"Brats", "Punks" and "Demented Uncles".

Put your money where your mouth is punks! - County Legislator Frank Sparaco

From Legislator Sparaco's Facebook page ......
Frank Sparaco:  Mr. Borelli and Mr. Malone are liars, extortionists and bribery artists. They are trying to cheat there (sic) way into office. They have threatened to sue me for slander.  My response is the tapes speak for themselves, I have truth on my side. I dare you to sue me. I can't wait to dispose (sic) you and see you lie under oath. Put your money where your mouth is punks!

John Perrotta III:  Oh this is going to be fun. We love playing with little punks.

Sparaco's reference to the "tapes that speak for themselves" refers to his surreptitious videotaping of Rockland County Democratic Party attorney Larry Weissman, Republican Clarkstown Councilman Frank Borelli, and Clarkstown Fleet Manager Dennis Malone.  Sparaco claims he was bribed and threatened to get him to use his "sphere of influence" over the Independence and Working Families parties to help Malone in Malone's attempt to remove Ballard as Superintendent of Highways. 

Perhaps realizing that not only did his punctuation and spelling in his Facebook page betray some educational deficiencies and that public statements such as these might bring down upon his head the very thing he dared for, the comments were later removed. 

The Lawsuit  .....

Sparaco's braggadocian Facebook dare has now been met by a 'Verified Complaint' in which Clarkstown Fleet Manager, Dennis Malone, is the Plaintiff and named as the Defendants are:

Frank Sparaco, Individually;
Vincent D. Reda, Individually and as Rockland County GOP Party Chairman; 
Robert Axelrod, Individually and as Clarkstown GOP Party Chairman;
Wayne Ballard, Individually and as Clarkstown Highway Superintendent. 

Some details from the Complaint, which is dated August 14, 2013 and filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Rockland, are as follows:

• Malone, by his attorney, Daniel E. Bertolino, P.C. complaining of the Defendants, sets forth and alleges as follows ...

• Nature of Action - The action seeks to recover monetary damages resulting from the egregious breach of Plaintiff's rights by the Defendants, each of whom individually and acting in concert with each other, falsely accused Plaintiff of committing a crime. Plaintiff will not tolerate injury to his hard fought-for and valuable reputation which has been and is being destroyed by the callous and insidious conduct and false allegations of the Defendants. 

• Facts - Beginning on or about July 15, 2013, and continuing for approximately two weeks thereafter, the Defendants falsely accused the Plaintiff of committing the crime of Attempted Bribery. Specifically, the Defendants accused Plaintiff of having offered the Defendant Sparaco a job in the Town of Clarkstown Highway Department if he (Sparaco) would provide political support to Malone's campaign for Town of Clarkstown Highway Superintendent. That allegation is false. Sparaco surreptitously recorded various conversations with Malone and others, totaling approximately 8 hours, but he and the other Defendants heavily edited and/or altered and/or distorted the 8 hours of recorded conversations down to 40 minutes, in such a manner as to cast Malone in a false light, and which falsely accused Malone of the crime of offering Sparaco a bribe. 

• First Cause of Action for 'Defamation' - The Defendants individually and in concert with each other, with the intent to defame Malone, participated in the preparation, dissemination, publication, and circulation of several false, defamatory, malicious, misleading, and libelous statements concerning the Plaintiff ....... the Defendants were actuated by actual malice in that the Defendants knew that the statements, articles, and matters contained therein concerning the Plaintiff so published, were false and untrue, or were published with reckless and wanton disregard of whether they were false and untrue. 

• Second Cause of Action for 'Defamation by Implication' - By the words and images selected for dissemination to the media, and by heavily altering, splicing, editing, and distorting the recorded conversation, Defendants intended for the public to believe, and upon information and belief, the public did in fact believe, that Plaintiff, along with others, was involved in illegal activity. The statements and the implication that Plaintiff was involved in illegal activity of any sort, was completely false. Defendants knew at the time the statements were made that Plaintiff was not involved in any illegal activity.

Who's Who and What's What in Rockland County and Clarkstown ....

County Legislator, Frank Sparaco, can be found each month staring vacantly into space from the front row of the County Legislature while that body sinks Rockland County in an ocean of debt accumulated by fiscal mismanagement. He was hired by Clarkstown Highways Superintendent, Wayne Ballard, over 260 applicants into a $75,000 part-time patronage job with the unanimous approval of Clarkstown's Town Board members who created the position. Legislator Sparaco, claims he is mentored by Vinny Reda, Chairman of the Rockland Republican Party, a.k.a his "demented uncle" stating: "when I don't know what to do I go to Vinny".  

Sparaco is is a major player in the Independence Party which opinion writer, Phil Reisman, of the Journal News refers to as a "legal racket" because it runs no candidates of its own but simply cross endorses whatever major party candidate might be willing to provide some benefit in return, such as a good paying patronage position. 

In the November election Supervisor Gromack, Councilwoman Hausner and Councilman Hoehmann will be representing the Independence Party which has as its nominal head, John Perrotta.  

John Perrotta III, whose expressed desire is to "play with little punks", has a position on Clarkstown's "Alarm Users Review Board".  

