The Curious Cases of Arthur Aidala, “Joe” Hynes and Marty Golden — Part 1

READ ON  >>>  AND YOU WILL SEE HOW  >>>  Arthur Aidala was a key Hynes insider and some of what that involved  —   also included is a report of a recent disclosure of possible payments to Aidala from Dino Amoroso and a " ? ? ? Account"

That is mostly what this first installment, Part 1, of this two-part series  will deal with  —  Part 2 will be more of an "Artie and Marty Show"  —   It will show and tell what is not-so-well-known  —   that Artie Aidala is perhaps as close to being a real insider to Marty Golden as anyone

So, at last, here is the first installment of what I promised last week    (See 7/13/14 post below, "COMING ATTRACTIONS  —  Golden - Hynes -  Aidala Connections ..." [http://galewynmassey.blogspot.com/2014/07/coming-attractions-golden-hynes-aidala.html#comments]).

According to my sources, the New York Times, New York Post,  Daily News and New York Observer have all researched some or all of this story; and nobody from those papers has gotten back to any of those sources to say or otherwise indicate or complain that there was anything wrong with the material or information, which had been given to those papers.  Frustrated at the slow pace of various other journalists' inquiries, and who knows what phone calls back and forth, my sources authorized me to make this report at this time.

I’ve looked at it  —  I like the angle  —  So, I’m going with it.

Some of what is contained below  is based  on my sources’ first-hand, eye-witness account of events, together with other materials that they have gathered from published sources and elsewhere, and tied together. A few conclusions are my own.

FIRST HEARING ABOUT AIDALA AND A CHECK FROM THE THE " ? ? ? ACCOUNT"

Actually, I’ve  known about this story for a little while now.  A friend of mine gave me a “heads- up” a few weeks back that another person close to State Senator Marty Golden was going to be named as having received “Asset Forfeiture Fund” checks.  You might recall that on June 27th I wrote,  “... I have been assured by my source that there is ample proof of at least one other prominent person, whose name is well known in and out of southwest Brooklyn, who was quite active in the Hynes primary and general election campaigns and who received what most likely would have been an “Asset Forfeiture Fund” check. The propriety of such a check remains problematic; and it should be made clear, that check might not have been made in connection with any services or activities for either of the two Hynes' 2013 campaigns...” ( See Comment of June 27, 2014 at 10:59 PM to my Friday, June 27, 2014 post, “Question for Jerry Kassar: If it’s ‘Common Sense’ that Obama is ‘a sinking ship’  —  Isn’t it ‘Common Sense’ that Marty Golden is a sinking ship” below on this blog).

The person mentioned by my source and referred to above is Arthur Aidala, an attorney and figure of some note in the Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights community and some might say nationally and internationally.

Maybe, you know Arthur Aidala from back in his days at Poly Prep. Maybe, you’ve seen his colorful bombast as a regular commentator on legal matters on Fox News.  Maybe, you know him for his frequent visits to the 19th floor at 350 Jay Street to drop in on Dino Ameruso. Maybe, you remember when Mr. Aidala worked for Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes as an ADA from 1992 until 1997.  Maybe, you’ve seen Aidala’s name in the papers for some of the “big cases” that he’s been involved with; or as you’ll see later on in Part 2 of this post, some of the not so big cases which had more or less local interest. Maybe, you know Artie from one of the events at which both he and Marty Golden were key participants, or activities that they worked on together. Maybe, you remember that both Marty Golden and Arthur Aidala ran to fill Sal Albanese’s City Council seat in 1997, you’ll see a little more about that later on in Part 2 of these posts along with the a discussion of some of the not so big local "cases" (the common link to all of it in Part 2 will be the Marty Golden connection to it).  Oh, and of course, most of you who read this blog know that both Aidala and Golden were big players in former Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes’ fruitless and futile effort to hold onto the Brooklyn DA’s Office on the Republican and Conservative lines in the fall of 2013.

AIDALA USED TO HANG OUT AT AND MAKE LOTS OF CALLS TO THE BROOKLYN DA’S OFFICE YEARS AFTER HE STOPPED BEING AN ADA FOR HYNES

Somebody who worked in the Brooklyn DA’s Office not so long ago, remembers that Artie Aidala would occasionally come up to the 19th floor. The way the story goes, Aidala would more often make telephone calls to Dino Amoroso’s office and Dino would routinely take those calls ahead of most other things he was doing. As a matter of fact, a newcomer to the 19th floor heard so many calls with Arthur Aidala interacting with Dino Amoroso and Chief Assistant District Attorney Amy Feinstein that when the newcomer first saw Aidala on the 19th floor, it was assumed that he was employed somewhere else at 350 Jay Street as an ADA. That newcomer soon learned who Arthur Aidala really was; and that Aidala was doing a lot for the Hynes re-election campaign.

As an interesting little side note, an interesting thing happened after one of those many Aidala phone calls to Dino Amoroso.  Dino, half in jest and half exasperated, was heard to mutter,  “It’s not bad enough that he calls me ten times a day, now they want me to write him a check for something he should be doing for free....”  or words to that effect. So what was it that Mr. Amoroso thought former ADA Aidala should been doing for free ?

