Patients from ‘looted’ Bx. clinic: Jail him!

Despite his defiant vow that he’s no crook and assertion that he’ll be fully vindicated, state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. had few supporters yesterday among the furious patients of the Bronx health center he founded and allegedly looted to the tune of $500,000 in taxpayer money. Espada, 56, the onetime Senate majority leader who has become the latest poster boy for Albany corruption, was freed along with his son, Pedro G. Espada, 35, after each posted a $750,000 bond and pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court to embezzlement and conspiracy.

But clients said they’d rather see the disgraced pol behind bars.
“I think he’s a thief. I always thought he was a thief,” said outraged senior Rosalind Rahamon, a 70-year-old Bronx resident picking up her prescription medicines at Espada’s Soundview Health Center on White Plains Road. “He belongs in jail and I hope he goes to jail.”
Prosecutors said the Espadas raided the Soundview clinic’s coffers, going on a spending spree that included tickets to Broadway shows, dozens of pricey meals and a $49,000 down payment on a $125,000 Bentley — a deal that fell through when the elder Espada could not get an auto loan.
Federal Magistrate Judge Steven Gold told the Espadas they were “charged with very serious crimes and if convicted face long sentences in prison.”

They surrendered to the feds a day after being hit with a six-count indictment that culminated a months-long investigation