Selim Algar
A pair of lawyers and a real estate developer won a clean sweep of acquittals on bribery raps in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday despite prosecution testimony from a corrupt former administrator with the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The feds had charged that Steve Dunn, Lee Hymowitz and Michael Freeman all took part in paying off city officials in order to win bids for lucrative affordable housing developments.
But after just over a full day of deliberation, jurors found the trio not guilty of all raps with some even hugging defendants after the proceeding outside of court.
Prosecutors depended on the testimony of former HPD assistant commissioner Wendell Walters, who openly admitted to pocketing millions of dollars in bribes to steer contracts to favored developers.
Source: nypost
