Skelos Retrial Set To Begin This Week

The second trial of former New York State Senator Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, is set to begin on Tuesday in Federal Court in Manhattan. The duo is facing a retrial on corruption charges stemming back to 2011.

Skelos and his son, Adam, were both found guilty of corruption charges in 2015. The charges stemmed from a no-show job that Skelos allegedly arranged for his son. However, a few months after their sentencing, the charges were overturned on appeal due to a Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult for prosecutors to prove official corruption. Now prosecutors have to show that Skelos used his office, not just his influence, during his alleged corrupt acts.

Skelos, 69, and Adam, 35, both Rockville Centre residents, were charged with monetizing the elder Skelos's position as Senate Majority Leader nearly as soon as he took the office in 2011.

• RELATED: Dean Skelos's Conviction Overturned By Federal Court

Prosecutors say that Skelos arranged a job for his son at Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers in Roslyn, but Adam rarely showed up. Later, Skelos was alleged to have influenced Glenwood Management to give Adam a $20,000 payment without Adam having done any work for the company.

Adam also did work for the Arizona-based company AbTech, which won a $12 million grant from Nassau County for floodwater mitigation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. According to the prosecutors, Skelos pressured the county to let AbTech get to work more quickly so the company -- and by extension, his son -- could start getting paid.

All together, prosecutors say that Skelos used his influence to get nearly $300,000 for his son.

Dean and Adam originally faced jail sentences of five and six-and-a-half years, respectively. However, they stayed out of jail while their appeal was pending and have not yet spent a day behind bars. Their verdict was appealed the same way former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's was. However, Silver was still found guilty on his retrial.

Photo: Shutterstock