Sen. Pedro Espada, the dissident Democrat whose defection to the Republican camp helped trigger the State Senate crisis in Albany, is ready to return to the Democratic Party, according to published reports.

Earlier, Gov. David Paterson says his new lieutenant governor won’t immediately preside over a special Senate session because pending legal action has muddied the situation.

A judge in Nassau County issued a temporary restraining order overnight barring former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Richard Ravitch from taking over as lieutenant governor.

Republicans say the order blocks the Democratic governor from having Ravitch provide a tie-breaking vote in the deadlocked chamber.

Paterson says he’s taking the dispute to a state appeals court in Brooklyn on Thursday.

Appointing Ravitch was supposed to help resolve a month long gridlock in the Senate that started when a mostly Republican faction tried to take power from the shaky Democratic majority in a June 8 coup.

Source: AP