Over at the Edjurist Accord, Justin Bathon has been the first to tip me off to a potential scandal involving school lawyers in New York state.
As the blog notes, Newsday has reported that one lawyer was listed as a full-time employee of five different school districts at the same time, allegedly accruing extensive state pension benefits when he in fact worked only part time for the districts as a private attorney. The lawyer, Lawrence Reich, has denied through his attorneys doing anything wrong or illegal and has suggested that the practice was widespread, Newsday reports.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has requested information from all school districts on Long Island about their payments to school attorneys and law firms.
“Since the first story broke, a federal grand jury in Central Islip has opened an investigation and federal prosecutors, FBI and IRS agents have questioned potential witnesses and issued subpoenas,” Newsday reported in a Feb 24 story.
The paper has been writing about the situation almost daily. Its first story, from Feb. 14, is here. A fairly comprehensive narrative is here.