Biaggi Gets 8 Years in Wedtech Case

NEW YORK —  A weeping Mario Biaggi, forced by corruption convictions from an influential 10-term career in Congress, was sentenced today to eight years in prison for his role in the Wedtech bribery scandal.

“I think incarceration will be the equivalent of a death penalty,” the 71-year-old former congressman, his voice choking with emotion, told U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley moments before she sentenced him on 15 counts of bribe-taking, racketeering, bribery and extortion.

“I died a little bit every day during the trial,” he said.

Biaggi sat slumped in his chair as Motley read off sentences on 15 separate criminal counts.

Says He Was Broke

Biaggi said he was “penniless” but was ordered to pay $242,000 in fines. He could have been sentenced to up to 146 years in prison and fined $7.4 million.

The sentence, scheduled to begin Jan. 9, will be served concurrently with a 2 1/2-year Brooklyn federal court term for accepting an illegal gratuity.

Former Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon, also forced from office, was sentenced to five years in prison and a $70,000 fine. Former Small Business Administration regional director Peter Neglia got three years and $30,000; Wedtech co-founder John Mariotta got eight years and $29,000.

Son Found Innocent

Biaggi’s son, Richard, 39, was found innocent of racketeering but was convicted of bribe-taking and other charges. He was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $170,000.

All said they would appeal.

Biaggi was convicted of receiving $1.8 million in Wedtech Corp. stock in return for helping procure lucrative government contracts that transformed the small South Bronx machine shop into a multimillion-dollar defense contractor.

Federal prosecutor Edward Little, who at trial called Biaggi “a thug in a congressman’s suit,” urged a prison sentence, saying Biaggi “sold out his office.”

Begged for Mercy

New York’s most highly decorated former policeman, whose conspicuous limp is the result of a heroic rescue of a woman on a runaway horse in Central Park, struggled to the lectern to proclaim his innocence and beg the judge to show mercy to his son, Richard.

“I appeal to you as a father for a young man who all through the ordeal was comforting others,” Biaggi said, as his son buried his face in his hands and family members wept. “My time is done. Don’t hurt Richard.

“All my life I served in public service. I loved to be loved (by the public). I loved to love them. The trial, what it did to my family--’Is grandpa going to jail?’--I would have done anything to eliminate that. I’m fearful.”