Judge Upholds Convictions in Yonkers Corruption Case

A federal judge in Manhattan upheld the convictions on Wednesday of a former Yonkers councilwoman, Sandy Annabi, and a political operative who had testified that that he had given her gifts out of love and not for corrupt reasons, as the government had charged.

Prosecutors had accused Ms. Annabi of taking about $195,000 in secret payments over the years from the operative, Zehy Jereis, in return for dropping her strong opposition to a proposed 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex in Yonkers called Ridge Hill, and a second project. The government had also contended that Ms. Annabi had thrown her support behind Ridge Hill in order to help Mr. Jereis obtain a no-show job from the developer, Forest City Ratner.

“The jury was entitled to conclude that the thing that changed Sandy Annabi's mind about the Ridge Hill Project was her benefactor Zehy Jereis' financial interest in getting the project approved,” the judge, Colleen McMahon of Federal District Court in Manhattan, wrote in her decision.

During the trial, Judge McMahon had raised questions, out of the presence of the jury, about whether the government had proven a key aspect of its conspiracy case, which related to Ridge Hill. But the judge declined to rule on a motion by the defense to dismiss charges before the case went to the jury.

In her ruling on Wednesday, Judge McMahon also seemed skeptical about Mr. Jereis's so-called love defense. His lawyer had introduced a series of e-mails that Mr. Jereis had purportedly sent to Ms. Annabi, trying to bolster his testimony that he had been in love with her. Prosecutors said the evidence showed that the e-mails had been fabricated.

“The jury would not have acted irrationally had it drawn the inference that the e-mails were fakes,” Judge McMahon wrote. “Neither would it have been irrational for the jurors to conclude that Jereis' story of his seven years of unrequited courtship was most likely a fiction as well.”

Ms. Annabi and Mr. Jereis were each convicted on March 29 on all counts, including receiving corrupt payments, extortion and two counts of conspiracy. Ms. Annabi, who had been the Democratic majority leader of the Yonkers council, and Mr. Jereis, a former Yonkers Republican chairman, are both scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

Neither Forest City Ratner nor any of its employees were charged in the case. The developer has said it cooperated with the authorities throughout the investigation.