Voters Cast Ballots for 3 New York City Council Seats by Trymaine Lee - NYTimes.com

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Special elections were held on Tuesday for three City Council seats in Queens and on Staten Island to fill vacancies left by candidates who were elected to other offices in November.

Eric A. Ulrich won in the 32nd Council District in Queens and Julissa Ferreras won in the 21st Council District, also in Queens.

With about 10,000 votes cast in the 49th Council District on Staten Island, Kenneth C. Mitchell was leading Deborah L. Rose by 34 votes, but numerous absentee ballots still remained to be counted. Mr. Mitchell or Ms. Rose will fill the seat formerly held by Michael E. McMahon, who was elected to the House of Representatives.

The winners will serve through the end of the year and will then need to run again in primaries and in the general election to keep their seats.

Mr. McMahon won the seat formerly held by Representative Vito J. Fossella, who did not seek re-election after a drunken driving arrest led to revelations that he fathered a child with a mistress.

There were 395 absentee ballots that remained to be counted in the Mitchell-Rose race, said Valerie Vazquez-Rivera, a Board of Elections spokeswoman. The absentee ballots will not likely be counted for another week, Ms. Vazquez-Rivera said.

Early returns showed Ms. Rose leading, but shortly after midnight Mr. Mitchell had moved ahead.

Ballots were cast in the district using paper ballots after a last-minute ruling added a candidate to the ballot.

Mr. Ulrich, a Republican, won the seat formerly held by Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. in the 32nd Council District. Mr. Addabbo was elected to the State Senate.

Mr. Ulrich, the Republican district leader, outspent each of the other candidates vying for the seat. Ms. Ferreras, a Democrat, won election in the 21st Council District in Queens, replacing her former boss, Hiram Monserrate, who was elected to the State Senate.

Ms. Ferreras, who was Mr. Monserrate’s chief of staff, had her candidacy tainted by questions of financial irregularities at a charity she was involved with and the legal problems of her former boss: Mr. Monserrate was charged in December with domestic violence and weapons possession after he was accused of slashing his girlfriend in the face.

Ms. Ferreras is the first Latina to be an elected official in Queens, according to the Working Families Party, which was behind Ms. Ferreras’ campaign.

Special Election Date Announced by Pervaiz Shallwani-- Newsday.com

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City voters will head to the polls Feb. 24 in a special election to fill three City Council seats, including the post vacated by the embattled Hiram Monserrate of Jackson Heights.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the date of the election yesterday.

Under the City Charter, Bloomberg had to wait until the council seats were officially vacated at the start of the new year before announcing the election. Several candidates already are vying to fill the seats, all of which were held by Democrats.

Winners in the special election will fill out the remainder of the four-year terms, which run through Dec. 31.

Monserrate, 41, who was elected to the state Senate in the November general election, faces charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly slashing the face of Karla Giraldo, his girlfriend, with a broken glass during an argument in his Jackson Heights apartment last month.

Prosecutors said the slashing occurred because the couple was arguing over an item Monserrate had found in Giraldo's purse. But in court papers, Monserrate said he tripped while bringing his girlfriend a glass of water, causing the injuries.

Giraldo, 30, who received 20 stitches above her left eye, has denied that Monserrate assaulted her.

He is due back on court next week. If convicted of the charges, he would have to resign his Senate seat.

The other two seats being vacated were those of Joseph Addabbo of Howard Beach and Michael McMahon of Staten Island.

Addabbo was elected to the state Senate, beating out long-time Republican state Sen. Serphin Maltese of Glendale. McMahon was elected to the House seat once held by disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella, a Republican.

Fossella did not seek re-election after his drunken-driving arrest in suburban Virginia in May led to revelations that he had a child from an extramarital affair. Fossella, who is married with three children, was convicted in October. His five-day jail sentence is pending his appeal for a jury trial.

Special Vote Planned for Vacant City Council Seats by Michael Saul - NY Daily News

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A special election will be held next month to fill three vacant City Council seats - two from Queens and one from Staten Island, Mayor Bloomberg announced Saturday.

The special election will be held Feb. 24 to fill the seats of the three former councilmen, all Democrats whose resignations became effective this past week.

In November, Joseph Addabbo and Hiram Monserrate of Queens were elected to the state Senate. And Michael McMahon, who represented the north shore of Staten Island, is replacing Vito Fossella in Congress.

Fossella, the lone Republican representing the city in the House, did not seek reelection following his drunken driving arrest last year and confession that he fathered a child out-of-wedlock.

The elections will be nonpartisan, and the winners will serve through Dec. 31.

The entire City Council - plus the mayor, city controller and public advocate - face election this fall for full terms beginning Jan. 1.

Money Scandal Hits City Board of Elections Over Expenses and Raises by Tina Moore and Greg B. Smith With Benjamin Lesser

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Hudson Valley Resort & Spa New York, where Board of Elections Commissioner James Sampel put in for a "deep tissue massage" at taxpayer expense.

The city's elections commissioners won approval for a big fat pay raise last year, after swearing they needed extra cash because they're not reimbursed for board-related expenses.

One problem: It's not true.

All but one of eight sitting commissioners received thousands of dollars in reimbursements for air fare, luxury hotel accommodations and meals, a Daily News investigation has found.

The commissioners and agency employees appear to routinely get taxpayers to pick up expenses barred by city rules -- everything from a "deep tissue" massage to an $800 dinner.

Records show taxpayers often paid for Board of Elections workers-only pizza parties (usually from Grimaldi's in Brooklyn) and tickets to social events, including an agency official's attendance at a legislative dinner with her state Senator husband.

Though city rules limit employee attendance at conferences to two a year, commissioners and top agency officials often attended three. Some of these same top officials would sign off on their own expenses.

As a result of the News investigation, the agency last week announced it would tighten its procedures and audit all expenses back to Jan. 1, 2007. Employees will have to pay back any bogus reimbursements. Already one employee has written a $1,500 check.

The claim of non-reimbursement surfaced last year when Board of Elections commissioners went to Albany hat in hand. All are part-timers appointed by Republican and Democratic party leaders.

For years, they were paid $125 a meeting, capped at $12,500 a year. They tried and failed in 2006 to raise it to $300 per meeting with a $30,000 cap; they tried again in 2007.

In legislative documents, one of the key reasons given to justify the pay raise states, "City regulations prohibit reimbursement for tolls, parking and the cost of any conferences they attend."

Board spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Rivera said the board did not write this language. Spokespersons for the bill's two co-sponsors, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn, and Sen. Serphin Maltese, R-Queens, denied writing the language.

Maltese's chief of staff, Vicki Vattimo, said, "They asked us to sponsor this. To the best of my recollection, they wrote it."

