Prosecutors lay out more phone evidence against Eric Ulrich

Another day, another phone call dump in Eric Ulrich’s corruption trial. 

The third day of the former New York City Council member and Department of Buildings commissioner’s corruption trial continued Wednesday, with prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office sharing more phone calls between Ulrich and his associates.  

Though Ulrich’s tenure in former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration was short – less than a year – it was almost even shorter. One call shared by prosecutors revealed he was on the verge of quitting just days into his time as Adams’ senior adviser because they had stuck him in a basement office. 

Many of the calls shared by Bragg’s office Wednesday centered around Joseph Livreri, an Ozone Park pizzeria owner who, alongside his brother Anthony, pleaded guilty to bribing Ulrich in exchange for favors from the Adams administration.

In the calls, Ulrich expressed his frustration with the brothers’ expectation that Joseph would secure a job in City Hall. “Run your business and mind your fucking business,” Ulrich is heard saying on a recorded call with George Russo, an attorney and member of the Adams transition team. “That’s why there’s a part of me that wants to put Joe in an agency, just not (the Department of) Sanitation.”  

In text messages produced by prosecutors, Ulrich sent Joseph an email address seemingly for a city job portal and subsequent phone calls revealed Joseph was being set up for a job at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.   

The brothers were looking for cushy jobs in the city but Ulrich made clear on a call with Russo, “the days of a no-show job ended in the 50s.”

The prosecution also introduced multiple text message threads involving requests from Ulrich to a Department of Sanitation employee named Anthony Colletti to borrow money to buy a gift for his daughter and take a woman named Rhonda out on multiple dates.

Prosecution also brought up calls between Ulrich and Michael Mazzio, another co-defendant in the trial, regarding setting up Mazzio’s daughter with a job at the Department of Corrections that was more than double her pay at her previous job. 

“I can probably put her in like quick,” Ulrich said in a call with Mazzio.

After the trial, Ulrich told reporters Mazzio’s daughter still worked at the Department of Corrections and said she had to be qualified in order to receive the job offer.