titantoo
03-18-2005, 11:12 PM
March 19, 2005
Velella Freed After Making Return Trip to Rikers
By SABRINA TAVERNISE (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SABRINA%20TAVERNISE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SABRINA%20TAVERNISE&inline=nyt-per) and RACHEL METZ
Finally finished with his off-again-on-again jail sentence, former State Senator Guy J. Velella arrived at his house yesterday and declared that he was glad to be home.
Mr. Velella, 60, was released from Rikers Island at 9:30 a.m., on the final day of a one-year sentence for bribery conspiracy. He spent 182 days in jail - about six months - a sentence shortened in part by his release last fall by a little-known mayoral panel.
Looking pale, Mr. Velella, who has prostate cancer, got out of the back seat of a blue sport utility vehicle outside his house in Morris Park, the Bronx, shortly after noon yesterday, and spoke briefly in a quiet voice to a throng of reporters.
When asked how he was feeling, Mr. Velella replied, "Good, thank you."
He was dressed in a gray button-down shirt, a black jacket and blue jeans, and was surrounded by about 10 friends and relatives. He said he had plans to go to the doctor to "get checked out on the cancer."
"It's good to be home," he said, before disappearing behind the varnished wooden front door to his two-story brick house on Seminole Avenue.
Mr. Velella's lawyer, Charles A. Stillman, described his client's health as "good," but said the details of his treatment were personal.
So ended Mr. Velella's journey in and out of jail, which began last June, when he was sentenced for conspiring to take bribes from people seeking to do business with the state. His release by the panel on Sept. 28, just three months into his sentence, drew accusations of favoritism. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, embarrassed by the ensuing political uproar, dismissed the panel's members and appointed new ones. That panel then ordered Mr. Velella back to jail.
His release began about 7:45 a.m., a Department of Correction official said. Jail officials checked his fingerprints, went over paperwork, and gave him back his clothes and other property, like money or jewelry.
He left the area under the radar of a herd of reporters by boarding a private van service that operates between the island and Queens, instead of the city's Q101 bus, said a city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the details.
The van dropped Mr. Velella in a place not designated for stopping, opposite a parking lot on the Queens side of the bridge to Rikers Island, and he scurried across the street into a waiting blue sport utility vehicle, which quickly sped away.
Mr. Velella has no further probation or community service obligations, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. The office said it was still investigating the circumstances of his first release. Time off for good behavior contributed to Mr. Velella's reduced jail time.
In Morris Park, residents remain fiercely loyal. Shortly after 9 a.m., two men in a black pickup truck drove past the reporters outside Mr. Velella's house and one of them shouted out the passenger side window, "No matter what, Guy's our guy."
Some time later, a woman in a sport utility vehicle screamed: "Leave this guy alone. Let him just come home."
Around noon, several people stood outside his door as if they were waiting for someone to open it. One of them yelled at reporters to get off the grass. Two groups of women left the house in the morning and drove away in two cars, about 15 minutes apart. One of them was carrying a baby.
One friend, Samuel Zarcone, said he had attended an anniversary party for a mutual friend with the former senator, when he was released temporarily in the fall.
"While I was at the party with him, he looked like he was O.K.," Mr. Zarcone said. But generally, he said, "I know he hasn't been feeling well, health-wise."
Mr. Zarcone seemed to speak for the neighborhood when he said: "He's done a lot for the community. It's just time to move on."
After Mr. Velella went inside, the activity around the house died down. A man who identified himself only as a lawyer came out of the house and answered a few quick questions from reporters as he walked away.
"He's really just going to hang around in the house today," he said.
Mr. Stillman said that Mr. Velella's first day of freedom would be "the first day of the rest of his life."
As soon as he is out of the glare of flashbulbs, "Guy Velella will fade into history," he said.
Mr. Velella is no longer allowed to practice law. He will draw an $80,000 annual pension.
Velella Freed After Making Return Trip to Rikers
By SABRINA TAVERNISE (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SABRINA%20TAVERNISE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SABRINA%20TAVERNISE&inline=nyt-per) and RACHEL METZ
Finally finished with his off-again-on-again jail sentence, former State Senator Guy J. Velella arrived at his house yesterday and declared that he was glad to be home.
Mr. Velella, 60, was released from Rikers Island at 9:30 a.m., on the final day of a one-year sentence for bribery conspiracy. He spent 182 days in jail - about six months - a sentence shortened in part by his release last fall by a little-known mayoral panel.
Looking pale, Mr. Velella, who has prostate cancer, got out of the back seat of a blue sport utility vehicle outside his house in Morris Park, the Bronx, shortly after noon yesterday, and spoke briefly in a quiet voice to a throng of reporters.
When asked how he was feeling, Mr. Velella replied, "Good, thank you."
He was dressed in a gray button-down shirt, a black jacket and blue jeans, and was surrounded by about 10 friends and relatives. He said he had plans to go to the doctor to "get checked out on the cancer."
"It's good to be home," he said, before disappearing behind the varnished wooden front door to his two-story brick house on Seminole Avenue.
Mr. Velella's lawyer, Charles A. Stillman, described his client's health as "good," but said the details of his treatment were personal.
So ended Mr. Velella's journey in and out of jail, which began last June, when he was sentenced for conspiring to take bribes from people seeking to do business with the state. His release by the panel on Sept. 28, just three months into his sentence, drew accusations of favoritism. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, embarrassed by the ensuing political uproar, dismissed the panel's members and appointed new ones. That panel then ordered Mr. Velella back to jail.
His release began about 7:45 a.m., a Department of Correction official said. Jail officials checked his fingerprints, went over paperwork, and gave him back his clothes and other property, like money or jewelry.
He left the area under the radar of a herd of reporters by boarding a private van service that operates between the island and Queens, instead of the city's Q101 bus, said a city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the details.
The van dropped Mr. Velella in a place not designated for stopping, opposite a parking lot on the Queens side of the bridge to Rikers Island, and he scurried across the street into a waiting blue sport utility vehicle, which quickly sped away.
Mr. Velella has no further probation or community service obligations, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. The office said it was still investigating the circumstances of his first release. Time off for good behavior contributed to Mr. Velella's reduced jail time.
In Morris Park, residents remain fiercely loyal. Shortly after 9 a.m., two men in a black pickup truck drove past the reporters outside Mr. Velella's house and one of them shouted out the passenger side window, "No matter what, Guy's our guy."
Some time later, a woman in a sport utility vehicle screamed: "Leave this guy alone. Let him just come home."
Around noon, several people stood outside his door as if they were waiting for someone to open it. One of them yelled at reporters to get off the grass. Two groups of women left the house in the morning and drove away in two cars, about 15 minutes apart. One of them was carrying a baby.
One friend, Samuel Zarcone, said he had attended an anniversary party for a mutual friend with the former senator, when he was released temporarily in the fall.
"While I was at the party with him, he looked like he was O.K.," Mr. Zarcone said. But generally, he said, "I know he hasn't been feeling well, health-wise."
Mr. Zarcone seemed to speak for the neighborhood when he said: "He's done a lot for the community. It's just time to move on."
After Mr. Velella went inside, the activity around the house died down. A man who identified himself only as a lawyer came out of the house and answered a few quick questions from reporters as he walked away.
"He's really just going to hang around in the house today," he said.
Mr. Stillman said that Mr. Velella's first day of freedom would be "the first day of the rest of his life."
As soon as he is out of the glare of flashbulbs, "Guy Velella will fade into history," he said.
Mr. Velella is no longer allowed to practice law. He will draw an $80,000 annual pension.