Whoever wrote it, it worked. The law passed and starting in September 2007 the commissioner's pay rate more than doubled to the $30,000 cap.

As the bill made its way to approval, most of the commissioners were reimbursed for thousands of dollars in hotel, transportation and meals for attending several conferences at resorts upstate.

In all, commissioners collected $10,342.88 in reimbursements. Brooklyn Republican Nancy Mottola-Schacher led the way with $2,594.85.

Only Commissioner Gregory Soumas, a Manhattan Democrat, didn't put in for expenses because he didn't attend any conferences. "I questioned their value," he said.

All told, seven commissioners and 25 top-level board employees pocketed $57,896 in expenses since Jan. 1, 2007, mostly for hotel bills, airfare and meals at conferences.

A review of hundreds of pages of expense reports and receipts filed by board employees since Jan. 1, 2007 found numerous examples of unjustifiable expenses.

Commissioner James Sampel, a Staten Island Democrat, must have been trying to work out the kinks during a weekend conference at the Hudson Valley Resort & Spa near Kingston in January 2007.

His expense report included a $50 charge for "spa massage" described as "50 min deep tissue/Alex."

Marks on the bill suggest the massage fee was subtracted from the $420 total, which should have reduced the bill to $370. But the check cut by the city shows Sampel received $400, indicating "deep tissue" was at least partly taxpayer-funded.

Sampel approved the expense form himself. In a brief interview, he insisted he wasn't reimbursed for the massage, and agency officials later produced a receipt for a $30 conference fee they say accounted for the difference.

Taxpayers also picked up a $500 deductible on an insurance payout Sampel received when fire damaged his Staten Island home in November 2007.

Details of the fire are unclear. Board spokeswoman Vazquez said police believe the fire was set by someone who'd made threats to Sampel in connection with his board position.

Vazquez-Rivera promised to produce a police report about the incident but never did.

Records also show Board of Elections employees ate well.

In one particularly memorable night out in June 2007, 13 board employees attending a conference at Lake Placid spent $800 on a lavish dinner at the four-star Mirror Lake Inn.

First, the group quaffed top-shelf liquor, ordering a Grey Goose martini, Stoli vodka and Absolut with cranberry, as well as a Cosmopolitan, an apricot sour and glasses of Pinot Noir, Chardonay and Reisling.

Appetizers included $109.50 for lobster gnocci. Entrees included $26.95 veal tenderloin and $28.50 for duck magret. They finished with exotic deserts including "death by chocolate" ($8.25), a peanut butter bomb ($7.95), and cappuccino all around.

All told they spent $99 on booze, $535 on food, plus tax and a $120 tip for a grand total of $803.91, split several ways. Supervisors approved reimbursement for this expense, although city rules specify city funds are not to pay for out-of-town meals involving only city employees.

In one case, a supervisor who approved a subordinate's dinner reimbursement benefitted from the arrangement.

In March 2007, board manager Pamela Green Perkins approved lawyer Steven Richman's $94 bill at Scrimshaw in Albany. The diners were Richman and Perkins.

Richman, a Brooklyn Democrat, returned the favor, getting taxpayers to pay for his mileage when he drove his personal vehicle to a tribute for Perkins' husband, Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Harlem.

Pamela Perkins, in turn, had taxpayers pay for her to go to the State Black and Puerto Rican Legislator's Conference in 2007 and 2008 in Albany. Total bill for hotels, transportation and meals was $836, including a $150 ticket to a scholarship dinner as her husband's "guest."

Last week Perkins was forced to write a $1,559 check to pay the city back for these unjustified expenses. She did so reluctantly, writing, "I have no doubt about the legitimacy of my participation on behalf of the Board at these events. I was quite taken aback by the response from you and others regarding this issue."

Her boss, George Gonzalez, a Bronx Democrat, approved that bill. Gonzalez often put in for his morning coffee, frequently demanding payment for purchases ranging from 95 cents to $1.73.

Grimaldi's pizza was extremely popular with Gonzalez and another top official, Lucille Grimaldi. Both spent $548.74 on pizzas at the high-end joint in Brooklyn for three staff meetings.

The reimbursement king at Board of Elections was Richman, the board's $113,170-a-year counsel.

Since Jan. 1, 2007, he's run up $11,792 in expenses by demanding mileage reimbursement for dozens of trips from his Brooklyn home to pretty much anywhere else.

His reimbursed trips included a wake, a funeral, the inauguration of Andrew Cuomo and state Sen. Malcolm Smith, and a ceremony for U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel -- all Democrats.

He said reimbursement of several trips from home to court was justified because of an exception that reimburses city workers who must carry "special equipment or materials which cannot feasibly be transported by public mass transit." The equipment, apparently, is his legal papers.

Richman even had taxpayers pay his membership in vocational groups such as the New York County and the New York State Bar Associations.

Twice Richman got reimbursed for an expense not allowed by city rules - staying at a hotel an extra night before attending a conference. Both upstate hotels featured spas.

Often the business purpose of the reimbursements wasn't clear.

Several employees were reimbursed for everything from window shades to trays to TV cables. None of these expenses spells out their specific Board of Election purpose.

Beth Fossella, coordinator of voter registration and mother of shamed Congressman Vito Fossella, charged taxpayers $268 for two plane tickets to Syracuse on April 30, 2007. She was paid without identifying her travel partner.

Commissioner Frederic Umane got $172.75 for a stay at the Desmond Hotel in Albany on March 5, 2007, and $168.00 for gas. No reason was given for that stay or an April 14 stay at an upstate Marriott that cost $148.30.

gsmith@nydailynews.com

With Benjamin Lesser

Dozens of Queens GOP Workers Repay Patron by Raising Funds for Reelection by Robert Gearty, Benjamin Lesser and Greg B. Smith - NY Daily News

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At the board of Elections, politicians who put loyal party followers into patronage jobs often get something in return - campaign cash.

State Sen. Serphin Maltese - Durand for News

Take state Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Queens), who faced a tough, and ultimately unsuccessful, bid for re-election this year.

Maltese, head of the Queens GOP, was instrumental in arranging dozens of board jobs for Queens Republicans, including his part-time counsel, Anthony Como, who until recently served for years as a city Board of Elections commissioner.

Many other party loyalists got board jobs with salaries ranging from $25,000 to $90,000.

In return, at least 19 board workers bundled together dozens of donations ranging from $50 to $400 to raise $10,020 for their benefactor.

The highest-paid donor, Queens Deputy Clerk Katherine James, raised the most - $4,755. She was listed as a member of Maltese's "Platinum Club" at his annual Hawaiian luau fund-raiser.

