Ex-state senator Pedro Espada’s legal troubles keep piling on.
Federal prosecutors said the disgraced politician, who pleaded not guilty to embezzlement a month ago, will be facing a new indictment that pins him for tax evasion.
Federal lawyers announced in a status conference Friday that “the government attends to file a superseding indictment in the upcoming weeks concerning federal tax charges,” according to U.S. Attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza.
Last April, then attorney general Andrew Cuomo accused the Democrat and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, for raiding more than $50,000 from the federally-funded, not-for-profit Soundview health clinic in their Bronx district for personal gain.
Defense lawyer Susan Necheles told the New York Daily News the tacked-on tax charges were no surprise, and suggested the government rushed the first indictment out so Espada could be arrested while still in office.
Espada was ousted from his position in the last election. Nardoza said the judge ordered another status conference to discuss the tax-evasion charges on March 3rd.
