Mayor Mike Bloomberg is under fire for attempting to cover-up the arrest of an ex-deputy. Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith was arrested on Saturday July 30 for domestic violence. On Thursday, Goldsmith admitted that he quit after spending two nights in a Washington jail and the arrest was the reason for his stepping down. Originally Mayor Bloomberg sited Goldsmith’s leaving as a bid for private sectors. Read more after the jump.
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Under furious attack about his coverup of a top deputy’s domestic violence arrest, Mayor Bloomberg abruptly canceled his radio show Friday morning to avoid being grilled.
Bloomberg was in full bunker mode Thursday night after former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith admitted that just before he quit last month, he spent two days in a Washington jail because his wife called the cops on him.
Bloomberg had previously passed off Goldsmith’s departure as a bid for private sector bucks – and didn’t dispel the impression Goldsmith had been forced out for botching the response to the December blizzard.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer joined a host of lawmakers when he said he was “deeply troubled” to learn a month later that Goldsmith spent two nights in the clink.
“The mayor and his staff should give a full accounting of what they knew and when they knew it,” he fumed. ” ‘No comment’ is not an acceptable response.”
To avoid questions, Hizzoner canceled a Hurricane Irene-related press conference.
The mayor’s office insisted Bloomberg’s departure from the public stage had nothing to do with Goldsmith’s arrest – or his failure to inform the public that his deputy mayor had been jailed.
“Please name a public official in America who does more press conferences than the mayor,” said mayoral spokesman Marc LaVorgna, who also noted that the radio show has been canceled in the past.
Goldsmith, 64, the former mayor of Indianapolis, was taken into custody at his Washington townhouse late Saturday July 30.
According to the police report, his wife, Margaret, 59, called 911 to say a nasty verbal argument – in which she told her husband “I should have put a bullet through you years ago” – escalated to shoving.
She told cops he smashed her phone and grabbed her when she threatened to call police, refusing to let go until she dug her nails into his arm.
She declined to press charges when the cops arrived, but Washington law mandates an arrest in domestic abuse calls. Later, she got prosecutors to drop the case.
Thursday, Margaret Goldsmith released a statement saying her husband never abused her and insisted the arrest was all a misunderstanding.
“There was no crime committed by Stephen or myself,” she said. “There has never been any kind of domestic assault or violence in our marriage.”
Goldsmith issued his own statement declaring himself innocence. “I offered my resignation in order not to be a distraction to the mayor,” he said.
The mayor’s office never mentioned the arrest when announcing Goldsmith’s resignation on Aug. 4, but LaVorgna conceded yesterday that the arrest made it immediately “clear to the mayor and Mr. Goldsmith that he could no longer serve at City Hall, regardless of his guilt or innocence.”
DailyNews