All told, 38 employees in the board's headquarters and its Queens office got their jobs through the Queens Republican Party, records show. Maltese even got Como and his fellow commissioners a pay raise, sponsoring a bill to hike their pay for the part-time appointments from $12,500 to $30,000 a year - more than the state Board of Elections commissioners make.

Anthony Como - Smith for News

A Daily News investigation found that in the last three election cycles, board employees made 183 donations to city candidates, mostly in small amounts.

City Controller William Thompson announced he'd review all the board's expenses following Sunday's News exposé.

"The information reported by the Daily News is extremely troubling," said Thompson's top aide, Deputy Controller John Graham. "It appears that a number of these expenditures are not justifiable."

He declined further comment pending the agency's review.

Besides troubling expenses, questions also swirl around political contributions by city board employees.

For example, Assemblyman Denny Farrell, head of the Manhattan Democratic party, raised $765 from 21 donations made mostly around Christmas 2007 by board workers. All were small contributions of $10 to $50.

City employees are barred from pressuring subordinates to make political donations.

One former board official, Jon Del Giorno, received dozens of donations from subordinates when he ran for City Council while still on the job. Just after Thanksgiving 1999, board workers began sending small checks to a committee formed by Del Giorno, then the board's administrative manager.

More donations poured in and by January 2001, Del Giorno had amassed 32 board employee contributions totaling $2,155. A month later it was clear why: Del Giorno was running for a Staten Island Council seat as a Democrat.

Photo caption: Katherine James

During the time he was collecting donations from board employees, Del Giorno was one of the top administrators at the board. Then in April 2001, the board began requiring all employees to go on leave if they ran for office.

On July 16, 2001, more than a year after he began raising funds and three months after he was supposed to begin his leave, Del Giorno took a brief leave from the board.

He lost the Sept. 25, 2001, primary and was soon back on the board.

After he quit, his mother, Sheila Del Giorno, got a job at the board, becoming the $87,452-a-year chief clerk of Staten Island in 2006.

The board likes to hire relatives. A review of records shows 18 employees either related to politicians or to other high-level board employees. Some are part-timers who pull in the overtime each election.

The sons of the late Queens Democratic boss Tom Manton and the late Staten Island Democratic Chairman John Lavelle work there. Disgraced U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella's mother is the $73,819-a-year voter registration coordinator, and his brother is a part-timer.

Some Board of Elections employees work it both ways. District Leader Maryrose Sattie, a $92,728-a-year deputy chief clerk in Brooklyn, has two relatives on the payroll - Thomas, a $66,702 associate staff analyst who got his job through the Brooklyn Democratic party, and Lisa, a $39,440 administrative assistant, a Staten Island Democrat.

Board administrator Pamela Perkins, wife of state Sen. Bill Perkins, is also a district leader. So is Anna Torres, a Bronx Democrat and wife of former Assemblyman Luis Diaz. Torres makes $85,153 as a deputy chief clerk.

The board also has no policy on regarding the hiring of relatives, said spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Rivera, former wife of Bronx Democratic Councilman Joel Rivera.

gsmith@nydailynews.com

N.Y. Congressman Gets Five Days in Jail for DUI by Christian Davenport - washingtonpost.com

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U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella, the New York congressman whose political career fell apart after a DUI arrest in Alexandria led to revelations that he fathered a child in an extramarital affair, was sentenced yesterday to five days in jail.

Fossella, who was convicted of driving under the influence in October, had said he made a mistake when he drove after drinking. During yesterday's hearing, he tried to convince General District Court Judge Becky J. Moore that his blood-alcohol level could not have been above 0.15, the level at which jail time is mandatory.

A breath test after his arrest indicated that he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, according to police. Fossella's attorneys claimed that the machine used to measure his blood-alcohol level had a "software glitch" and that the congressman did not appear inebriated in the hours before he was arrested.

Immediately after the verdict, Fossella, 43, appealed the decision and left the court in Old Town Alexandria without talking to reporters. The maximum penalty on the misdemeanor charge is one year in jail.

One of his attorneys, Barry Pollack, said that the hearing was "the first step in a lengthy process" and that "we look forward to taking that next step."

Fossella, New York City's lone Republican congressman, was pulled over shortly after midnight May 1 after an Alexandria police officer said he observed him running a red light at Seminary Road and Library Lane. Fossella told the officer that he was going to visit his sick daughter. That led to the revelation that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with retired Air Force Col. Laura Fay. Fossella is married with three children who live in Staten Island.

After his arrest, Fossella announced that he would not seek reelection. He did not take the stand yesterday.

During his October trial, Fossella testified that he had been at a White House reception April 30 to celebrate the New York Giants' Super Bowl victory. Later, he went back to his Capitol Hill office and cleaned his hands with Purell, a hand sanitizer that is more than 60 percent ethyl alcohol.

The alcohol in the hand sanitizer led to his elevated blood-alcohol reading, his attorneys said. Fossella said he went to a private dinner at Bobby Van's Steakhouse in the District about 8 p.m. and drank not quite two glasses of wine with dinner. He sipped a third at the bar afterward, he said.

About 10 p.m., he went to Logan Tavern with a friend who is a Secret Service agent, he said. The friend was so drunk he fell face first into a table, breaking it, bar employee Alexander Castro testified yesterday. But Fossella did not appear intoxicated, said Castro, the only witness to testify.

The men were asked to leave the restaurant. In pre-sentencing arguments, Fossella's attorneys wrote that Fossella drove his friend to his office in the District and then went straight to Virginia.

At the time of his arrest, he registered a 0.13 blood-alcohol level. He was taken to the Mount Vernon police station in Fairfax County, and police there tried to give him another blood-alcohol test nearly three hours later. Initially, Fossella "claimed he was not able to perform the test and threatened to defecate on the floor of the police station if he was not allowed to use the restroom," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Lord wrote in a pre-sentencing document.

In that test, he registered a 0.17, police said. During the hearing yesterday, defense attorneys argued that the second device, known as Intoxilyzer 5000, had a "software glitch" that led to the elevated reading.

They said the machine twice omitted letters of the name of the officer operating the machine. "Something happened to that machine," attorney Jerry Phillips said. "It left out a letter. It could have been a number."

They also argued that there was no way the level could have risen from 0.13 to 0.17 in between tests because "the alcohol level dissipates over time."

Lord argued in pre-sentencing documents that the machine that registered the 0.13 "does not have so high a degree of scientific reliability that it can be used to determine a specific" blood-alcohol content. It is a preliminary test used "for determining the presence of alcohol in a suspect's system."

