Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
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Friday, July 20, 2018
Vol. 67, No. 29
N E W H Y D E PA R K
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NHP fire fighter dies at 19 Fazekas killed on motorcycle BY R E B ECC A K L A R Zachary Fazekas didn’t have a bad bone in his body, according to his fellow members of the New Hyde Park Fire Department. “He was a complete gentleman, true friend and was on his way to becoming a great firefighter,” a fire department Facebook post states. “We all say that some kids are good kids, but Zach was the definition [of] that.” Fazekas was killed Saturday morning after a fatal motorcycle crash, New York State police said. He was 19.! Fazekas was on his way to an EMT class in Point Lookout at the time of the accident.! He was riding his Ducati motorcycle a little after 9 a.m. from the Loop Parkway eastbound onto the Meadowbrook State Parkway northbound, police said. Fazekas “failed to negotiate the curve” and was ejected from his bike, police said. Continued on Page 58
PHOTO BY REBECCA KLAR
A street reconstruction project on Locust Street in Floral Park is cutting down century old Oak Trees, to the dismay of some residents. See story on page 4.
Dean, Adam Skelos found guilty
Republican ex Senate majority leader, son convicted in corruption retrial BY LU K E TORRANCE Like former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver earlier this year, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was hoping that he would go clean in his retrial. But Skelos and his son, Adam, received the same verdict as three years ago: guilty.
After three days of deliberation, the jury delivered the verdict on Tuesday afternoon at a federal court in Manhattan, finding the father and son guilty on all charges of corruption and extortion. “Yet again, a New York jury heard a sordid tale of bribery, extortion, and the abuse of power by a powerful public official of this State,” said!Robert Khuzami, the deputy attorney general for U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District. “And yet again, a jury responded with a unanimous verdict of guilt, in this case of Dean Skelos and his son Adam — sending the resound-
ing message that political corruption will not be tolerated.” Skelos, once one of the most powerful men in Albany, was accused of using his position to secure jobs and fees worth $300,000 for Adam Skelos from Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers in Roslyn, New Hyde Park real estate developer Glenwood Management and Arizona-based environmental technology firm AbTech Industries. Both men were convicted on corruption charges in 2015 with Dean facing five years in prison and Adam with six and a half. But those charges were over-
turned late last year following a Supreme Court case that narrowed the definition of what constituted public corruption. Silver also had his conviction overturned; he returned to trial!in May and was again convicted on all counts of! bribery, extortion, money laundering and honest services fraud after only two weeks of trial. He is still awaiting his sentencing. In an attempt to avoid the same fate, Dean Skelos took the stand after declining to testify in his first trial. During his time on the stand, Continued on Page 71
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