It’s believed by some,  that Arthur Aidala was getting legal fees for representing Brooklyn ADAs or other KCDA employees in their own cases; you know what I mean, cases in which they were in some kind of trouble. One such individual, “G.S.”, was technically not an ADA, but was one of a few people in the office not admitted as a lawyer that were allowed to do ADA-type work. “G.S.” once said to one of my sources on the inside that Arthur Aidala was his attorney for a problem that he had; and that the DA’s Office paid for it. When another ADA was called in to be questioned by the FBI about something in the office, that person attempted to get authorization from Feinstein and Amoroso, and then even Hynes himself for the same kind of representation by Mr. Aidala that “G.S.” had said he had gotten. In that instance, the ADA was told that there was a conflict of interest and as a result Mr. Aidala refused to take the case.

WERE AIDALA'S LEGAL FEES PAID FROM AMOROSO'S  "? ? ? ACCOUNT" ?

It would seem that at least some of those legal fees to Mr. Aidala might have been paid for by at least one check  from the now infamous "Asset Forfeiture Fund," unless the check to Mr. Aidala was for other-than legal fees or Dino Amoroso operated more than one checkbook out of his office on the 19th floor. (It should be noted that a recent DOI report indicated that Mr. Amoroso did write checks on an account associated with the so-called “Asset Forfeiture Fund.”)

Now, I can’t say with certainty that any check actually was given to Mr. Aidala  or that any such check was improper per se; or that Mr. Aidala might be responsible for any payments, regardless of what account it might have been drawn upon, if made to him by Dino Amoroso and/or others for properly billed legal services rendered to the Brooklyn DA’s Office. However, it certainly would seem unusual and suspicious that the Brooklyn DA’s Office might be making any payments for any reason to Arthur Aidala out of the “Asset Forfeiture Fund.”

An interesting question still nags at me; it is this:  even if the payments from the “Asset Forfeiture Fund” or whatever other accounts were being used to pay Arthur Aidala’s fees for services as described above were found to be perfectly legitimate, what would have made Dino Amoroso think that Mr. Aidala’s “legal work” should have been done for free ?

FRESH OUT OF QUEENS LAW SCHOOL, AIDALA GOT PICKED TO BE AN ADA BY HYNES  —   DID A BIG MURDER CASE AND THEN RAN FOR CITY COUNCIL

Even though Arthur Aidala was the son of a prominent criminal defense attorney and graduated from a prestigious prep school, he went to college at SUNY Purchase and was accepted into only one law school, the Queens School of Law in the CUNY system  —  then, still a relatively new law school set up largely for those who didn’t get into more established law programs.

He started out his career as a criminal law practitioner by being hired as an ADA in the Brooklyn DA’s Office under District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes in 1992. Artie Aidala learned his craft and moved up in the office until he left in 1997 to run for City Council in a district that included Hynes’ home and neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Aidala’s 39% Democratic Primary vote almost beat Joanne Seminara, who went on to lose to Marty Golden in November 1997.  Interestingly, Aidala was fed a very newsworthy murder case right before he left to run for the City Council.

FAST FORWARD TO THE 2013 CAMPAIGN FOR BROOKLYN  D.A.

Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes’ last hurrah was spread over the whole of the Primary and General elections of 2013.  Whenever it came time for the former DA to thank those who were key parts of both these 2013 campaigns, Hynes would make special mention of Mr. Arthur Aidala.  Video of Hynes’ final send-off on election night shows the mutual esteem and affection between Aidala and Hynes. The two had a connection that exceeded anything mentioned above, although what was mentioned above is certainly part of it.

AIDALA AMONG TOP FUND RAISERS FOR HYNES

Arthur Aidala has been widely reported as a significant contributor and bundler for Charles “Joe” Hynes and his campaigns (See “A Great Day for Hasidic Perverts” by Yerachmiel Lopin, 7/15/14, Frum Follies [http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/a-great-day-for-hasidic-perverts-2/]).  According to the NY Times, “Mr. Aidala ... a former Brooklyn prosecutor and a former campaign manager for Mr. Hynes.... is the registered agent for the Charles Hynes Association. Mr. Aidala, his family, and his legal firm contributed $5,100 to the district attorney last year....” (See “Raising Questions of Professional Conduct as Brooklyn’s Prosecutor Pursues Votes”
by Michael Powell, 7/29/13, New York Times/ Gotham
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/nyregion/raising-questions-of-professional-conduct-as-brooklyns-prosecutor-pursues-votes.html?_r=0]). Aidala’s contributions to Hynes’ campaign even earned him a place among the high rollers’ “dishing” to a Daily News reporter about their backing of various candidates running for DA of Brooklyn in 2013, which article appeared in the Daily News early in 2013 (See “What makes the Brooklyn DA seat so hot?  Chris Noth, Chris Rock, Donald Trump, and others dish” by Simone Weichselbaum, 2/20/13, NY Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/chris-noth-chris-rock-donald-trump-bk-da]).

I’m sure there are many other things that many others know about Arthur Aidala’s long-term and more recent dealings with former Brooklyn DA Hynes. Nonetheless, what I have sketched out above does demonstrate the degree to which Arthur Aidala was well-connected to the former Kings County District Attorney, Charles J. Hynes.  In Part 2 of this series of posts, we will explore how Mr. Aidala had enough connections to State Senator Martin J. Golden to be considered one of his close insiders as well.