The machine that registered the 0.17 was working properly, he argued, and "presents results that are scientifically accurate and reliable for determining a specific" blood-alcohol content.

The rise in alcohol in the blood could also be the result of "slamming" drinks in rapid fashion, he said.

Fossella Convicted in Virginia of Drunken Driving - NYTimes.com

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Representative Vito J. Fossella, a Staten Island Republican, was found guilty on Friday of a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol after being stopped on an Alexandria road early one morning last spring.

The decision, by a judge in Alexandria District Court, was the latest chapter in a scandal that began with his arrest in May, led to an admission that he had fathered a child in an extramarital affair, and eventually forced him to abandon his re-election bid. That decision gave New York Democrats a prime opportunity to pick up a Congressional seat that has been safely in Republican hands for decades.

Mr. Fossella, 43, who has a wife and three children in Staten Island, sat expressionless as Judge Becky J. Moore handed down her verdict. Under Virginia law, Mr. Fossella can appeal to have his case heard by a jury.

The prosecution is seeking a five-day jail sentence, the penalty for drivers who register a blood alcohol content of at least 0.15 percent. According to his arrest report, Mr. Fossella registered 0.133 percent during a roadside breath analysis test. After his arrest, prosecutors have said, he registered 0.17 percent on another machine. The legal limit in Virginia, as in most states, is 0.08 percent.

During the one-day trial, Mr. Fossella’s lawyers tried to undercut the prosecution’s case by challenging the accuracy of the breath analysis machines, a tactic that has been used with varying degrees of success around the country. Judge Moore set a court hearing for Dec. 8 to determine whether the prosecution had established that Mr. Fossella met the legal threshold for the five-day jail penalty.

Neither Mr. Fossella’s wife, Mary Pat Fossella, nor his mistress, Laura Fay, were in the courtroom.

In a statement released after the trial, Mr. Fossella said, “I made a serious mistake, and I want to again apologize for setting the wrong example,” The Associated Press reported. “I believe we live in a nation of laws, that no one person is above the law, and I look forward to the judge’s final determination in December.”

Judge Moore heard testimony from a handful of witnesses, including the arresting officer, Jamie Garnett, who delivered the most damaging account.

Officer Garnett said he stopped Mr. Fossella after the congressman drove through a red light during the predawn hours of May 1. As he approached the congressman in his car, Officer Garnett testified, he noticed that Mr. Fossella’s lips were stained red and his eyes bloodshot, and that the car smelled of alcohol.

He also said that Mr. Fossella swayed when he got out of the car and that he had difficulty completing a series of sobriety field tests, including standing on one leg and reciting the alphabet from D to T.

In his testimony, Mr. Fossella said he had drunk about two glasses of wine at two restaurants where he had gathered with friends and acquaintances.

Mr. Fossella said that sometime later that night, he rushed to Virginia, where Ms. Fay and their 3-year-old daughter live, after receiving news about the girl. “I was told that my daughter was sick,” he said, in the only mention during the trial of the child he had with Ms. Fay.

Earlier on Friday, defense lawyers called to the witness stand several people who had spent part of the evening with Mr. Fossella before his arrest. They testified that Mr. Fossella did not appear to be drunk at any point.

The witnesses included Dr. John D’Ana, a surgeon and friend of Mr. Fossella’s whose testimony was clearly aimed at undercutting that of the arresting officer. Under direct examination by the defense, Dr. D’Ana said Mr. Fossella did not have bloodshot eyes or red stains on his lips, nor was he staggering.

“He appeared as he always does — composed and in control,” he said.

By almost any standard, Mr. Fossella’s fall was rapid and dramatic.

The case might not have generated the kind of tabloid headlines it did if not for the explanation Mr. Fossella gave Officer Garnett the night the officer stopped him on a dark stretch of Seminary Road: that he was on his way to visit his sick daughter in Alexandria.

Once reporters began investigating the circumstances surrounding the arrest, his statement to the officer became public. And Mr. Fossella was eventually forced to admit that he had had an affair with Ms. Fay, a retired Air Force colonel who served as a military liaison to Congress, and that the two had a young daughter — secrets he had kept even from some of his closest friends.

The case upended a promising political career. Mr. Fossella had been a member of the New York City Council before leaders of the once-formidable Staten Island Republican Party tapped him to run for Congress in a special election in 1997, representing a district that includes all of Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn. He has served five full terms and part of a sixth.

As the only Republican in the city’s Congressional delegation, he was uniquely positioned to run for citywide office, including the mayoralty, a prospect that some of his allies frequently mentioned in private.

Fossella Convicted Of DWI Charges by Molly Kroon - NY1

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Five months after being pulled over on his way from a White House event, Staten Island-Brooklyn Congressman Vito Fossella was convicted of drunken driving charges Friday in a Virginia courtroom.

Fosella, who appeared before a judge, could serve up to five days in prison. He will be sentenced at a separate session.

"I'm grateful that this matter was presented in fuller detail before the court today and for the public to hear for the first time an honest and straightforward account of what happened that night instead of sensationalized media accounts," Fossella said in a statement following the judge's ruling. "As I have said before, I made a serious mistake and I want to again apologize for setting the wrong example. I believe we live in nation of laws, that no one person is above the law and I look forward to the judge's final determination in December."

One of the arresting officers testified that there was a strong odor of alcohol coming from Fossella's car when he was pulled over, and that the lawmaker's lips were stained red.

He said that the politician admitted to having two or three glasses of wine.

Police charge that Fossella's blood alcohol level was .17, more than twice the state's legal limit.

The charges stem from his May 1 arrest outside Washington D.C., after the Congressman celebrated the Giants' Super Bowl victory at the White House.

That arrest eventually led Fossella to admit that he had fathered a child with a Virginia woman who was his mistress. He later announced that he would not seek re-election.

During his court appearance, Fossella appeared with neither his wife or his mistress, and did not wear a wedding ring.

Vito Fossella's Wife: 'I Had No Idea' by Maggie Haberman - New York Post

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The heartbroken wife of disgraced Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella yesterday broke her silence over the scandal that has rocked her family, saying she had "no idea" of his secret life and has struggled as she's watched her world "unravel."

"This has been a very painful time for my family and I," Mary Pat Fossella wrote in an e-mail to The Post after word broke of her husband's decision not to seek re-election in the wake of revelations he had fathered a child with another woman.

MORE: DA Is Early Fave For His Seat

She made clear her main concern is protecting her two sons, 10 and 12, and daughter, 4.

"I have known Vito since I was 16 years old, and this is not what I envisioned for him and my family," she wrote.

"I had no idea of this world he was living.

"I am very saddened by how the world I was living unraveled before my eyes and everyone else's," she added.

