Dean Skelos, son found guilty on all counts in corruption case

ALBANY — Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, were convicted on all eight corruption counts Friday afternoon, making the former powerful lawmaker the latest New York politician to be found guilty for ethical misdeeds.

The jury came back with the verdict at around 2 p.m. after starting deliberations on Wednesday.

The conviction means that Skelos, the Republican majority leader from 2008 through early 2015, is out of office — just two weeks after ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was found guilty on corruption charges in a separate case.

The eight counts in the Skelos case surrounded allegations that Skelos used his influence to aid his son get jobs and contracts on Long Island.

“The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question — how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who brought the cases against Skelos and Silver, said in a statement.

Good-government groups used the two convictions of Skelos and Silver as another reason for the state Capitol to enact tougher ethics reforms.

“The conviction of former Senate Majority Leader Skelos adds to the Albany’s already swollen ‘Rogues Gallery’ of corrupt and unethical elected officials,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director from the New York Public Interest Research Group, in a statement. “New Yorkers want action, not finger pointing exercises designed to wait out public anger.”

Sheldon Silver guilty on all counts in corruption trial