Secretly Recorded Tapes of Government and Party Officials Now Online

By Robin Traum 

Rockland County Legislator and part-time Clarkstown Highway Department employee Frank Sparaco posted 40 minutes of secretly recorded video of government and political party officials online. The three videos were posted on YouTube days after Sparaco, a Republican, screened them for the media at a press conference last Monday.

Sparaco claimed the tapes showed Clarkstown Councilman Frank Borelli, Rockland Democratic Committee attorney Larry Weissman and Highway Department Fleet Manager Dennis Malone trying to get his cooperation through bribery and threats in a scheme to get Malone elected to the highway superintendent’s job.  The tapes have come under fierce criticism for being heavily and poorly edited by those who were recorded and others who have watched them.

The released conversation excerpts between Sparaco and Weissman runs 10:04 minutes and was recorded on March 21. The portion of the three-way conversation between Sparaco, Malone and Borelli lasts 15:28 minutes and was recorded on March 24. The excerpted recording of the discussion between Sparaco and Borelli from March 29 runs 15:16 minutes.

At the press conference, where Rockland County Republican Party Chair Vincent Reda, Clarkstown Republican Committee Chair Bob Axelrod and his supervisor incumbent Highway Superintendent Wayne Ballard flanked him, Sparaco said he had recorded about eight hours of conversations which he turned over to the FBI week earlier.  

For more information about the recordings, Read Patch’s coverage of the July 15th press conference and the reaction to it.