Former Brookdale honcho David Rosen sentenced to three years in prison for bribery scheme
Feds had asked for 10 years
Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 6:00 AM (original article can be found at nydailynews.com)
JESSE WARD FOR NEW YORK DAILY NE
Brookdale Medical Center
The disgraced former CEO of a beleaguered Brownsville hospital asked a judge to spare him from prison Monday — but was slammed with a three-year sentence.
“He made this a government not of the people, but of the debauched,” said Judge Jed Rakoff y in sentencing David Rosen, ex-head honcho of Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.
“The glaring and rather tawdry truth is Mr. Rosen knowingly and intentionally bribed one legislator after another,” said the Manhattan Federal Court judge.
The U.S. Probation Office had recommended a 10-year sentence. Judge Rakoff said he set a lower sentence after taking into consideration
Rosen’s character: “There is no doubt Mr. Rosen is a good man in many respects; there is no doubt the people of New York have benefitted by his efforts to enhance healthcare in impoverished communities.”
Rosen was convicted in September of a scheme to bribe three Brooklyn and Queens pols to win favors for money-losing Brookdale and a pair of Queens hospitals he also headed as the CEO of MediSys Health Network.
His lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, pleaded for Rosen to get off on probation and do community service.
“David Rosen stands before you having lost his job. He lost his career. He lost his reputation. He lost $3 million in severance,” Abramowitz said of the former health-care exec.
“He has lost everything.”
Rosen — who was fired from his posts as head of Brookdale and MediSys after he was indicted in 2010 — gave a no-show job to state Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. (D-Brownsville) between 2003 and 2008 that paid about $35,000 a year, U.S. Attorneys said in their case against him.
Other corrupt carrying-on included an attempt to bribe former state Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Bergen Beach) by steering Brookdale to do business with a hospice company Kruger had an interest in.
Rosen had more than $400,000 in payments made to former state Assemblyman Anthony Seminario through a sham consulting company. The Queens pol died in January 2011 in a North Carolina prison.
Rosen’s lawyer argued Monday that Rosen did what he had to do to ensure the survival of the hospitals he headed, which serve poor New Yorkers.
“David did not ask for money for himself,” Abramowitz said. “He didn’t ask officials to steal anything for him. He did not ask them ever — ever — to abuse their discretion for him.”
Rosen, 64, told the judge he was “proud” of his accomplishments during 40 years of work — including his turnaround efforts at Brookdale, which is in dire financial straits.
“I tried with relentless persistence to rally other healthcare professionals and officials to recognize the plight of the safety net hospitals,” he said.
The Harrison, Westchester County, resident plans to mount an appeal. Judge Rakoff told him to report to jail on Aug. 8.
lcroghan@nydailynews.com