"My focus will continue to be on [my] three children, as it has been, as I have always maintained a very private life."

It was the first statement from Mary Pat about her ordeal since her husband's drunken-driving arrest on May 1 led to the exposure of his affair with a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, Laura Fay, and the child they had together.

Mrs. Fossella, 42, has always been low-key and avoided the spotlight, rarely speaking publicly.

She has not been seen with her 43-year-old husband since a press conference on May 2 about the arrest, and several family friends had described her as being unsure of her future with the man who was her high-school sweetheart.

Appearing pained at times but holding her head high, Mary Pat has gone for drives with neighbors, attended her godchild's First Communion, and attended her son's ballgames.

The congressman, meanwhile, has not said anything publicly about his personal life.

In his statement announcing he would not run for a sixth term this fall, Fossella said he wanted to "concentrate on healing the wounds that I have caused to my wife and family."

Fossella, after announcing his long-awaited decision about his political future, was on Capitol Hill yesterday with his dad.

Long Island Rep. Pete King, his closest friend in Congress and the main public face of Fossella's supporters, said, "Vito did the right thing for is family, his district and himself. He's been an outstanding congressman."

maggie.haberman@nypost.com

Vito's School Fling by Carolyn Salazar, James Fanelli and Brad Hamilton - New York Post

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Before he fathered a lovechild with a Beltway mistress, Rep. Vito Fossella led a double life in law school, lying about his marriage while dating a fellow student, sources said.

The future pol and Wharton School grad began a relationship with budding legal eagle Catherine Hoffman while the two were full-time students at Fordham Law School in the early '90s, according to sources.

The romance blossomed as the slick-haired Staten Islander wasn't wearing his wedding band and told Hoffman he was single, sources said.

In reality, Fossella had married his high school sweetheart, Mary Pat, on June 15, 1990, months before starting classes at the Midtown school.

"He said he was not married," said a source with close knowledge of the relationship.

Law students who graduated the same year as the couple in 1993 said the two were once inseparable and were often seen walking on campus together.

"People knew he was married. But if you didn't [know Mary Pat], you would think [Catherine] was his wife," a classmate said.

But the relationship went south during their third year of law school, sources said.

"Suddenly, in [his] third year, something big happened" with Vito and the Catherine, and they weren't seen together anymore, another source said.

Hoffman, 42, an insurance attorney, is now married and lives on a quiet, suburban street in Union, NJ. She declined to comment on the past relationship.

She isn't the only woman to have been duped by the randy Republican.

Revelations that the congressman had fathered a 3-year-old illegitimate child with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay emerged after he was busted for DWI near his mistress's Alexandria, Va., home on May 1.

But Cheato Vito wasn't talking about his wife, Fay, or Hoffman yesterday as he marched in a Memorial Day parade just blocks from his family home in the Great Kills section.

"We're here to march in the parade to honor our nation's fallen," he repeatedly responded to a reporter peppering him with questions about his infidelities.

The scandal-scarred Fossella was generally well received at the parade. In between scarfing down hot dogs, he glad-handed and hugged well-wishers.

"He's a very good man that made a mistake," said Denise Endall, a longtime friend who embraced the pol. "I told him we're praying for him and his family."

Fossella's wife and three children were not by his side yesterday. The Staten Island Advance reported that information about his spouse and kids were deleted from his congressional Web site sometime between August 2007 and mid-February of this year.

The parade route wasn't completely pro-Fossella, though. A few detractors called his infidelities a disgrace and said he should resign.

Despite the intense media scrutiny, Fossella has defied mounting pressure to step down - or decide whether he's seeking re-election.

Island Republicans, fearing a voter backlash, are even mulling pulling Fossella's name off some "team petitions" in order to shield other GOP candidates from guilt by association with Cheato Vito.

"It's ugly on every level," said one GOP insider.

Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett, Lorena Mongelli, Jeane MacIntosh and Carl Campanile

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

Pol's Aide Ratted Out Vito's Gal Says She Shirked Duties by Carl Campanile & Chuck Bennett in NY and Daphne Retter in DC - New York Post

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Rep. Vito Fossella's Air Force mistress was so distracted by their affair that she couldn't perform her official duties on a junket they attended - so the top aide to then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert reported her to the Pentagon, he claims.

Scott Palmer, then chief-of-staff to Hastert, revealed for the first time yesterday that he made a formal complaint to Air Force brass about the unprofessional behavior he witnessed by Laura Fay, the military's top liaison and director of logistics for the 10-day trip to Europe in 2003.

"I lost confidence in her and I'm not going to kid you - I was also concerned with this other relationship thing. It didn't look like it should," the now-retired Palmer told The Post.

It was the first time a government official has publicly acknowledged long-standing concerns about the illicit affair.

"I remember making the call - it was a very awkward call. I didn't want to unfairly say anything," Palmer recalled of reporting Fay to her Pentagon superiors after returning from Europe in August 2003.

Another source, who asked not to be identified, said, "She just seemed to be distracted. Now, in hindsight, I see precisely why she was distracted.

"The person in charge from the military sticks like glue to the chairman or speaker, and she didn't, frankly. She was not always on top of things."

By the time of Hastert's next European trip for the September 2003 G8 meeting, Fay was gone, Palmer said.

The married Fossella was busted May 1 for drunken driving and soon after admitted a long-standing affair with Fay - and siring a child with her.

Sources said Fay and the Staten Island Republican could have hooked up during the European junket, which took them through 10 counties.

Their hanky-panky was well under way in July 2003, when he joined the congressional delegation on a tour of Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain to thank them for supporting the Iraq war, sources said.

Fossella's paramour, then still married, was the official military escort.

"At the end of the trip, it became obvious that . . . they were doing something more than briefing each other," said another staffer on the trip.

A tour of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, got everyone's tongue wagging.

"They showed up late and together. The excuse they gave was that they were getting water for everybody. We had plenty of water," an aide said.

Fossella also did some traveling alone.

He made individual trips, the Congressional Record shows, to Cuba and Bermuda in 2002, as well as a single trip to Italy in 2004. No other House member accompanied him on these fact-finding missions.

Political support for Fossella, who hasn't said whether he'll resign or seek re-election, is thin.

Fossella and Fay remained in seclusion yesterday.

Additional reporting by Perry Chiaramonte

Their Romance Amid the Ruins: Vito Fossella's Illicit Affair Flamed in Malta by Adam Lisberg - NY Daily News

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VALLETTA, Malta - Vito Fossella's illicit romance with the mother of his love child was a whirlwind affair that began on a rocky Mediterranean island and blossomed among the ancient ruins of Spain.

Malta - a tough, craggy speck of rock in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea - is known for its battles and knights, not its beaches and sunsets.

