Jun 19, 2009 6:04 am US/Eastern
Video: Espada Supporters Rough Up Blogger
Footage Subpoenaed By Bronx DA In Ongoing Probe Of State Senator's Alleged Misdoings Prior To Leading GOP Coup
Lawmaker On Tape: "He's Trying To Teach You Manners"
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada does his best to dodge CBS 2's Marcia Kramer when approached about his home in Mamaroneck in May 2009.
CBS
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Sens. Dean Skelos (l) and Pedro Espada (r) are sworn in in the New York Senate chambers on June 8, 2009.
CBS
A Bronx grand jury is leaving no stone unturned in its probe of State Sen. Pedro Espada -- the man at the center of the Albany coup.
They've subpoenaed a video showing Espada supporters roughing up a camera man, a City Hall blogger.
CBS 2 HD talked to the man behind the camera.
"That was the now-Sen. Pedro Espada," blogger Rafael Martinez-Alequin said, pointing to the lawmaker on the video.
Martinez-Alequin talked about a day last September when he was roughed up while covering an Espada campaign event. First, Espada blew him kisses, but then it got ugly.
"Hey, don't do that! No. No. Listen … Pedro, Pedro … tell them to get off," Martinez-Alequin is heard on the video saying to the lawmaker and his supporters.
"The people were hitting me in the back and pushing me and trying to grab the camera," Martinez-Alequin told CBS 2 HD on Thursday.
Then Espada told Martinez-Alequin why he was getting pushed around.
"He's trying to teach you manners papa. He's trying to teach you manners," Espada said on the video.
"I was scared. I was afraid for my life," Martinez-Alequin said.
That video was subpoenaed by Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson on Monday a week after Espada joined the Republicans in their coup.
Espada claims the DA's probe is payback for his involvement in the coup, but as CBS 2 HD first told you the Espada probe has been going on for some time. It includes questions about whether he can represent the Bronx when he lives in the leafy Westchester County suburb of Mamaroneck.
Democrats are so upset about "turncoat" Espada that they've started robo-calls in Republican senators' districts and called for Espada's ouster.
"Our state senator, Marty Golden, voted to let Pedro Espada, an indicted Democrat from the Bronx, lead the Senate and be next in line for governor. What was Golden thinking?" a robo-call says.
Bronx Sen. Jeffrey Klein said Espada has made his own bed.
"That's the only way we're going to be able to deal with the issues that are being left undone because Pedro Espada continuously saying that the only reason he's doing this is to be president of the senate," said Sen. Klein, D-Bronx.
A spokesman for the district attorney refused any comment on the Espada case.
Espada wants the disparaging robo-calls to stop. He claims they are racially motivated because they are targeting mostly white districts.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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