The Shame of Politics in Clarkstown .....

Sparaco's Facebook exchange with Perrotta might be referred to in polite political circles as 'street talk' but others, less accustomed to being either polite or political, classify it as shameful gutter talk unbecoming a representative of the people of Rockland County. 

'Shameful' may also be an apt description for the actions of Clarkstown's Town Board in unanimously appointing 'street talking' Sparaco to a patronage position at taxpayers' expense. Describing the duties of this $75,000 part-time job, Sparaco stated in an interview with Our Town that when he "sees a mailbox knocked down by a plow he knocks on the door because his job is to make Wayne Ballard look good".

This is not the first shameful action of the present members of the Clarkstown Town Board. Earlier, they provided a patronage appointment to the recently arrested, recently fired, ex-head of the Bronx GOP, Jay Savino to conduct the Town's tax certiorari work. Savino was the attorney who represented Sparaco's mother-in-law, Debra Ortutay, when she was sent to jail for shameful actions involving perjury and fraud surrounding the leadership of the infamous Independence Party.

Revered and Reviled in Clarkstown ......

In impolite political circles Sparaco is 'revered' for his control over the minority Independence and the Working Families parties which are regarded as his "sphere of influence". In polite political circles he is 'reviled' for having surreptitiously recorded others from which he supplied heavily excised excerpts to a skeptical press that showed little interest in his revelations.  

Sparaco claimed he had knowledge of corruption in Clarkstown yet he did not inform the FBI, the Rockland County District Attorney, the Police Chief of Clarkstown, nor the Town Board of Clarkstown as to what evidence he intended to gather in his "demented" undercover investigation.  No law enforcement agency has shown any interest in what was produced and now Sparaco, Reda, Axelrod and Ballard will have to put their "money where their mouths are" and come up with the funds to defend themselves from a lawsuit filed by one of the "punks" Sparaco's friend "would love to play with", Clarkstown's Fleet Manager, Dennis Malone. 

What the other "punk" referred to in Sparaco's Facebook exchange, Clarkstown Councilman, Frank Borelli, will do about his role in the reviled scheme is yet to be revealed. Borelli with the now disgraced, Savino, lent an elbow of support, though not a shoulder, to Legislator Sparaco on October 26, 2010 when Sparaco was forced to hold a news conference, introduced by Reda, to deny claims by the Democratic Party that he took campaign money from associates of the mob.

The sordid history of "punks" in Rockland County ....

In Sex, Lies and Videotape I inquired whether Reda - who was charged with being unable to return a ‘pea’ coat to Macy's i.e. shoplifting, and who was not removed as the Chairman of the Rockland County Republican Party as a result - would demand the removal from the Party of Anthony Mele who was charged with making a remark indicating that he might sodomize Sparaco.

This remark followed Sparaco's characterization of Mele as a particular class of "punk".  Mele was conversing with Reda about Reda's "back stabbing" of Republican Dan Weisberg for judge and Reda's support of Democrat Rolf Thorsen when, according to Mele, Sparaco stuck a nose in his face and said:

"Shut the f**k up you big f*g punk". 

Mele reportedly replied: 

"Frankie, if I was a big f*g punk I would f**k you until you love me". 

This "punkish" incident happened during a Republican Convention on September 14, 2012 after which Sparaco offered in way of explanation that he is "all for political disagreement” and has apparently had many such "screaming matches". Mele subsequently claimed that Sparaco was surreptitiously recording videotapes of numerous employees and elected officials in the Town of Clarkstown though into which class of "punk" that placed Sparaco in Mele's vernacular was not clarified. 

Whatever the truth is about this matter we the citizens in Rockland County appear to be led by local politicians whose "screaming matches" involve crass sexual references involving "punks". 

Clarkstown's Inspector Clouseau speaks ....

Fast forward to a press conference held in the Republican Party's Headquarters on July 15, 2013 where Sparaco in a brattish presentation released edited portions of numerous hours of videotapes to the press while Reda looked on avuncularly, Ballard sheepishly, and Axelrod elusively. 

It was a Clouseauean performance by Sparaco about which one local news writer wrote: 

• While patronage jobs and political pay-for-play are significant problems in Rockland County and Clarkstown, this seems to be nothing more than hysterics by an "overindulged brat" who was egged on by a "clownish, demented uncle".

Another editor, Art Aldrich, commented: 

• The tapes were edited!  I couldn't accept that as a journalist. When I wrote the story (in Our Town) I pointed out some of the inconsistencies and I couldn't accept that as a contemporaneous record made by an impartial party. Everybody had an axe to grind in this including Mr. Sparaco. 

Mr. Aldrich was referring to the timestamp that accompanies any digital recording which revealed that even in the sections of the recordings Sparaco presented to the press small segments had been removed raising the question as to why numerous sections as short as several seconds were deleted.  

The Happy Epilogue .....

The chickens have come home not to the 'roost' but to the 'roast'. The fun of watching an "overindulged brat" and his "demented uncle" playing with "little punks" has begun.

Michael N. Hull is a retired senior citizen who writes opinion pieces on local political issues. He is a Director of Clarkstown Residents Opposing Patronage with Tom Nimick and Ralph Sabatini. Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know.