Nominee’s husband on bribery counts

Press, 11 October 1986, Page 10

Nominee’s husband on bribery counts

NZPA-AP New York Geraldine Ferraro says her life has •been a nightmare since she ran for Vice-President of the United States but hopes her husband’s bribery trial will end their two-year ordeal. Ms Ferraro sat in the front row of a Queens courtroom yesterday as her husband, John Zaccaro, was arraigned on bribery and grand larceny charges for allegedly demanding a pay-off to influence the awarding of a cable television franchise. Zaccaro, a wealthy real estate investor, pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognisance. It was the latest in a series of legal troubles for the couple that began after intense scrutiny of their finances during the presidential campaign in 1984. Ms Ferraro, a former Queens congresswoman, was the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate and the first woman nominated by a main party for the post. Since then her husband has been penalised for borrowing money from an elderly woman’s estate and had his real estate licence suspended for fraudulently obtaining bank financing. Their son, John, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sold cocaine to an undercover police officer at Middlebury College, in Vermont. “We’re going to prove that John (sen.) is innocent in this case and maybe once and for all we are going to put an end to the ’B4 campaign and the nightmare we’ve been living for the past two years, Ms Ferraro said after her husband’s court case. “If I had not run, John Zaccaro would have been John Zaccaro, real estate broker... he would not have been John Zaccaro, centre of national attention, husbifcd of Geraldine Ferraro, who ran for Vice-President.”

Ms Ferraro said she had testified before the grand jury that indicted her husband. The indictment alleged that Zaccaro demanded a pay-off in 1981 for introducing Richard Flynn, lawyer for Cablevision Systems Development Corp., to the Queens borough president, Donald Manes, who committed suicide this year amid reports of corruption. Cablevision rejected the alleged deal and did not get the franchise. If convicted of one count of bribereceiving and two counts of attempted grand larceny by extortion, Zaccaro could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

A hearing in the case was scheduled for October 30.