The Brooklyn lawmaker charged with seeking a new house for $1 from a developer, claimed that a former city councilwoman also got a house for a buck. Prosecutors say Assemblywoman Diane Gordon agreed to steer a valuable parcel of city land to developer Ranjan Batheja in exchange for a home in a gated community.
She was unaware that he was secretly recording their conversation when she implicated retired Councilwoman Priscilla Wooten in a similar scam.
"They gave her [Wooten] the house for one dollar," Gordon said in the Nov. 2, 2004, recording played at her bribery trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "You got to give a dollar. That's how you buy, you know, a dollar....And then she paid the taxes. So that's the same thing I'm doing."
Batheja testified Friday that he heard "information floating around in East New York" that Wooten had given a local developer some property and she received a new home in return.
Reached for comment Friday, Wooten forcefully denied the allegation.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Councilwoman Implicated At Bribery Trial
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