If it couldn't get worse for LI Republicans, McGowen's records seized
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  If it couldn't get worse for LI Republicans, McGowen's records seized
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Smash255
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« on: December 15, 2005, 11:20:02 PM »

This has been a real bad year for Republicans on Long Island.  From the Democratic upset in the special election for state Assembly in a heavily GOP district in east Suffolk, to Suozzi's route of Peterson for Nassau County Exec, to Rice knocking off longtime incumbent Dennis Dillon for Nassau DA, to the Dems taking over the Suffolkl Legislature, to all the scandals in the GOP stronghold of Brookhaven leading to the Dems taking over the town government it has been a horrid year for the GOP on Long Island.  well it just got worse, and may get even worse.

[quote]

Spota launches McGowan probe
Spota seizes records, computers from Islip town supervisor’s office in political corruption probe

BY RICK BRAND AND SANDRA PEDDIE
STAFF WRITERS

December 14, 2005, 11:02 PM EST


Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota Wednesday shifted the focus of his political corruption probe to Islip Town Supervisor Pete McGowan, one of Long Island's most powerful Republicans.

Spota's detectives seized computers and records from McGowan's office. They also subpoenaed all of McGowan's filings for his $1 million campaign fund, as well as receipts from two of his favorite restaurants -- Teller's Chophouse in Islip and the Irish Coffee Pub in East Islip.

In addition, investigators subpoenaed records from the town's payroll and public safety offices. They sought records from the town dealing with the $51 million expansion of Long Island MacArthur Airport, which includes a Southwest Airlines terminal named after McGowan.

Sweeping across the county, investigators also sought documents from Pav-Co Asphalt in Holtsville and Cashin Associates, a Hauppauge-based engineering firm. Both firms have done work at the airport, two former high-level town employees said.

"I have absolutely no comment," said McGowan, when reached Wednesday at his Islip hamlet home. "I'm under a doctor's care and I'd like you to respect that." McGowan on Tuesday missed a town board meeting, reportedly because he was ailing.

Spota declined to comment, but his spokesman Robert Clifford confirmed all of the subpoenas. "Other subpoenas in connection with the probe will be issued in the coming weeks," Clifford said.

Clifford said the town subpoena includes records relating to the recent airport expansion. The records sought include information on all vendors, the zoning application, the environmental review and airport personnel records, he said.

Islip Town spokesperson Patricia Kalowski declined to comment.

Pav-Co's subpoena, according to sources familiar with the subpoenas, seeks records related to paving of the airport's parking lot and runways. A woman answering the phone at Pav-Co Wednesday declined to comment. Other company executives could not be reached.

Employees at Teller's Chophouse and Irish Coffee Pub said they were unaware of any subpoenas.

Robert Garfinkle, Suffolk's Republican elections commissioner, said he expected to comply with the subpoena seeking 16 years of campaign records by last night.

Spota's political corruption probe, which first centered on Republican officials in Brookhaven, became public in May 2003 when then-Legis. Fred Towle Jr. (R-Shirley) resigned and pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes.

So far, the probe by the district attorney, a Democrat re-elected to a second term with Republican backing last month, has yielded 14 convictions of officials in various Suffolk towns and school districts, along with six other cases still pending.

The subpoenas come after Newsday disclosed in June that McGowan used his campaign fund to pay for $64,500 in expenses, including a lease on an $80,000 Mercedes, $28,500 in restaurant tabs -- $17,400 at Teller's alone -- as well as a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign fund on which he was to get 9 percent in interest. McGowan said in an interview in June "all this spending is for political purposes," he said. "I'm not breaking the law."

Republican town board member Christopher Bodkin, an ardent McGowan critic, said: "If there has been malfeasance somewhere in the Town of Islip, I'm grateful that the DA's office is looking into it," adding he and other town board members "simply will not tolerate illegal activity in any way, shape or form."


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[quote]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipete1215,0,2763039.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
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bgwah
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« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2005, 11:47:51 PM »

Good news.
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