Sunday, August 26, 2012

A black New York state senator has said that she expects to be arrested in the state's continuing investigation into the use of pork-barrel grants by legislators

Sen. Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat, didn't indicate what the charge against her might be. Huntley founded a nonprofit social service and education group that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating, and she funded it in part with state grants. Indictments accuse some of the groups' executives of theft. Huntley is facing New York City Councilman James Sanders Jr. and community activist Gian Jones in a tough September 13, 2012 Democratic primary. In December 2011, four people were indicted on charges that they schemed to pocket pork-barrel grants from Huntley, who was close to two of the suspects and who later covered it up. Two officials with the nonprofit, The Parent Workshop Inc., were accused of grand larceny and filing false documents to get $29,950 for work they never did teaching parents how to navigate the New York City school system. Huntley founded the nonprofit in 2006. She wasn't charged in December 2011 in the probe by Schneiderman and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who had both said that one of those indicted was a Huntley staffer and another shared her home. Schneiderman and DiNapoli are Democrats and Schneiderman had served in the Senate with Huntley. Huntley's statement comes a day after Democratic Assemblyman Vito Lopez of the Bronx was stripped of his committee chairmanship after the Assembly ethics committee ruled that he violated the chamber's sexual harassment policy.

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