Carrozza in violation of residency law

BY VICTOR G. MIMONI

Monday, July 6, 2009 5:01 PM EDT

Assemblymember Ann Margaret Carrozza is dismissing charges of fraud and calls for her resignation after the revelation that she has lived outside her district – in fact outside of Queens County – for six months.

Carrozza, who has represented the 26th District, including Bayside, Douglaston, East Flushing, Little Neck, Whitestone and other neighbors since being elected in 1996, was featured in a published report stating that she actually lives in the tony neighborhood of Glen Head, in Nassau County.

“There have been too many of these allegations over the years and we must now get serious about protecting the public from this type of fraud,” said Phil Ragusa, Chair of the Queens Republicans.

Going one step further, Daniel Egers, Executive Director of the Queens Republicans, called for an investigation, saying, “Carrozza should belatedly do the honest and honorable thing and tender her resignation. Perhaps she should run in Long Island.”

“There is no impediment in New York State Election Law to a temporary absence from one’s Assembly district,” Carrozza told The Queens Courier during a phone interview on Tuesday, June 30.

“I have been temporarily living outside of the district since February, but I should be back in the district by [Saturday] August 1,” she said.

The six-term Assemblymember had earlier told The Courier that the mansion was originally “an investment property,” and that she was still a resident of Bayside. “My husband and I own [several] residences,” she said.

Property records show that Carrozza and her husband, William Duke, bought the property, known as “The Crossways,” on June 30, 2008 for $1.894 million and signed a $1 million mortgage.

Paragraph 6 of the mortgage is the “Borrower’s Obligations to Occupy the Property.”

Carrozza and her husband said they would “occupy the property and use the property as my principal residence within 60 days.” The mortgage specifies that they would have had to keep it as their primary residence for a year, unless the lender released them from the requirement in writing, “if extenuating circumstances exist which are beyond [their] control.”

Regardless, Carrozza explained that the Bayside address still listed as her official residence was rented out because, “We had a deal on a bigger house in Bayside,” according to a published report. Carrozza said that the deal fell through, leaving a choice between evicting the new tenant, or moving into the Nassau manse temporarily.

“I checked with my [election law] attorney and this is completely legal,” Carrozza told The Queens Courier. “I have temporarily lived outside the district before; while I was pregnant, we were having work done on the house and I lived elsewhere,” she said.

What constitutes a politician’s residence has been a hot topic recently, because Bronx state Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., one of two possible temporary presidents of the Senate, was investigated for having a residence in Westchester County.

The court found that the Westchester home did not disqualify Espada from holding his office in the Bronx.

Closer to home, attorneys for State Senator Toby Stavisky attempted to have Republican challenger Peter Koo removed from the ballot last year, because, they claimed, his wife and children were living in Nassau County.

Although a Queens judge threw Koo off the ballot, an Appellate Court panel reversed the decision and allowed Koo to run.

Election Law experts agree that New York law, “does not preclude a person from having two residences and choosing one for election purposes provided he or she has ‘legitimate, significant and continuing attachments’ to that residence;” the address they use to run for office is supposed to be where they live, “without any aura of a sham.”

“As one judge was fond of saying, ‘Your residence is where you keep your teddy bear’,” recalled an attorney familiar with election law.

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