Former Mangano deputy Rob Walker starts federal prison sentence

Former Nassau Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker surrendered Monday at a federal prison in New Jersey to begin serving an 18-month sentence following his obstruction of justice conviction.

Walker, a 46-year-old former Republican state assemblyman from Hicksville, is in the minimum-security satellite camp at Fort Dix federal correctional institution in Burlington County, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The incarceration of Walker, who served as chief deputy for former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, comes after an attempted cover-up of a $5,000 cash payment he took from a county contractor in 2014.

U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack called Walker's conduct "business as usual" in the "corrupt culture" of Nassau County government and politics while sentencing him in December.

Mangano and his wife, Linda, also are awaiting sentencing next month before Azrack following their 2019 convictions in a separate corruption case.

Walker called himself "the most humbled person" at his sentencing and apologized to the judge, his family and Nassau County residents for his actions.

He went from accomplished Republican Party fundraiser to felon in a downfall that followed his 2018 indictment in connection with a probe of the payment he took from Ridge contractor Anthony Gulino. Walker later gave the cash back while not knowing Gulino was working with the FBI.

Walker’s attorney, Brian Griffin, declined to comment Monday. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New York's Eastern District, which handled Walker's case, also declined to comment.

Walker admitted during his 2019 guilty plea that he had met with an informant who was working with the government and asked him not to disclose the $5,000 he gave him. Walker took the money at a hotel bar following a University of Notre Dame football game in Indiana after accepting Gulino’s invitation to the event.

Walker later spoke to Gulino numerous times to try to convince him to conceal the payment’s existence from a grand jury after Walker learned in 2017 about a probe that included the circumstances surrounding the payment, officials said.

Federal prosecutors said Walker urged Gulino to tell investigators he had borrowed the money to pay for his mother-in-law’s cancer treatment. Then Walker met Gulino in a Hicksville parking lot and gave him $5,000 in an envelope during a meeting that the FBI was monitoring.

Walker explained to Gulino that he hadn’t told anyone about the money and that it didn’t exist before agreeing Gulino shouldn’t say a word to the grand jury, authorities said previously.

As chief deputy to Mangano, Walker oversaw millions of dollars in procurement, hiring and other municipal undertakings that included labor negotiations, Nassau Coliseum renovations and repairs after Superstorm Sandy.

Gulino also was a witness in the government’s case against the Manganos, when he testified under a cooperation agreement while trying to win leniency after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

At Walker's sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell asked the judge to give the former county official four years in prison, saying such a punishment would be a deterrent in a region "where public corruption remains rampant."

McConnell also had asked the judge to consider other "relevant conduct" when sentencing Walker, including that a printing company official said Walker solicited $12,000 after Walker hired him to do $125,000 in business for a congressional campaign Walker was involved with as a volunteer.

Azrack rejected the defense’s contention that the $12,000 was a consulting fee and said at Walker’s sentencing that she was troubled he had gotten a kickback while out on bond in his obstruction case.

After Walker's prison term, he'll also serve two years of supervised release and do 2,000 hours of community service, according to his sentence.