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Jun 30, 2006 1:40 pm US/Eastern
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After Guilty Plea, Kerik Is Ready To Move On
by Magee Hickey
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Moments after a ten-minute hearing where he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors at a court in the Bronx, New York City former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said it was time for him to move on.
"This is finality," Kerik said.
"It's over. Now I can get on with my business,"
The 50-year-old former top cop offered no apologies in court when he pleaded guilty to violating two city administrative codes, bringing the year-and-a-half long corruption investigation against him to an end.
Kerik pleaded guilty to failure to report a $28,000 loan he used to buy a Bronx apartment and to accepting a $165,000 gift in the form of discounted construction work from a company believed to have mob connections. He traded jail time for his guilty plea but has to pay a $221,000 fine. The plea bargain allowed Kerik to continue his new career as a security consultant in the Middle East.
"It was a mistake," said Kerik's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina.
"He should have declared the loan… Not doing it was a mistake."
Tacopina said he still believed Interstate, the construction company Kerik dealt with, was clean, meaning Kerik didn't know of its alleged mob ties.
Kerik released a brief statement after the plea. "I should have been more focused and been more sophisticated in my dealings with the COIB report. But today is the day I have been held accountable. For what I've done and did not do."
Prosecutors had considered bringing felony bribery charges against Kerik based on allegations that in exchange for the renovations he helped the company, Interstate Industrial Corp., seek business with the city.
Through his attorney, Kerik had previously denied any wrongdoing, saying that he paid every bill he received for the job -- about $30,000 -- and that he never intervened for Interstate. The home, bought in 1999 for $170,000, sold in 2002 for $460,000 after real estate advertisements described it as a "gem" adorned with marble and granite.
Kerik first drew national attention while leading the New York Police Department's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. By late 2004, President Bush wanted him for homeland security chief, but he withdrew after acknowledging he had not paid all taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.
More problems surfaced last year when the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement filed court papers seeking to revoke Interstate Industrial's license to work on casinos in Atlantic City. The papers cited testimony by mob turncoats that owners Frank and Peter DiTommaso were associates of the Gambino organized crime family.
The civil complaint also detailed Kerik's cozy relationship with an Interstate official. In 1999, he sent a series of e-mails to the official that "indicated his lack of sufficient funds to both purchase and renovate his new Bronx apartment" and "indicated he would provide information to Frank DiTommaso regarding New York City contracts," the papers said.
In recent months, a grand jury in the Bronx has heard conflicting testimony from the DiTommaso brothers -- who denied paying for the renovations -- and from a contractor who said they picked up most of the tab. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a close friend of Kerik, also testified.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)