Former Assemb. McLaughlin pours himself into new life
July 3, 2008
Former Assemb. Brian McLaughlin’s federal indictment in October 2006 covered 186 pages and described a web of corrupt acts including bribery, embezzlement, racketeering, mail fraud and money laundering.
Four months ago, McLaughlin, 56, pleaded guilty to criminal counts. It took the former Democratic lawmaker, labor coalition leader, union official and party activist from Queens nearly an hour to recite in court how he raked off hundreds of thousands of dollars from campaign, labor and taxpayer accounts.
McLaughlin, who is facing a possible 8- to 10-year prison term when he’s sentenced Sept. 12, agreed last week to his first interview since his life in the limelight collapsed - leaving fellow unionists livid, an old extramarital affair publicized, the city’s Central Labor Council tattered, critics vindicated and allies bewildered.
At a back booth in a coffee shop in his former Flushing district, McLaughlin politely nudged the conversation toward what he most wanted to talk about: his wife Eva, his family and the life he leads today. He talked about the rewards of returning over the past couple of years to blue-collar work as a sandhog, electrician and limo driver - and about saner hours and spiritual matters, with a backward glance or two at the ruin of his public life.
“In my case alcohol was a factor in some of what I did,” he said. With his public roles always keeping him away from home, he said, “you’re out of touch with the emotional needs of your wife and family, those that matter the most to you, largely without recognizing it. And unable to recognize it, because every day your work schedule and your personal lifestyle kind of take on a habit and a culture of their own.
“Eva’s my soul mate,” he said. “I love her more than anything in the world. Public humiliation hurts and I’m reminded and humbled every day by how much pain she must have felt. I’m not saying it’s accomplished yet, but I’m trying to win back her trust.”
“… For the last 2 1/2 years you could have been crying in your soup, seeing the glass as half-empty - or try to move on and build back trust.”
McLaughlin said that before the case surfaced, his lifestyle was taking a toll and he’d decided to quit the Assembly. In succession he lost his other roles leading the council and the electrical union’s streetlight division.
In his time as a sandhog on the massive water-tunnel project, sending equipment down a shaft 48 stories off 10th Avenue in Manhattan, McLaughlin had a swing shift. So in the mornings he could walk with his wife to the beach, near the house they owned in Nissequogue, which figured in his case and has since been forfeited and sold.
He speaks of having moved from one life to another. He suggests his fall from grace might resemble a bit the story of Michael Vick, who’d come up “from the neighborhood” but still hung out with the old group of “knuckleheads.”
For quality time, he describes boogie-boarding with his 8-year-old daughter on Fire Island, and honestly discussing the present and future with her and his other four children - the oldest now in his 30s, an electrician.
Some of the criminal charges involved funds from a Little League account. McLaughlin insists that the actions didn’t deprive kids - that he started and supported that athletic association in the Electchester community in Queens, and it provided “the best of everything” for the young players.
Peter Allone, who’s been his foreman on electrical work, is a born-again Christian. The two have talked at length of spiritual matters. Once, on a lunch break, they even discovered they were carrying the same book - “My Utmost for His Highest,” by the Scottish minister Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), according to McLaughlin.
Allone said he believes McLaughlin “got caught up in his own greed, in his own sin. Eventually it caught up with him.”
“I’m not excusing what he did,” Allone said, “but I believe that deep inside he’s a good man and that the Lord has more use for him.”
Sandhog Morgan Peterson, who oversaw McLaughlin’s work, said: “He’s a good, hard worker and I’ve got respect for him.”
When details of the scandal surrounding McLaughlin broke, Suffolk resident Sonia Menezes, who runs a beauty salon, drew an unwanted spotlight as some of McLaughlin’s largesse led investigators her way.
They’d been involved in 1997, she said. “We bumped into each other again in 2002. The last time I spoke to him was 2004, two years before this whole mess began,” she said last week. “Now I just want to be left alone. I have two kids and a life … Brian’s a good man and I wish him well.”
Not everyone does, of course.
The next chapter on McLaughlin will be written in federal court, a little more than two months from now.
Source: Newsday
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