Assemblyman Sheldon Silver Pestered by Yet Another Potential Felony

You can add alleged voter fraud to the growing list of potential felonies surrounding Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s re-election campaign — but it probably won’t even matter; he’s Shelly Silver!

It turns out that Silver’s kids are all voting in the powerful speaker’s district, presumably for their old man. The only problem with that is none of them actually live there — and haven’t for quite some time.

One of his kids doesn’t even live in New York, but has voted here six times while living out of state.

Two of Silver’s kids — Edward Silver, 43, and Michelle Trebitsch, 34 — are registered to vote at the speaker’s apartment at 550 Grand Street in Manhattan. Trebitsch, however, has lived in Brooklyn since 2000, and Edward Silver bought a home in Cedarhurst, Long Island in
July 2010.

One of Silver’s other children, Esther Fried, 30, owned an apartment
also on Grand Street, where she is registered to vote.
However, Fried sold the place down the street from her pops in 2005 and
has lived in New Jersey ever since.

The New York Post broke the story about Silver’s kids leaving the nest and lying about their addresses in order to vote.

“The election law is clear that voters have wide latitude to vote from
the residence they choose, so long as they are not dually registered.
They all vote from only one place, and under New York law that is
clearly legal,” Silver spokesman Michael Whyland said in a statement to the paper.

“Latitude”
is one thing — flat-out not living in the district in which you vote
is another; in fact, it’s a misdemeanor in most cases and a felony in
others.

Silver, who is facing Republican Wave Chan in this year’s
election, is the same guy who approved paying off two women who accused
his pal Vito Lopez, a disgraced Brooklyn assemblyman, of sexual
harassment. The women were paid more than $130,000 to essentially keep
their mouths shut about Lopez’s alleged pervy-ness, with more than
$100,000 of that money coming from taxpayers.

Silver’s also the
same guy who swept allegations of sexual assault against his former aide
J. Michael Boxley under the rug. Two years later, Boxley pleaded guilty
to sexual misconduct — in a
sweetheart deal that kept him out of jail — for an attack on a
different woman.

Then, in 2006, Silver and the Assembly agreed to pay
$500,000 to a Jane Doe because the speaker failed to properly
investigate the initial accusations and for “tolerating a culture of
sexual harassment in the Assembly.”

Regardless, the voter fraud
allegedly committed by his children probably will have no impact on the
election — again, he’s Shelly Silver.