But when Vito Fossella arrived here on a military jet five years ago, the married congressman found love.

Fossella and a married Air Force colonel, then named Laura Shoaf, were part of a taxpayer-funded congressional junket that hopscotched across Europe, visiting five countries in 10 days. They stopped in Poland and Luxembourg before touching down in Malta on Dec. 6, 2002.

Traveling with then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the delegation was supposed to be studying foreign affairs. Somewhere amid Malta's limestone outcroppings and crashing waves, Vito and Laura were first noticed eying each other.

A photograph snapped of Fossella and his love at a bar in Malta shows them standing side by side, smiling gleefully.

"They were spending a lot of time together, and they had just met," a source who traveled with them said. ". . . . All of a sudden, they were inseparable."

The source said their attraction was obvious, and they soon become more daring, sneaking off together in the after-hours and skipping official functions when the delegation moved on to Italy and finally Portugal.

The trip forever changed their lives and encouraged the brash behavior that finally was exposed when Fossella was arrested for drunken driving near Fay's Virginia home a little more than a week ago.

In the summer of 2003, the pair jetted off to Europe, again as part of a congressional delegation. This time, they spent 10 days traveling to the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain. Once again, taxpayers picked up the tab.

It was in Granada, Spain, the last stop of the trip, that the lovers began flaunting their affair, sources said.

Several top congressional officials first noticed the couple snuggling and kissing there, according to a source who was on the trip, once again led by Hastert.

"We had a weekend in Granada at the end of the trip," the source said. "That's when people began to notice Vito and Laura acting very affectionately.

"They showed up late together for a tour of the [Moorish fortress of] Alhambra, and they were walking together," the source said.

Word about the affair spread, and Republican officials soon became concerned, fearing it would be exposed, sources said.

Shortly after the second trip, Fossella's girlfriend was reassigned from being Air Force legislative liaison to an intelligence desk job at the Pentagon. She wouldn't be accompanying Hastert on any more junkets.

She split from her husband, Guy Shoaf, the day after Christmas in 2003 - about five months after cozying up in public with Fossella in Spain. It was her second divorce. They had no children.

She changed her name to Laura Fay and gave birth to Fossella's secret love child, raising the girl in a townhouse in Alexandria, Va., where Fossella was a regular visitor. Their daughter, Natalie, is now 3.

Fossella repeatedly lied to Fay, telling her he had separated from his wife, Mary Pat, his former high school sweetheart and the mother of his three children in Staten Island, a source said.

Fay only realized the extent of his deception when he confessed to fathering a love child last week, but made no mention of leaving his wife.

Malta is not an obvious place for a love affair to flourish. Not unlike Staten Island, it tends to be a conservative place.

It's a predominantly Catholic country where churches are the biggest monuments, more than half the populace attends Mass on Sunday and divorce is illegal.

Crowds of tourists mill through the narrow streets of the old city of Valletta, snapping photos of landmarks - including the Auberge de Castille, where then-Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami greeted Fossella and Fay's delegation in 2002.

The rocky hills are studded with military relics, and while other spots on the island have their share of ocean vistas and quiet lagoons, no one would call its capital city sexy.

"I don't think it's the kind of place you would come to for romance," said Vivian O'Boyle, a British tourist visiting Malta with her her husband, Paddy. "It's more for history."

alisberg@nydailynews.com

Fossella Shuns His Gay Sister - Source by by Melissa Grace and Tina Moore - NY Daily News

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Vito Fossella built a career as a staunch "family values" pol, polishing his image in his predominantly Catholic district with a string of anti-gay votes.

He even shuns his gay sister, Victoria Fossella, refusing to go to family events if she and her partner attend, a source close to the family said.

His double life is now exposed with the news he has a 3-year-old love child with a divorced Air Force colonel, and critics are calling him a hypocrite.

"Has the Catholic Church now sanctioned adultery?" asked John Adrian, a 64-year-old gay activist on Staten Island.

"That just makes him that more hypocritical."

As congressman, Fossella voted to prohibit any funding for joint adoptions by gay couples.

He has voted for the Marriage Protection Amendment, a federal prohibition on gay marriage.

He also demanded housing funds be held back from San Francisco unless it repealed its domestic partnership law.

Victoria Fossella is openly gay and marched in Staten Island's gay pride parade with her partner, according to an article published in Gay City News.

She adopted twins who were delivered by her partner, according to the story.

"She is known in the gay community and she is known in the gay community as an out lesbian," Adrian said.

A man who answered the door yesterday at Victoria Fossella's house refused to talk to a reporter.

"Nobody in the gay community likes [Vito Fossella]," Adrian said. "That speaks to his opposition to gay rights legislation."

Feds Probe Fossella Trip Financing by James Gordon Meek in Washington and Celeste Katz in New York - NY Daily News

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Democratic and GOP congressional officials are scrutinizing Rep. Vito Fossella's mysterious and pricey January 2003 trip to France, the Daily News has learned.

He was the sole lawmaker authorized to go - and his mistress is suspected of joining him.

The Staten Island Republican visited La Hague, France, supposedly on a "fact-finding" mission.

Lawmakers commonly visit La Hague to tour its nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, which have 6,000 people on its payroll, making it the largest employer in the region.

But "it's highly unusual for a member to go on the France trip alone, as he did," said a committee source.

Now the question is whether Fossella was less interested in nuclear power than in fueling a relationship with retired Air Force Col. Laura Fay: Last week he admitted fathering Fay's 3-year-old daughter.

In early 2003, she was a top Air Force legislative liaison officer who often traveled with congressional delegations.

House leaders are also eying Fossella's other overseas jaunts, since Fay is known to have traveled with him on official business more than once.

Fossella could be ordered to repay taxpayers for his whopping travel expenses if they conclude he mingled pleasure with business, sources said.

Team Fossella has refused to answer questions about the France trip, despite discrepancies in his official records.

He filed two forms with the House clerk: One said he was in France on Jan. 16 and 17, listing the trip as privately financed travel costing $388.48.

The second form listed the trip as from Jan. 14 to 18 and authorized by the Energy and Commerce Committee, with a cost to taxpayers of about $6,900.

In New York, Staten Island politicos remained abuzz with questions about Fossella's fate.

The Staten Island Advance reported that Fossella mentor and former Borough President Guy Molinari said the congressman "had every intention" of running for reelection. He later retracted that statement, saying Fossella never actually said that.

A national Republican source said party chiefs were anxiously awaiting Fossella's decision over the weekend, but hesitated to push him too hard.

"There's this kind of delicate dance going on right now where [the leaders] see the writing on the wall," the source said.

