Former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano resentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption charges

Former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano was resentenced Wednesday to 10-years in prison, denying his request for a 5 year-term and telling Mangano his corruption was a "sad fall from grace." 

Mangano, 64, of Bethpage, has served four years of the original 12 year prison term that Azrack gave him, at Federal Medical Center, Devens in Massachusetts, where he has been working as a head chef and service dog trainer. He was hoping for the reduced sentence of five years because two bribery convictions were vacated by a federal appeals court.

But U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack said despite the appeals court decision, "The core criminality remains...the Second Circuit did not exonerate you...you committed very serious crimes while you were the Nassau county executive, the highest elected official in the county...you engaged in blatant corruption and violated the public trust."

"Your crimes...did incalculable harm," she said.

In sentencing him to a somewhat reduced sentence, the judge said: "Mr. Mangano, the sentence I impose will continue to deprive you of your freedom for a substantial period of time, not only to serve as a general deterrent to others, but to provide just punishment for your exceptionally serious crimes."

"The five-year sentence that you have requested, in my view, is simply insufficient given your crimes and the entire record before me," the judge said, saying his case "laid bare a culture of corruption in Nassau County and the town of Oyster Bay, and you were part of this culture."

"You also engaged in other conduct, which reflected poorly on your character, and is also emblematic of this wider culture of corruption," Azrack said. "When public corruption such as yours is discovered, it should be punished accordingly," she said.

She noted Mangano has served as a model prisoner, helping other inmates and missing family events, including the death of his brother, despite the judge's recommendation for Mangano to attend the wake.

But, in the end, she said his crimes deserved an appropriate punishment that would deter other public officials.

"What a sad fall of grace," Azrack said. "From Nassau County Executive riding high after a surprising election win to sitting in prison while your grandchild is born, and your family mourns your brother's passing without you. Other public servants should take heed that this is where greed and corruption lead."

Earlier, Mangano had told the judge: "I'm a quite different person than I was before I came to prison. I'd like to rejoin my family. I've learned alot and suffered...four years is devastating...I am ready to return. I am a much different person."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Mirabile had asked that Mangano be resentenced to the same 12-year-sentence he had received before. The appeals court found evidence that Mangano "breached his fiduciary duties" to the public, she said, and that ruling "did not change what the defendant did. " She asked the judge to consider that Mangano was "not a low level official" and had used the influence of that office to advance his family in a "deliberate course of conduct" that he could have stopped at any time.

She called his conduct "a profound betrayal of the public trust." 

While giving him credit for good behavior, Mirabile said Mangano is not remorseful and didn't show..."any acknowledgement of the conduct that actually brought him here today...what about the remorse for what he did for his constituents?"

Defense lawyer  Morris J. Fodeman, new to the case, had addressed Azrack, earlier,  saying "The man before you is different."

"The crimes for which Ed stands convicted are serious. Public corruption is serious. Obstruction of justice is serious," Fodeman said. "We are not here today to ask the court to forget that...We're not asking the court to disregard the 2019 jury verdict on the surviving count, and we are not asking the court to retry this case today. Suffice it to say, serious crimes remain and serious punishment is warranted."

"The question respectfully is what sentence is sufficient but not greater than necessary," said Fodeman, adding that five years "is by no means a nominal sentence" and "by no means a slap on the wrist"

Fodeman pointed out Mangano lost his public career, his profession, and his family' s finances devastated. He missed his son's wedding, much of his grand children's lives and was unable to attend his brother's funeral, he said. He went back to work after learning of that decision and later cried, Fodeman said.

"He feeds other inmates and tutors them," Fodeman said, adding that Mangano also trained 4 service dogs, exhibiting "patience, consistency, responsibility empathy" and prison officials let him leave the grounds unsupervised and drive other inmates, even taking one of the service dogs to the veterinarian.

"When there was no reputation left to protect, he helped other people," Fodeman said.

Mangano worked as an unsupervised driver to leave the prison camp to transport other inmates, his attorney said. "It tells us the institution responsible for incarcerating Ed Mangano, tells us he can be trusted outside the prison walls without any supervision," Fodeman said.

His attorney read statements of other inmates, describing him as a father figure, helping other inmates battling sobriety and deescalating prison conflicts.

Fodeman argued against the U.S. Attorney's description of Mangano's prison tenure as standard good behavior.

"This court now knows something about Edward Mangano that it could not have possibly known in 2022," Fodeman said. "What he would do with punishment once punishment became real. And I submit, your honor, he has used it to change."

He said Mangano, once out of prison, had no interest in becoming involved in politics, possibly working in catering and spending time with his family.

Mangano was convicted in 2019 of using his status as county executive to pressure the Town of Oyster Bay to indirectly back $20 million in loans for town concessionaire Harendra Singh, a restaurateur who was also Mangano's friend. In exchange, Mangano accepted a $454,000 no-show job for his wife, Linda Mangano, as well as a slew of other bribes, including flooring for the couple's bedroom, free meals at Singh's restaurants and a luxury watch for one of their sons, the jury found.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated his conviction on the charges of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and federal program bribery, finding that Mangano was not an "agent" of the Town of Oyster Bay, a required element for conviction on those counts. The charges of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice were upheld.

Mangano began serving his prison sentence four years ago — in September 2022.

Azrack presided over Mangano's first trial in 2018, which ended in a mistrial, and his second trial in 2019.

In a July presentencing memo, federal prosecutors had said Mangano should be resentenced to 12 years, because his "corrupt and fraudulent conduct was extensive, harmful and corrosive" and had the effect of "eroding public confidence in local government."

Mangano has been granted "community custody" at FMC Devens, the lowest level of security in the federal prison system, and is permitted to drive prison vehicles off campus as part of his work duties, Newsday has previously reported. 

His wife, sons and parents all wrote letters to the judge, asking her to consider Mangano's good behavior in prison when she resentences him. Long Island political power broker and Oheka Castle owner Gary Melius told the judge that Mangano has a job waiting for him when he's released.

Linda Mangano served about 5 months of a 15-month sentence for lying to the FBI and conspiring to commit obstruction of justice.

Singh, who was the star witness at both Mangano trials, pleaded guilty to bribery and wire fraud charges and was sentenced to 4 years in prison, with Azrack calling him a "one-man economic crime wave" but also crediting him for his "extraordinary" cooperation with the government against his longtime friends, the Manganos. Singh served about 15 months before he was released earlier this year.