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COURIER L 18 IFE, JUNE 21–27, 2019 PS
A GAMBLE PAID OFF: Craig Hammerman was found not guilty of 17 charges related to
questionable pay raises he received while serving as District Manager of Community Board
6. File photo by Tom Callan
HAMMERMAN
didn’t think I had to ask.”
Brooklyn’s top prosecutor disagreed ,
slapping Hammerman with 17 charges
— including forgery — in May 2018, arguing
that the raises were illegal.
“This defendant allegedly sought to
enrich himself with taxpayer money to
which he was not entitled,” District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez said at the time.
“This was a betrayal of the public trust
that cannot be tolerated.”
The board’s former chairman told
the jury on June 7 that he had given
Hammerman a scan of his signature —
which Hammerman used to request a
raise in a 2015 letter to the Offi ce of Management
and Budget — but he never
meant it to be used for pay raises.
“I thought it was implicit that it was
for the sake of convenience,” said Gary
Reilly. “I didn’t know that I had anything
to do with raises at the time.”
Hammerman, along with defense attorney
Joyce David, argued that there
were no established formal limits on his
use of the signatures, and he was under
no obligation to inform Reilly — or Sayar
Lonial, whose John Handcock appeared
on the three other documents in
question — of the letters.
“It was tradition, custom, and practice
of the board to pass along raises
without explicit approval of the board,”
he said.
The raises represented a $16,751 annual
increase, and also increased Hammerman’s
city pension by almost $10,000
per year — from $60,499 to $70,134 —
which he is set to receive annually from
age 62 until his death, according Bruce
Farbstein of the city’s Employee Retirement
System.
After the trial, Hammerman lamented
the idea that money played
into his decision, arguing that it was
his 27 years of public service that
motivated him.
“I was never in it for the money,” he
said. “My record bores that out.”
Hammeram — who watched in court
as Lonial suggested that he would not
have granted the raises if he was asked
— suggested that Lonial’s testimony
was more politically motivated than he
had let on.
“I don’t think it was about the work
performance,” he said. “That was simply
used as a mask or a cover.”
Hammerman attributed the ordeal
up the toxic working relationship that
he saw develop during the tail-end of his
community board tenure.
“I think there was a breakdown in
communication. We ceased to talk to
each other as a human being with kindness
and respect,” he said. “I think if
people learned how to interact in a more
collegial way would, that would have created
a different working relationship.”
The jury found Hammerman not
guilty on all 17 counts, allowing him to
avoid a possible seven year sentence.
Continued from page 1
CAMERA SHY: Hammerman dodged cameras on his way out of the courtroom, with his
lawyer Joyce David. Photo by Kevin Duggan
/pour-tour.com