Schenectady County Gets Prison Term For Extortion
Porcus Ubiquitous
Ex-Rotterdam supervisor given 21 months
"I am truly sorry. Six years ago I apparently made a mistake. It was
stupid, it was careless and I'm very sorry for it."
James A. Constantino
Former Rotterdam supervisor
By BILL BYRON
Gazette Reporter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALBANY - Former Rotter- dam Town Supervisor James A. Constantino - the
first casualty in an ongoing federal criminal investigation into
Schenectady County corruption - was sentenced Monday to 21 months in
federal prison for extortion while in office.
Constantino will have to surrender at 2 p.m. Sept. 24, at which time
he must also pay the court $5,100 in fines and repay $8,000 - the
amount he extorted - to the contractor. He will not appeal his
sentence, his attorney said.
"I am truly sorry. Six years ago I apparently made a mistake,"
Constantino told the court before he was sentenced. "It was stupid, it
was careless and I'm very sorry for it."
He could have received anywhere from 18 to 24 months at his
sentencing. His attorney, Robert Gottlieb, asked U.S. District Judge
Thomas A. McAvoy to sentence Constantino to the minimum.
McAvoy, however, agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Tyrrell
and sentenced Constantino to 21 months, followed by three years of
supervised release.
He is expected to serve about 18 months of his sentence in prison,
assuming he receives time off for good behavior.
"He certainly has suffered . . . he's presently going through a
divorce, he's not even living in the Albany area because of the public
attention and shame, quite frankly," Gottlieb told the judge while
arguing for lenience.
Gottlieb also asked that Constantino spend his time at the federal
correctional institution in Otisville in Orange County. It is a medium
security penitentiary that holds 1,500 inmates and is the closest
prison to Long Island, where Constantino now lives.
Before delivering the sentence, McAvoy admonished Constantino for
betraying the public trust.
"This reflects on the whole state of our country and our society,"
McAvoy said. "People in your district put trust and confidence in you
. . it's a ripple effect and it's weakening the country - and it
really bothers me."
Constantino appeared stoic as he left the federal court building
Monday afternoon.
"Six years ago I made a mistake by not reporting how much I received,"
Constantino said as he left the building.
Previously sealed documents, including the plea agreement that
outlines the crime and the terms of the sentence, were opened to the
public for the first time Monday.
The plea agreement states that in February 1996 a Rotterdam excavation
company, William M. Larned & Sons, submitted a proposal to the town to
build a road in a residential subdivision for about $148,000.
Sometime between February and April, Constantino asked Tim Larned, the
company owner, to reduce the amount of the proposal.
Larned resubmitted a proposal for $100,000 and received the contract.
An unnamed co-conspirator then told Larned that Constantino wanted
$20,000 of the $100,000 that the town had paid Larned.
The unnamed person then took cash from Larned and gave Constantino
$8,000. Ultimately, Larned received only $80,000 for the job.
"The $8,000 payment was not due the defendant or his office and was
made as a result of the defendant's wrongful use and threat of
economic harm," according to the plea agreement.
Constantino pleaded guilty to the charge in October. His sentencing
date had been adjourned twice.
He has been cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office on
the ongoing investigation that has seen subpoenas served on Rotterdam,
Schenectady and Schenectady County government offices. Constantino,
however, remains the only person charged with a crime.
The plea agreement allowed for the possibility that Constantino might
receive a reduced sentence if information he supplied to federal
agents was of "substantial assistance" to the investigation.
Ultimately, Tyrrell did not offer any reduction.
"There was no motion to reduce the sentence based on cooperation,"
Tyrrell said following the sentencing.
In Guilderland Town Court, Constantino recently pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor count of child endangerment for inappropriately touching a
middle-school girl on the buttocks.
Constantino was a teacher at the Mohonasen School District in
Rotterdam for 30 years and once he retired in 2000, he began
substitute teaching. On one of his first assignments, at Farnsworth
Middle School in Guilderland, he touched a student on the buttocks
during a fire drill and was later arrested and charged.
Constantino, a Democrat, was Rotterdam town supervisor from 1984 to
1997 and a town councilman for years before that.
Contact Bill Byron at 395-3120 or wil...@dailygazette.com.