"Fossella "has not made any decision yet," his spokeswoman said.

A procedural hearing on Fossella's drunken-driving arrest - which ultimately exposed his double life - is slated for a Virginia courtroom Monday.

He is not expected to attend.

jmeek@nydailynews.com

With Stephanie Gaskell

The Crypt: Boehner Advises Fossella to Make a Decision Over the Weekend - Politico.com

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House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that fellow Republican Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) should do some serious thinking over the weekend about his political future.

Earlier in the day, Fossella acknowledged that he “had a relationship” with Laura Fay, a retired Air Force officer who paid his bail after he was arrested last week for drunk driving — and that he is the father of her 3-year-old daughter.

“I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” Boehner said at a press conference with reporters.

“I would hope and frankly expect, that this is a decision between he and his family," Boehner said.

Fossella said Thursday he will be making no immediate decisions about his political future.

Boehner side-stepped questions on whether or not he thought Fossella should resign, saying it is a decision for Fossella to make after consulting with his family and his constituents.

Boehner said he had spoken “briefly” with Fossella, but did not disclose the details of their conversation.

Wife May Veto Vito Amid 'Baby' Shock Lukas I Alpert - New York Post

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Embattled Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella's wife was blindsided by allegations he may have fathered a love child, and is unlikely to stay at his side if it turns out to be true, a source close to the family said.

"She's not going to be standing by her man," the source told The Post yesterday.

Mary Pat Fossella, 42, may have known that her husband had been having an affair but was "shocked" to hear about reports that he told police he was going to be with his "sick daughter" when they arrested him for drunken driving last week, the source said.

If she decided to leave the veteran congressman, it would complicate matters for him politically. He also faces possible jail time.

Vito Fossella, 43, zipped back to the city late Tues day to attend his son's con firmation at the Church of St. Claire's on Staten Island yesterday. He then returned to his Washington office, where he declined to answer questions.

"The congressman has no comment," said an aide as they left the office late yesterday.

EXIT STAGE RIGHT: Conservative SI Rep. Vito Fossella scoots out of his office yesterday, avoiding questions about his DWI bust.

His wife was seen late in the day playing basketball with their three children in the driveway of their Staten Island home. She also declined to comment.

Word of a possible affair emerged in the aftermath of the DWI arrest when it was revealed that he had called his friend, former Air Force Col. Laura Fay, to sign him out of jail.

When he was stopped, he told police he was driving to "Grimm Street" in Alexandria, Va., to pick up his "sick daughter."

Fay lives on Grimm Drive and has a 3-year-old daughter.

The drumbeat of daily stories detailing Fossella's relationship with Fay has begun to take its toll and the congressman is said to be mulling his political future, several sources said. He faces re-election in the fall.

Word swirled yesterday through GOP political circles that Fossella was going to hold an afternoon press conference to discuss the arrest and answer questions - but he apparently changed his mind, sources said.

One source familiar with the situation said Fossella "really doesn't know what he is going to do."

Fossella, who was elected in 1997, is an arch-conservative with close ties to the Bush White House, which may make it more difficult for him to recover.

EXIT STAGE RIGHT: Conservative SI Rep. Vito Fossella scoots out of his office yesterday, avoiding questions about his DWI bust.

"When you espouse family values and you're the one that falls, it's a little harder to get up," said one GOP source.

Fossella is said to have been calling numerous GOP officials to both gauge their support and see if there was a way he could avoid serving jail time, several top state Republicans said.

Some said he should do the jail time and get it over with, and that he could still survive. But others said he couldn't survive politically if he did that.

"He cannot do a day in jail," said one GOP source.

But the godfather of the Staten Island GOP said yesterday he will continue to back Fossella's re-election bid.

"I'm going to be with Vito - no matter what," said Guy Molinari, the longtime GOP boss, former congressman and borough president.

Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick in Washington and Carl Campanile, Rich Calder and Joe Mollica in New York

lukas.alpert@nypost.com

His Mistress Has History as Fay Lay by Samuel Goldsmith in Arcadia, Calif. and Jeane MacIntosh and Eric Lenkowitz in New York- New York Post

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The mother of Vito Fossella's love child knows all about cheating hearts.

Both of Laura Fay's failed marriages were plagued by adultery - with the first one ending after she had an affair, and her second husband leaving her after trysts by both sides, sources said.

Fossella admitted yesterday that he and Fay have a 3-year-old daughter named Natalie. Whether she has taken her father's surname remains unclear.

Sources said the congressman began dating the retired Air Force officer as far back as 2001, three years before her second divorce.

Her first husband, whom she married in 1984, was Dale Zeller, a now-retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Friends said she liked a good party and often attended officers' functions.

The marriage crumbled in 1989 after she had an affair, which a source said Zeller learned about from a letter she'd written to her boyfriend.

Under military law, adultery is a crime, but is usually only prosecuted when it gets in the way of the functioning of a unit, or disrupts morale.

Zeller apparently didn't press the issue.

Laura, whose father is a highly decorated pilot, was soon transferred to Hawaii. There, court records show, she met her second husband, Guy Shoaf, an Air Force urologist.

The two wed in Honolulu in December 1995. The childless marriage ended eight years later.

One of Fay's relatives said Shoaf was unfaithful, an assertion denied by Shoaf's current wife, Barrie. Other sources said Fay's relationship with Fossella was 2 years old when they broke up. "Knowing Laura, I'm willing to bet that she probably only told a few close friends, probably not even most of her family, who the father was," said the one-time friend.

"I think she probably met this guy, and was enamored of him, and when she got pregnant, decided to keep the baby. She's older now, and she might have decided this was her chance to be a mother."

Vito Fossella Admits Fathering Love Child - NYPolitics.com

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Republican Congressman Vito Fosella Confesses To Fathering 3-Year Old With Woman Not His Wife

Rep. Vito Fossella has admitted fathering a 3-year-old daughter with a woman outside his marriage.

The Republican congressman from New York City made the announcement Thursday amid heavy scrutiny after his arrest for drunken driving last week in suburban Washington.

Police said Fossella told officers that he was going to see his daughter in the area when he was pulled over. That prompted questions about whether he had fathered an out-of-wedlock child because his wife lives in New York and the couple has three children together.

Fossella is the lone Republican member of the New York City congressional delegation.

In a statement to the press, Fossella said:

“I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three year old daughter.

“My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry.

“While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind.

“Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused.”

The news comes just days after Fossella was arrested on drunk driving charges.

New details emerged Tuesday about his night on the town that ended with the politician in jail.

Logan’s Tavern in Washington is where Rep. Fossella apparently spent a wild night before getting behind the wheel of a car.

