Dishonored City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) and his wife, Donna, bobbed and weaved hand-in-hand along Queens Boulevard late Friday morning, doing their best to avoid the zealous media mob like a weary prizefighter cheating the knockout blow.Couple that scene with the surreal image of Gallagher, 43, being escorted into Queens County Supreme Court in handcuffs by four tight-lipped detectives stuffed in suits earlier that morning and you have quite the sensational, if sad, setting.
But this is not a novel sight to some Queens residents and local political pundits. Dennis Gallagher simply is the latest in a line of elected Queens community leaders to be at the center of scandal.
Gallagher’s Scandal
Gallagher, a father of two teenaged boys, surrendered Friday morning to the NYPD Queens Special Victims Squad at the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills. A grand jury handed down a 10-count indictment that charged the 30th District councilman with various counts of rape, criminal sexual act and assault.
Bail was set at $200,000, which Gallagher immediately posted with the aid of his brother. His next scheduled court date is Sept. 28.
The indictment is the result of an investigation into a 52-year-old Middle Village grandmother’s claim that Gallagher sexually assaulted and physically abused her on a Sunday night in early July in a second-floor room at his district office on Metropolitan Avenue.
Gallagher has repeatedly refuted the woman’s claims, saying the encounter was consensual and the he will be “vindicated in the end.”
Gallagher was officially charged with three counts of first-degree rape, three counts of third-degree rape, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of criminal sexual act in the third degree and one count each of second and third-degree assault.
The most serious charges – first degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree, both violent felonies – carry maximum sentences of 25 and 20 years, respectively, and require the convicted to register with their local precinct as a sex offender.
“The charges are clear: there was no consent in this case,” said Queens DA Richard Brown, who characterized the indictment as proof that “no one is above the law.”
“The thing that troubles me most is that we’re dealing with the actions of a public official,” Brown lamented.
As a result of the criminal developments, Gallagher informed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn Friday afternoon that he would be stepping down from his leadership position as Minority Whip, his position on the Budget Negotiating Team and asked that he be temporarily removed from his Council committee assignments.
Due to term limits, Gallagher is set to relinquish his Council seat in 2009.
The Queens Buzz
This isn’t the first time Dennis Gallagher has stumbled into the scandalous spotlight. In 2001 he was accused of selling pornography – believed at the time to be comprised of vintage issues of Playboy and Penthouse magazines – from a fourth-floor office that he rented from Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village. Gallagher was investigated but cleared of any wrongdoing.
Some have speculated in recent reports that Gallagher’s marriage has been troubled for some time, and that part of it stems from his alleged affinity for spirits and frequenting neighborhood watering holes like Woodhaven House on Woodhaven Boulevard and Danny Boy’s on Dry Harbor Road on a regular basis; the latter is where Gallagher is said to have met the complainant on the night in question.
That a Queens politician is no saint is, unfortunately, not stop-the-presses fare in this city. Sex scandals, fraud, embezzlement and bribery are just some of the issues that have recently managed to make headlines and seep into the fabric of the borough’s proud political lore.
Read more...
