Massa sacked aide in '06 for drinking with boys
Politico ^ | March 03, 2010 | Glenn Thrush
Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 5:44:39 PM by Second Amendment First
Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) -- now the subject of a reported investigation into charges he sexually harassed a male staffer -- blew the whistle on his campaign manager in Nov. 2006 after the staffer was caught providing alcohol to three underage boys.
Massa accused Sanford Dickert of luring three underage boys into his Corning apartment, providing them with liquor and beer. The group partied so raucously that water leaked from the apartment into an antiques store below, according to a report in the Star-Gazette of Elmira.
[Story snippets, after the jump]
Massa fired Dickert -- and his campaign paid more than $3,000 for the damage to the apartment and the store, according to court documents obtained by the paper.
Dickert, a Manhattan resident who was an adjunct professor at Cooper Union, later filed a libel suit, TPM's David Kurtz reports. Kurtz reached Dickert, who had no comment on Massa.
CORNING Democratic congressional candidate Eric Massa fired his campaign manager in June and has accused him of providing alcohol to underage boys and inviting a teenage boy to spend the night with him.
Massa accused Sanford Dickert of New York City of luring three underage boys into his apartment in Corning and illegally providing them with beer and hard liquor. The ensuing party resulted in water damage to the apartment and to merchandise in an antique store underneath it. The store was forced to close for two days.
The Massa campaign paid more than $3,000 for the damage to the apartment and the store, according to court documents.
The allegations are contained in a document filed Oct. 19 in state Supreme Court in Steuben County. Dickert went to court to seek arbitration following his dismissal. Massa responded by filing for a stay of arbitration.
"It's an ongoing labor dispute," Massa said Wednesday. "Our attorneys are working out the details."
Massa said he did not learn until after he fired Dickert that the campaign manager had asked a 16-year-old boy to spend the night with him.
"We did not find out about any of those things until he was dismissed," Massa said. "We fully investigated. My campaign holds my employees ... to the highest standards of behavior. We took corrective action and moved forward."
According to documents filed in the court case, Dickert was hired as Massa's campaign manager in April at a salary of $7,500 per month through September and $10,000 per month for October and November.
In an Aug. 25 affidavit, Massa says Dickert fraudulently misrepresented his qualifications for the job by claiming that he had served capably as chief technology officer for U.S. Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. In fact, Massa said, Dickert was fired by the Kerry campaign.
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Birds of a feather flock together.
I hope Peolis cleans up the swamp like she promised. This is getting ridiculous.