After leaving the bar the Congressman was pulled over in Alexandria, Va., for drunk driving.

Fossella said he was on his way to visiting friends in Virginia, but speculation immediately swirled around who the friends were.

After he was arrested with a blood-alcohol level of .17 — more than twice the legal limit – he was bailed out by former Lt. Col. Laura Fay.

Questions rose as to why Fossella called Fay when he could have called his own chief of staff, who reportedly lives in Alexandria, Va.

CBS station WCBS-TV tried to contact Fay, but was unsuccessful.

Fossella’s wife, Mary Patricia, looked upset at the press conference he held on Friday. Upon entering, the two quickly separated.

“I take full responsibility and realize I’ve embarrassed my family,” Fossella said then.

Fossella could be facing even more problems. A spokesman for the House Ethics Committee tells WCBS-TV that the committee has 30 days from the date of his arrest to decide whether to open a full investigation.

Source: CBS News

Vito Fossella & Pal Were Pickled at Pub, Had to Be Kicked Out, Waiters Say by Richard Sisk and M Jaccarino, Matthew Lysiak, Tina Moore - Daily News

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A hammered Vito Fossella and a stumbling drinking buddy were asked to leave a Washington bar hours before the Staten Island congressman was busted for drunken driving, witnesses said Monday.

"I can't imagine him [Fossella] getting into a car. They were [both] incapable of driving," Josh Hahn, a waiter who was working Wednesday night at the Logan Tavern, said of Fossella and his plastered pal named "Brian."

Hahn and Andrew Howells, general manager of the Logan, said Fossella came to the trendy bar about 10 p.m., after a busy day of backslapping.

The GOP representative attended a morning ceremony for the Irish prime minister and President Bush's White House welcome for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the afternoon.

Hahn and Howells said several bar patrons recognized Fossella and greeted him.

Employees at the Logan Tavern said Brian, whose last name they did not know, passed out at the bar after arriving with Fossella.

Fossella roused his pal, who made it to the men's room, where he passed out again in a chair outside the bathroom door. Tavern staff woke Brian, who returned to the main room and promptly belly-flopped onto a table, Hahn said.

Oates for News

Rep. Vito Fossella stumbled into - and out of - Logan Tavern (below), witnesses say.

"The table's base was broken," Hahn said. "They offered to pay for it, but we said, 'That's all right, just leave.'"

Hahn said he helped the men to the street and flagged down a cab for them. It's unclear if the two men got into the cab or walked off, possibly to Fossella's car.

Cops busted Fossella, who is up for reelection, for drunken driving in Alexandria, Va., at 12:15 a.m. Thursday.

Initially telling officers he was on his way to visit his daughter, Fossella changed his story at a news conference the next day.

He told reporters he hosted a dinner in Washington after the Giants photo op and "was on my way to visit some friends in Virginia" when he was pulled over.

Fossella, who apologized for the arrest, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, twice the state's 0.08 legal limit.

Cops released Fossella to the custody of retired Lt. Col. Laura Fay seven hours after his arrest.

Fay, who has been described by aides as a "close friend," lives with her 3-year-old daughter about 3 miles from the spot where police officers stopped Fossella for running a red light.

The two met while she was the Air Force's House liaison - a position she held from July 2001 until her retirement in September 2006.

Fay is an intelligence officer by trade; her last duty assignment was as chief of the intelligence applications division at the Pentagon.

British government documents show Fossella and Fay attended an Air Force-sponsored dinner in Britain on July 27, 2003, with several other members of Congress.

Fossella's wife, Mary Pat, was not in attendance, a guestlist for the event shows. The couple has three children.

Fay's then-husband, Guy Shoaf, filed for divorce in an Arlington County, Va., court five months after the Air Force-sponsored dinner, records show.

The couple, married in Honolulu in 1995, had no children when they stopped living together in 2003, the records show.

A source familiar with the proceedings said the couple had a "bad breakup" and no longer speak to each other.

Shoaf refused to talk with reporters when they knocked on his door. He still lives around the corner from his ex-wife.

'Highly inappropriate'

Susan Del Percio, who was hired to do damage control for Fossella, refused to answer when a reporter asked if the congressman fathered Fay's toddler.

"That is a demeaning and highly inappropriate question that does not deserve an answer," she said. "That's all I'm going to say."

Since his arrest, Fossella has been holed up with his family in their Staten Island home. He has missed six votes in Congress.

"He did only miss a handful of votes and he continues to be focused on working for the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn," Del Percio said.

She said Fossella was expected to be back in D.C. today.

Stephen Harrison, Fossella's challenger in 2006 who is seeking the Democratic nomination again this year, said Fossella needed to think about resignation.

"Mr. Fossella has missed multiple meetings and votes," Harrison said. "Now is the time when he needs to make a determination on whether he can still service the people of this district."

Mayor Bloomberg called the drunken driving incident "a terrible mistake in judgment" but said that Fossella had "done a lot for Staten Island and Brooklyn. ...

"He's been a supporter of mine, and I've supported him, and hopefully he'll work this out."

Fossella's arrest automatically started one investigative clock - in the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

The ethics panel must, within 30 days of Fossella's DWI arrest, either "empanel an investigative subcommittee to review the allegations" or explain its reasons for not launching a probe, the House ethics manual says.

tmoore@nydailynews.com

With Thomas M. DeFrank and Kenneth R. Bazinet in Washington and Marty Clear in Tampa

S.I. Congressman Arrested For DWI - NY1: Politics

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Local Congressman Vito Fossella was charged with a DWI Tuesday after being arrested in Virginia overnight.

Hours after news broke of his arrest, Fossella released a statement saying:

"Last night I made an error in judgment. As a parent, I know that taking even one drink of alcohol before getting behind the wheel of a car is wrong. I apologize to my family and the constituents of the 13th Congressional District for embarrassing them, as well as myself."

Fossella's communication director had no immediate comment on the report.

Police in Alexandria said the congressman was held for about six hours overnight and was released just before 8 a.m. this morning.

This is Fossella's first DWI arrest, and so police said if he is convicted on any related charges, he would likely face a fine and not jail time.

The legal limit in the state is a blood alcohol level of .08.

As of Thursday night, Fossella had not yet been charged, and there was no word on whether Fossella took a breathalyzer.

Fossella was elected to Congress in 1997. His district includes Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn.

Steve Harrison, Fossella's Democratic rival in the 2006 election, said in a released statement, "As elected officials and potential elected officials, we have an obligation to set an example for society. Lawmakers cannot expect the people to follow the laws if they themselves disregard them."

Fossella is up for reelection this year.

Published reports say Fossella is next due in Alexandria General District Court on May 12.