For State Sen. Serphin Maltese, the arrest of his counsel last week on kiddie porn charges came with a painful irony.
Over the last three years, Maltese has given a total of $9,000 in member-item funding to a nonprofit anti-porn group known as Long Island Citizens for Community Values, state records show.
The Lindenhurst, L.I., group seeks to educate citizens and lawmakers "on the harmful effects and crimes associated with pornography," its Web site states.
Maltese fired his part-time counsel, Robert Groezinger, 53, shortly after he turned himself in to federal authorities on Wednesday.
"That was the first we heard of it," Maltese (R-Glendale) said of Groezinger's arrest for receiving kiddie porn via the Internet.
Maltese, who is facing a tight reelection battle against City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), said Groezinger's arrest shows the need for groups like the Long Island anti-porn organization.
"There are people like that out there committing crimes and retaining these disgusting images of children on their computers," he said.
But the Addabbo camp took issue with the fact Maltese has repeatedly funded groups outside of the 15th Senate District, which runs from Maspeth south to Howard Beach.
"The issue is not that Maltese had a pedophile working in his office," his spokeswoman Alexis Grenell said. "It's that he continues to squander taxpayer money and sends it out of his district."
An analysis of Maltese's $2.4 million in 2008 member-item funding shows he has funded many groups outside his district.
He gave $15,000 to the New York State Theater Institute Residency Program in upstate Troy. He gave $2,500 to Brooklyn-based group Sons of Union Vets of the Civil War and $5,000 to the Executive Leadership Institute, also in Brooklyn. He also gave $3,000 to the alumni association at Stuyvesant High School, his alma mater.
By contrast, most of Addabbo's $565,320 in member-item funding for 2008 appears to have been given to groups within his Council district, with the exception of a few citywide groups.
Those include Community Legal Resources Network, which provides legal services to people citywide, and Catholic Charities, which operates a number of senior centers in his district.
Maltese accused Addabbo of "desperate" attacks and noted that during his 10 terms in the Senate, he has brought a total of $34 million in member-item funding into his district.
That doesn't count funding he gets due to his seniority in the GOP majority, such as $55 million for LaGuardia Community College and a grant for almost $2 million to repair five Metropolitan Transportation Authority stations in the district, Maltese said.
Maltese said Addabbo wouldn't be able to match that accomplishment, even if he were in the majority.
"He wouldn't have an ounce of influence," he charged. "He wouldn't command 10 cents in either house."
WITH BRENDAN BROSH
