Top North Hempstead Building Department Official Sentenced to One Year in Jail

 Wasserman pleaded guilty to top charges, including five felonies

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that the man at the center of the DA’s sweeping 2007 probe into corruption within the Town of North Hempstead’s building department has been sentenced to one year in jail by a Nassau County judge after pleading guilty in May to the top charges against him, including five felonies.

David Wasserman, 49, of Roslyn, pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, four counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree and Receiving Unlawful Gratuities on May 27. The plea also required the surrender of Wasserman’s architectural license and that he pays $11,158 in back taxes, interest and penalties to New York State, as well as $3,600 worth of gym memberships at the New Hyde Park LA Fitness gym he unlawfully accepted in 2004.

Rice said that while he was the top building department official Wasserman performed architectural services in the Town and doctored the plans and permit applications to conceal the conflicting outside employment, which was in violation of the Town’s Code of Ethics. To further avoid the ethical conflict of the illegal outside income, Wasserman failed to report more than $100,000 on his state income tax returns, and received $5,752 in tax refunds based on those false numbers from 2003 to 2005.

“As the head of this department, this defendant’s actions eventually brought the building department to a standstill,” said Rice. “Hopefully Mr. Wasserman will spend his time behind bars figuring out how to earn back the public’s trust.”

Wasserman’s was the third guilty plea in connection with a 16-month probe by the District Attorney’s Office into allegations of bribe receiving, grand larceny, official misconduct and the filing of doctored architectural plans at the Town of North Hempstead’s Building Department. 

Deputy Chief of the DA’s Public Corruption Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Karen Bennett, along with Assistant District Attorney Michael Annibale, are handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office.  Wasserman is being represented by Joel Weiss, Esq.