#Sheldon Silver finally pays (some) for his crimes

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Sheldon Silver seen leaving US District Court in New York last month.
AP Photo/John Minchillo

Sheldon Silver is finally getting at least some of what he deserves: real time behind bars.

On Wednesday, Silver, 76, turned himself in at Otisville Correctional Facility, a medium-security federal prison about 80 miles northwest of the city, to at long last start serving his 6 ½ years for accepting bribes (nearly $4 million worth), money-laundering, extortion and other crimes committed as speaker of the state Assembly.

His first conviction, back in November 2015, got tossed on appeal in 2017. Convicted in a second trial in May 2018, he again appealed — and got a three-judge Second Circuit panel to vacate three of the seven “guilty” counts. But his final appeal — he had the gall to ask the full Second Circuit to take up the case and toss the last four counts, which centered on real-estate kickbacks — failed.

It all left him keep roaming free for five years. But in July, federal Judge Valerie Caproni nixed his final bid to delay prison because of the coronavirus. “The time,” she said, “has now come for Mr. Silver to pay the piper.”

It’s still no triumph of justice: Silver will collect a $6,600-a-month pension from New York’s taxpayers. Fixing that would require amending the state Constitution.