Former Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin Gets 4 Years In Bribery Case
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Former Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for taking bribes.
Jasmin was also ordered to return $15,000 of her salary to the village and to forfeit her bribe receipts.
The judge in the case said Jasmin had betrayed the residents of her troubled New York village, especially young women looking for a role model.
During her time as mayor of Spring Valley in 2012, a FBI operative gave her $5,000 and a 50 percent stake in a purported development project in exchange for her support.
The operative, Moses Stern, was a developer who had pleaded guilty in a fraud case and was working for the FBI to win leniency at his sentencing.
Jasmin had shown "an extraordinary comfort with bribery and extortion," according to Prosecutor Jessica Feinstein, who had suggested a prison term of more than eight years.
The federal corruption investigation led to the conviction of six politicians including former state Sen. Malcolm Smith, who was found guilty of trying to buy his way onto the New York City mayoral ballot.
"Your willingness to be sucked into this, your enthusiastic participation in it and your leadership of the little enterprise --- are really depressing," Judge Colleen McMahon told Jasmin
McMahon, however, said eight years would be "massively excessive for a fairly petty one-off scheme.''
Jasmin, 51, refused an opportunity to speak before sentencing.
Her attorney, Benjamin Ostrer, criticized the government's use of a sting and said Friday was "a sad day for all of us.''
Besides Jasmin and Smith, former New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran, former Queens Republican leader Vincent Tabone, former Bronx Republican leader Joseph Savino and former deputy mayor in Spring Valley Joseph Desmaret, were convicted or pleaded guilty in the wide-ranging corruption scandal.