Copped A Plea

One of the great brass rings in politics is getting your name mentioned favorably in a page one article above the fold in The New York Times.  My father, Ray Harding was no exception.  Happiest were the days he could go down the night before the story appeared to get the paper from the Times building.  Well today he got the biggest story ever about himself, above the fold.  From my point of view it's a sad and shameful day.  But not for the reasons you might think.

In Agatha Christie's wonderful work, Witness For the Prosecution, Sir Wilfred, a criminal defense attorney, says to his client who will soon be indicted for murder, "There is no shame to sitting in the dock.  Kings, prime ministers, even lawyers have stood in the dock."  When my father was first charged in this criminal complaint I made it very clear that I thought the charges were baseless. I was happy to say that I believed him innocent and that he should fight for his name.   It was the criminalization of routine political life.  Change the law, fine.  But do not decide post facto that we don't like how politics is conducted in this state.  I've said before if rewarding political favors by officeholders is now a crime, then every Surrogate Judge in the state - and especially in Manhattan - is guilty of far more serious criminal activity than has been alleged and plead to here.  Every conservatorship or guardian ad litem awarded to friends and political backers is now criminal.

But now he has copped a plea.  OK, that's fine.  We do what we need to do to put things right and move on.  I have no problem with that.  I copped a plea, but for different reasons and damaging only myself in the process.  I deeply regret that I plead to the charges against me but, as I will explain another time, I had no choice.  My father on the other hand did have a choice.  He could have chosen to fight the charges or, if the prosecutors agreed, plead to something lesser to expedite this and save the need for a trial.  There would  have been a felony conviction, probably prison time and a loss of his ability to practice law. But he would have only hurt himself, no one else.   Now faced with similar circumstances what would I do?  In fact, what did I do when I was faced with exactly the same situation?

In 2002 and 2003 the US Attorney's Office approached my lawyers several times seeking my cooperation in what they hoped would be a far ranging inquiry into the Giuliani Administration.  You see its completely misunderstood by the public and most of the press that Rudy Giuliani is not liked by his former colleagues.  In fact, they hate him.  I was shocked to come to that realization.  They desperately wanted an indictment of high Giuliani officials, and I don't mean me.  I can say with 100% certainty that had I agreed to cooperate and given them nothing more than what I have written in these posts over the past months, Tony Carbonetti would have been indicted and in all likelihood convicted by the Federal Government.  There is simply no question about it.  Further, on the Bear Stearns deal alone, Randy Levine would have undergone a major investigation.  I knew all this then and I know it now.  A deal to cooperate would have helped my situation immeasurably.  I doubt I would have avoided all prison time, but it sure would have reduced it significantly. 

When presented with these requests I said no.  I said it once, then twice, and on the third time I told Henry Mazurek, my attorney, to tell them to fuck off.  It would never even have dawned on me to "give up" Tony Carbonetti in order to save my hide.  Even if I had known of some extremely serious crime like he killed someone or ran a drug ring out of his apartment (neither is true) I would NEVER have told the US Attorney's Office.  It would have been unthinkable.  And that is especially true if I were involved in something fishy with him.  Throw him over to save myself on something we were both involved in?  I simply could not have done it then and I for sure absolutely could not do it now.  That doesn't make me a hero.  It just made me a good friend.

Now I get it's scary at the age of 74, almost 75, to think about prison and penury.  It was scary for me at the age of 40.  But you have two choices in life: fight for your rights and freedom or concede and accept your fate. There is no third way.  Hurting someone else where the only rationale for doing so is to lessen your pain is never acceptable.  Under any circumstances.  If Ray Harding and Hank Morris conspired to defraud or commit some crime and Ray Harding now feels that what he did was wrong, fine cop a plea, take your punishment.  But from everything I have read Hank Morris didn't mislead Ray; he didn't deceive him into doing something illegal that he thought was something else.  They are both savvy adult men who did whatever it is they did, legal or illegal, with full knowledge of their actions.  I see no 'out,' no escape clause from the two choices I have described above.  

Is Hank Morris's fear of prison any less real or distressing than is Ray Harding's?  When presented with a choice back in Nov. 2003 of letting me kill myself or working with my shrink to have me put under observation at a NY hospital, Ray Harding chose the third unthinkable option.  He, on his own accord, gladly sent me to prison.  More precisely, the hell that is the MCC in Lower Manhattan.  Now he is sending Hank Morris to years in prison.  It's an easy thing to do, send people to be incarcerated, when you've never experienced it firsthand.  Much harder - in fact unthinkable - when you've been there yourself.  Thanks to the deal he cut yesterday, only Hank Morris will have to know what it's like to lose his freedom.  Ray Harding saved himself from that nightmare at Hank Morris's expense.

You learn in prison that there is nothing, and I mean nothing, worse than ratting.  Rapist, child molester, Islamic terrorist, all pale as labels compared to being tagged a snitch.  Especially, boy I can't stress this enough, especially when you are doing it only for self gain.  I never held to the 100% absolutist view of this rule - I could see a few exceptions.  But the street view prevails in prison - nothing worse you can do than snitch.  So here we are.  Knowing what I know now - that Tony Carbonetti and other RWG administration friends would disown me after prison - would I have done anything differently?  As far as that goes, not a thing.  My disappointment in them is far, far outweighed by my hatred for the US Attorney's Office and the corrupt way it administers justice.  I wouldn't have dropped a dime then and I wouldn't do it now.

Making this worse for me is that the NYT insists on printing again this scurrilous statement that Ray's now admitted crimes were motivated by his need to pay my legal bills. I don't know how many different ways to say this but there isn't a single word of truth in it.  I believe Cuomo's office continues to say it because it provides a motive and I believe Ray Harding doesn't publicly deny it because it provides him with some excuse other than venality. It also perpetuates Ray's view of himself as the loving, long suffering father of me.  He never paid for my legal defense.  I don't know how many other ways to say it.  I said at the beginning that it is a sad and shameful day. It is indeed.  It's shameful what my father did and the sadness I feel is entirely for Hank Morris and his family. 

Comments

[VJ Machiavelli]

Russell, maybe you are wrong and Ray did pay and never told you.

Ray maybe sing on more than Hank Morris.