By Laura Figueroa
Democratic congressional candidate Kathleen Rice has taken aim at Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman's business relationship with his ex-father-in-law Myron Shevell, citing Shevell’s involvement in a 1988 federal racketeering lawsuit.
Rice's campaign this week called on Blakeman to “disclose his relationship” with Shevell, owner of New England Motor Freight, a New Jersey-based trucking company.
Shevell’s daughter, Nancy, was previously married to Blakeman.
Shevell has donated $5,200 to Blakeman’s campaign against Rice in the 4th Congressional District, according to campaign finance records. Blakeman is listed as a registered agent for New England Motor Freight on the New York Division of Corporations website.
Blakeman’s campaign denies any impropriety and said Rice’s call for Blakeman to discuss his relationship with Myron Shevell was “desperate.”
In a statement, Rice’s campaign said Shevell “was accused in a 1988 federal RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] case of paying members of the Genovese crime family to help deunionize the company’s workforce.”
Rice campaign spokesman Coleman Lamb said the case raised questions about Blakeman and Shevell’s business relationship.
The Rice campaign cites an October 2007 U.S. Department of Justice handbook instructing federal prosecutors on how to handle civil RICO cases that refers to the case.
In an appendix, the manual notes that on Oct. 13, 1988, federal prosecutors filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Newark against the late Vincent Gigante, leader of the Genovese crime family, that also names Shevell and his trucking company as defendants.
In describing the case, the manual says Shevell, “various organized crime figures, and Local 560 officials conducted and conspired to conduct the affairs of New England Motor Freight, Inc ... through a pattern of racketeering activity involving fraud and illegal labor payoffs.”
The manual states the alleged pattern of racketeering activity included “efforts by defendant Shevell and organized crime figures ... to retain organized crime’s control over Local 560.”
The manual says the civil case against Shevell concluded with his agreement on Sept. 29, 1989, to a “consent decree” in which he “agreed that he would not personally engage in labor negotiations with the representatives of any labor organization; and [New England Motor Freight] agreed that it would take no action to undermine its collective bargaining arrangement with Local 560.”
“Kathleen Rice is desperate and has officially stooped to a new low in gutter politics by attacking Bruce's ex-father-in-law,” said Blakeman campaign spokesman Matt Coleman in a statement. “The Rice campaign’s internal polls surely reflect what our polls are showing — that Bruce Blakeman is surging in the closing days of this campaign and has the momentum to bring him to victory on Nov. 4.”
Coleman called the Rice campaign’s questions “desperate” and said Shevell “was twice appointed to the NJ Transit Board of Governors by Democrats in the Garden State and withstood vigorous vetting by the public and media.”
Messages left at Shevell’s office in Elizabeth, N.J., on Tuesday and Thursday were not returned.
Blakeman and Shevell’s relationship was raised in a July 2, 1998, article in the Daily News, when Blakeman was running for state comptroller. Blakeman said then: “It was a lawsuit that was settled without any findings ... or any fine ... I am not going to preclude the possibility of any family members contributing ... I would not be concerned.”
Coleman said this week that “in the spirit of disclosure, Blakeman again repeats his numerous calls for Ms. Rice to release her Moreland Commission emails and communications, which she has refused to do so for months.”
Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, was a co-chair of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Moreland Commission on public corruption, which Cuomo abruptly disbanded. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating the panel’s closure.
In an effort to get Rice to detail her actions on the panel, Blakeman has repeatedly called on his opponent to release all of her commission-related communications. News reports have said Cuomo administration officials interfered in commission investigations.
Rice’s campaign has said she cannot release any documents because it would “deeply compromise an ongoing federal investigation that she is assisting.”