Wife: Friendship, not favors, led lawyer to give ex-NYPD cop gifts

The gun-license lawyer accused of fixing permits at the NYPD and in Nassau County was formerly a woman and had bonded with the prosecution’s ex-cop star witness as one of his few male friends, the wife of lawyer John Chambers testified Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

Appearing as a defense witness, Christina Chambers’ testimony added a psychological facet to the case, bolstering claims that her husband showered ex-NYPD Sgt. David Villanueva with gifts out of friendship and not as bribes to get the gun-license supervisor to help Chambers’ clients.

“We didn’t have a tremendous number of close friends, or male friends that he could hang out with,” Christina Chambers said of her husband. “It was a gem in his mind. He really valued David’s friendship. He loved David.”

John Chambers, 63, a former assistant district attorney who had a law practice specializing in gun-license issues, is accused of bribing Villanueva, 44, of Valley Stream, for nine years with items ranging from expensive watches, clothes and tickets to cash to help his clients with the NYPD permits.

In testimony Wednesday, Villanueva said he gave favored treatment to Chambers’ clients at the NYPD, got $2,000 to use Nassau police contacts for favors there, and also took bribes from other permit “expediters” — including one man introduced by a Nassau sergeant, and a suspected mob figure who wanted 15 Long Island permits extended to allow carrying in the city.

Defense lawyers, however, said the $2,000 cash Chambers gave Villanueva for his Nassau work — some in $100 bills taped to the pages of magazines — were legal “consultant” fees, and the other gifts was a result of their friendship, not a quid pro quo bribe.

In addition to Chambers’ wife, the defense on Friday also called Villanueva’s ex-wife, who testified that the two couples socialized regularly at birthday dinners at Carmine’s midtown restaurant, went to Mets games together, and kept up with the other family’s lives through texts and email.

Angelica Villanueva said the Chamberses twice visited her Valley Stream home and brought gifts for her children as well as for her and her husband. Although the more well-off Chambers did much more giving than receiving, she didn’t see an ulterior motive.

“They were birthday gifts,” Angelica Villanueva said. “I didn’t see them as anything other than that.”

Christina Chambers said that when she met her husband online in 1997 and came to New York to live with him, he was named Susan, but in 2000 he transitioned. Outside of the law practice, where Christina Chambers was a paralegal, she said, the couple had a limited social life focused on competing in dog shows. Get-togethers with the Villanuevas were a rare exception, she said.

David Villanueva testified he saw the relationship as a “transactional friendship,” but it wasn’t that way for her husband, Christina Chambers said. Her husband was hit hard in 2015 when Villanueva remarried but didn’t invite the couple, Chambers said.

“It broke his heart, it devastated him, from one of his very few friends that we had allowed in,” she said. “He couldn’t understand the betrayal.”

The case is expected to go to the jury Monday.