Clarence Norman convicted (again)

pitu

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/24/nyregion/24norman.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
here's the first few paragraphs

February 24, 2007
Former Democratic Leader in Brooklyn Is Convicted
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Clarence Norman Jr., the deposed Democratic assemblyman and party leader from Brooklyn, was convicted yesterday of extortion in what prosecutors said was a scheme to shake down judicial candidates in exchange for party support. It was his third conviction on corruption charges in 17 months.

In a split verdict, a jury in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn convicted him of coercion, grand larceny by extortion and attempted grand larceny by extortion, while acquitting him of five similar counts.

Prosecutors said Mr. Norman had coerced two candidates for civil court judge to pay thousands of dollars to favored campaign consultants, or lose his organization’s support in the 2002 primary.

It was the last of four trials on four separate political corruption indictments for Mr. Norman since 2003, and both he and the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, seemed to acknowledge yesterday that it was, in a sense, the end of an era.

To Mr. Hynes, the defendant was the personification of a corrupt system in which judgeships were for sale, although so far no one has been charged with such a crime. Mr. Norman’s lawyers, Anthony Ricco and Edward Wilford, portrayed him as almost a folk hero, one of the state’s most powerful black politicians, a master political strategist and civil rights leader who used his influence to build coalitions between white candidates and the black voters they needed to win election.