Former New Rochelle Schools Director Sentenced For Corruption

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The former head of the New Rochelle school district buildings and grounds was sentenced Wednesday to prison for his role in a scheme to solicit bribes from an outside contractor and to channel school district business to the contractor’s company for bribery. Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said John C. Gallagher Jr., 53, was sentenced to 37 months in prison.

“John C. Gallagher Jr. was in a position of trust while working for the City of New Rochelle School District. But instead of ensuring that the city’s schools and ground were safe and sound to educate children, he used his position to demand — and receive — more than $125,000 in kickbacks from a contractor for the school district,” Berman said.

Gallagher, a resident of Harrisburgh, PA, had pleaded guilty Oct. 10, 2017.

In addition to the prison sentence, he was sentenced to two years of supervise release, ordered to forfeit $125,000 and pay restitution in the same amount.

According to the allegations contained in the indictment, as well as statements made in related court filings and proceedings, the City School District of New Rochelle, which receives federal benefits significantly in excess of $10,000 annualy, has a Buildings and Grounds Department, which is responsible for, among other things, maintenance and repair of facilities used by the school district. The school districts uses outside contractors to do certain maintenance and repair work.

Among the outside contractors used by the School District are companies with specialties — in, for example, masonry, electrical work, plumbing and carpentry — sometimes referred to as “bid vendors” or “time and materials” contractors. These contractors bid annually, using set rates, and if awarded contracts, are paid by the school district to handle any projects within the contractors’ specialties that do not exceed a certain threshold cost. As of 2009, that amount, per New York State law, was $35,000. A more costly project that exceeds the threshold is offered for bid and awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, unless the project is deemed a health and safety emergency, in which case, the time and materials vendor may be asked to do the job, regardless of the cost.

Gallagher was the district’s director of environmental services, overseeing the district’s buildings and grounds. To fill this position, the district contracted with a company that provided, among other things, management services, and Gallagher, as an employee of the company, was thereby made the director of environmental services, working full-time in the district, as its agent, with authority to act on its behalf. Gallagher had influence over which contractors were awarded work by the district, and over whether, when and how contractors were assigned work and paid for work.

Mauro Zonzini owned and wholly controlled a construction company in Westchester County that contracted with the district to do masonry work, and was hired each year by the district as its contractor for masonry work.

From 2009 through 2013, authorities said, Gallagher engaged in a corrupt, criminal scheme in which he solicited, demanded and accepted bribes in the form of cash payments intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with the district’s business and transactions with the company. The bribe payments that Gallagher solicited, demanded and accepted were paid by Zonzini.

Routinely, after the district paid the company for work performed, Gallagher met in person with Zonzini in a parking lot, where Zonzini provided him with a kickback in the amount of 10 percent of the payment the company had received from the district.

In this way, Gallagher received dozens of cash bribe payments from Zonzini, over the course of at least approximately four years, which together amounted to approximately $125,000.

Gallagher solicited, demanded and accepted the bribe payments intending to be influenced in and rewarded for the district’s decisions to award the company contracts for masonry work, to assign masonry projects to the Company and to make timely payments to the company.

To avoid detection of his corrupt scheme, Gallagher concealed the cash bribe payments he received from Zonzini. Gallagher did so, as he admitted during a secretly recorded conversation, by keeping the payments “in my car or in my trunk.”

In some instances he used the cash to make payments directly toward living expenses, without depositing it in his bank account. For example, during the corrupt scheme, Gallagher used the bribe money to make credit card payments, car payments and, as he admitted during the secretly recorded conversation, “I paid for some college.”

Zonzini, 52, of South Carolina pleaded guilty May 9, 2017, to one count of bribing a public official, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of tax evasion, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16, 2018.

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