William Boyland Jr.

On March 10, 2011, Boyland was among eight individuals (including State Senator Carl Kruger) who surrendered to face charges in a federal corruption case accusing the lawmakers of taking bribes over the course of a decade.[3] On November 10, 2011, Boyland was acquitted of those charges.[4] Before the end of the month, he was arrested again on separate federal bribery charges, with prosecutors claiming to have secretly recorded him soliciting $250,000 in bribes even while the first set of charges was still unresolved.[5] Boyland's chief of staff, Ry-Ann Hermon, was also arrested on related charges,[6] and eventually pleaded guilty.[7] On March 8, 2013, Boyland was charged with three additional counts of mail fraud for falsely securing tens of thousands of dollars in travel reimbursements.[7][8] Several weeks later, another fraud charge was added for steering taxpayer money to a nonprofit agency and directing that agency to reimburse him for other expenses.[9] On May 14, 2013, Boyland pleaded not guilty.[10]

On March 6, 2014, Boyland was convicted of all 21 felony counts he faced, including extortion, bribery, and mail fraud (Eastern District of New York, docket no. 11-CR-850).[11][12][13] Upon conviction, Boyland immediately lost his seat in the Assembly.[11][12] In September 2015, he was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison; the sentence "fell short of the minimum of 19 years sought by prosecutors but exceeded many of the prison terms imposed on other state lawmakers in a string of Albany corruption cases.".[1] As of August 2016, he was serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Loretto, a low-security federal prison in Western Pennsylvania.[14][15]