Eric Ulrich goes to trial in first Adams-era corruption case

Eric Adams might not be the mayor of New York City anymore but the fallout from his corruption scandal-ridden single term has a long tail. 

Three years after his arrest, Eric Ulrich, a former City Council member who served as Department of Buildings commissioner under Adams, sat for the first day of his bench trial Monday, marking the first Adams administration corruption case to go to trial. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced five separate indictments against Ulrich in September 2023, just under a year after Ulrich resigned as commissioner amid swirling reports of a corruption probe. One of those indictments has since been dismissed, but Ulrich is now standing trial on charges of soliciting or accepting more than $150,000 in cash and gifts – including a bespoke suit and Mets season tickets – to benefit his friends with business before the city. 

Brothers Anthony and Joseph Livreri, two of Ulrich’s codefendants, pleaded guilty last month to felony conspiracy charges and admitted to paying Ulrich $4,000 to have a vacate order lifted on a bakery in Queens.  

In a cramped court room in Manhattan on Monday, where Bragg made a brief and quiet visit, attorneys for Ulrich and the DA’s office painted contrasting pictures of Ulrich and how he operated during his time in the Adams administration. 

Ulrich’s defense described him as someone who was dealing with alcohol and gambling addictions and who was just borrowing money from close friends and confidantes to help him through hard times.

“These are the men he called when he needed help, advice and heck yes – money,” Ulrich’s lawyer, David J. Cohen, argued in court. “90% of the time, it was two hundred bucks here and two hundred bucks there.” 

Ulrich’s defense team argued he didn’t have money to pay back what he borrowed, and argued the payments didn’t amount to bribery. Michael Mazzio, owner of Mike’s Heavy Duty Towing and another co-defendant in the trial, was Ulrich’s friend and thus didn’t need to bribe Ulrich in order to connect with high-ranking Adams administration officials or get his daughter a higher paying job, Cohen argued, adding that any payments that went from Mazzio and the Livreri brothers to Ulrich were meant to help a friend out with no strings attached.

“Eric’s mistake was not corruption, it was trust,” Cohen said. “A bribe takes two.”

Bragg’s office, however, described Ulrich as a “compromised politician” who sold access to high-ranking officials in exchange for cash and expensive gifts, reporting none of it to the city’s Conflict of Interest Board. 

“Public power, private gain. It is a betrayal of the city’s trust,” Assistant District Attorney Guy Tardanico said in court. “The evidence will show that these defendants saw an opportunity to benefit themselves without regard to anyone not in their inner circle.” 

The trial is expected to take approximately one month to conclude according to a Manhattan District Attorney spokesperson.