Former Queens Councilmember Eric Ulrich goes on trial in $150K bribery case

The trial for Eric Ulrich, the former commissioner of the Department of Buildings and South Queens lawmaker, began on Monday. AP file photo by Mary Altaffer

By Noah Powelson

The trial for former Queens City Councilmember Eric Ulrich, who is accused of taking over $150,000 in bribes while he served as a local lawmaker and as the city’s building’s commissioner under Mayor Eric Adams, officially began on Monday.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office presented its opening arguments and initial witnesses for its case against Ulrich, who served as commissioner of the Department of Buildings from May 2022 to November 2022. Prosecutors said they will be presenting a trove of evidence in the coming weeks that will include wiretapped phone conversations, email exchanges and financial records they say will prove Ulrich was a “compromised politician” who regularly took bribes from a small group of Queens business owners in exchange for political favors.

One of the men Ulrich allegedly took bribes from is his co-defendant, Michael Mazzio. Prosecutors claim Mazzio paid the former councilmember nearly $10,000 in Mets season tickets in exchange for resolving licensing issues with Mazzio’s company, Mike’s Heavy Duty Towing.

The two men are defending themselves without a jury – both Ulrich and Mazzio requested a non-jury trial. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser granted the request and will ultimately decide whether Ulrich and Mazzio are guilty.

Opening arguments were heard on the 13th floor of New York City Criminal Court in Manhattan to a packed audience, which included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who observed the court proceedings from the back row.

The prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Guy Tardanico, painted a picture of addiction and flagrant corruption that allegedly led Ulrich to take over $150,000 in bribes in return for using his position within the Adams administration to call in various favors from city officials.

“For these defendants, public office was nothing more than an opportunity for personal gain,” Tardanico said. “Public power, private gain, and betrayal of the people's trust.”

Tardanico claimed that Ulrich had longstanding gambling problems that often left him completely broke, despite a six-figure government salary – a claim that Ulrich’s attorneys conceded was true. Ulrich effectively lived paycheck to paycheck, Tardanico said, and spent over half his salary on weekly visits to Resorts World casino in Queens.

To fuel his gambling addiction, prosecutors alleged Ulrich regularly took money from a small network of Queens business owners referred to as the Aldo’s group, who frequently met inside Aldo’s Pizzeria, which is located a little more than a mile away from Resorts World.

The group included Mazzio, as well as brothers Joseph and Anthony Livreri, who owned several businesses that Ulrich allegedly assisted in return for cash gifts.

Payments to Ulrich ranged from hundreds to thousands of dollars. In exchange, prosecutors said Ulrich allegedly used his influence to delay a bidding process for a sanitation program, expedite building inspections and push for Mazzio’s daughter to receive an analyst position with the Department of Correction.

Prosecutors also claimed that while he was a councilmember, Ulrich regularly gambled and lost money to Joseph Livreri, who operated an illegal casino inside the 89th Street Café in Ozone Park. Joseph Livreri, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges last month, allegedly loaned thousands of dollars to Ulrich during this time, and later pressured Ulrich to get him a government position within the Adams administration.

All of the payments Ulrich received, Tardanico alleged, were directly deposited into his personal accounts without disclosure to the Conflicts of Interest Board.

“The evidence will show that these defendants saw an opportunity to use each other to benefit themselves, without regard to anyone not in their inner circle,” Tardanico said.

Tardanico asked for a guilty verdict on all counts.

Ulrich’s attorney, David Cohen, denied that the payments Ulrich received from Mazzio or the Livreris were bribes. Cohen claimed that Ulrich’s relationship with Mazzio and the Livreris stemmed from his time as a city councilmember, and that they had been supporters of Ulrich’s election campaigns years before any allegations of corruption arose.

Cohen said any assistance Ulrich gave the Aldo’s group with their businesses was the same kind of advocacy any elected official would and should offer to their constituents. Cohen also argued that the cash payments Ulrich received, mostly through Venmo, were gifts between friends and that there was never any agreement that the money was being given in exchange for favors.

Even in the case of Joseph Livreri, who Cohen called an “opportunist,” Cohen asserted that Ulrich never agreed or believed the money was given in the hopes of securing a political favor.

Cohen also claimed that while Ulrich regularly participated in card games with friends at 89th Street Café, he had no part in the illegal high-stakes games Joseph Livreri ran in the store. Cohen also claimed that once Ulrich became aware there was an investigation into the illegal casino, he cut all ties with Joseph Livreri.

“Whatever Joe Livreri believed he was buying, Eric Ulrich was not selling,” Cohen said. “A bribe takes two.”

Mazzio’s attorney, James Frocarro, likewise said none of the payments Mazzio made to Ulrich were illegal and that they were “born out of the long relationship and friendship between these two men and their families."

“The People will never be able to prove to you their bribery case against Michael Mazzio beyond a reasonable doubt,” Frocarro said. “Simply put, he never bribed or was part of a plot to bribe his best friend Eric Ulrich to do anything for him or anyone else.”

Ulrich was first elected to serve in the City Council in 2009 at the age of 24 to represent District 32. The youngest city councilmember to ever represent Queens, the Republican served until he was term-limited out of office at the end of 2021.

He assisted Adams with fundraising and campaigning during the 2021 mayoral election, and joined the administration as a special advisor to the mayor. Ulrich was appointed to lead the DOB in May 2022, but resigned from the position after the DA’s office seized his cell phone and searched his home in November 2022, the first of several investigations into Adams’ inner circle.

Also arrested were Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief of staff, who has been accused by federal prosecutors for taking part in an alleged bribery scheme involving a migrant shelter contract.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a longtime advisor to Adams, was also accused of using her influence to fast-track development projects and circumvent bureaucratic hurdles for developers in exchange for cash payments, free catering and home renovations.

Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.