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Guy John Velella (September 25, 1944 – January 27, 2011) was a Republican New York State Senator from The Bronx. A political leader, state assemblyman, and state senator for over 30 years, Velella was indicted in 2002 on 25 counts of bribery and conspiracy for allegedly accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public-works contracts to the paying parties.〔("Press Release Issued By Manhattan District Attorney (May 9, 2002)" )〕 He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count in exchange for a year in jail.〔("New York Times, State Senator Quits in a Deal Over a Bribery Indictment (May 14, 2002)" )〕 As part of the plea agreement reached with the Manhattan District Attorney, Velella resigned his seat in the State Senate and his position as Chairman of the Bronx County Republican Party. He also gave up his law license. Velella was found guilty of one count of bribery and sentenced to one year. He served a total of six months (in two separate stints) of his sentence at Rikers Island.〔http://www.nytimes.com, January 27, 2011, Guy J. Velella, State Senator From Bronx, Dies at 66 By DENNIS HEVESI ()〕 ==Biography== Velella was born on September 25, 1944, in East Harlem, then a heavily Italian-American neighborhood, in Manhattan.〔("Official Guy Velella New York State Senate Biography" )〕 Velella's father, the late Vincent J. Velella, was a lawyer who became wealthy through real estate deals. The Velella family moved to the Bronx in the late 1950s. In 1967, Velella graduated from St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. He then earned a law degree from the Suffolk School of Law (today the Suffolk University Law School) in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined his father's law practice. In 1972, aged 28, Velella, a Republican, ran for the New York State Assembly in the East Bronx. The incumbent Democrat withdrew from the race unexpectedly, and Velella won the race. He served in the Assembly from 1973 to 1982, sitting in the 180th, 181st, 182nd, 183rd and 184th New York State Legislatures. After redistricting, Velella found himself running in a new Democratic district in 1982, which now covered Throggs Neck and Parkchester. In a bitter campaign, he ran against popular Assemblyman and head of the Parkchester Tenants Association John C. Dearie.〔("New York Times, 2 'Nice Guys' Vie in Dearie-Velella Assembly Race (October 18, 1982)" )〕 After losing that election by a wide margin, Velella told the ''Bronx News'', a local weekly newspaper, that he was done with politics. In January 1983, Velella returned to practicing law full-time. Despite his pledge that his political career was over, Velella was elected to the local school board. Many political observers expected Velella to run for the seat in Congress held by Mario Biaggi, a Democrat, when he retired. Velella returned to elected office on April 22, 1986, when he was elected to the New York State Senate, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John D. Calandra. The three-way race was bitter and costly, as JoAnn Calandra, Calandra's widow, backed by the late senator's partisans and patronage recipients, and hoping to capitalize on the late senator’s ties to the Senate Majority establishment, sought to retain family control of the seat. The Democratic candidate, Michael Durso, also generated interest. The 34th Senate District included mostly white neighborhoods in the Bronx and parts of lower Westchester County, areas hand-picked by Calandra during the last redistricting and including portions of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and all of Pelham. Velella received the endorsements of the Right to Life Party and the Bronx section of the Conservative Party of New York. In a battle that echoed those for the Republican nomination and the Senate Seat itself, Velella also became chairman of the Bronx Republican Party. He was subsequently re-elected to the State Senate in November 1986 and in every subsequent election until November 2002, sitting in the 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th and 195th New York State Legislatures. He resigned his seat on May 14, 2004, as part of a plea bargain reached on criminal charges that he took bribes to help businesses win lucrative state contracts. According to the text of the indictment, the bribes were in the form of payments to the Velellas' law firm for little or no work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guy J. Velella」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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