Edward Korona Jr., ex-OEM official, pleads not guilty to felonies

A Nassau County employee who was serving as deputy commissioner of emergency management at the time of his October arrest pleaded not guilty Thursday to a dozen felony charges following a grand jury’s indictment.

Nassau prosecutors have alleged Edward Korona Jr., 53, of Hicksville, made false statements on four job applications between 2007 and 2013 by lying about a felony conviction while applying for civil service positions.

Korona now faces four counts each of perjury, offering a false instrument for filing, and making an apparently false sworn statement. He could go to prison for up to 4 years if convicted of the top count, authorities said.

State records show Korona has convictions for burglary and attempted burglary and went to prison in 1982.

The former Hicksville fire chief, a 29-year county employee, was appointed to the $120,000 deputy commissioner job in February.

But the office of county attorney Carnell Foskey, who reviewed Korona’s job status after his Oct. 15 arrest, said Thursday that Korona went back to his civil service job of machine supervisor on Oct. 30. The position has a salary of about $76,000.

“He is entitled under civil service law to remain in this position unless adjudicated otherwise,” Foskey said in a prepared statement.

Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said Thursday in a prepared statement that “integrity in government is paramount,” calling it “a serious offense for a high-ranking official with important responsibilities to repeatedly lie about his or her criminal history.”

Korona’s attorney, N. Scott Banks, said Thursday that his client maintains his innocence and is a county employee who is “well-respected by his peers from both sides of the political aisle.”

“He’s holding up,” the Garden City lawyer said. “It’s a stress, of course, on his family. We’ll work through it.”

Banks previously has said he didn’t know what Korona “was told or understood at that time” about the conviction, which he said goes to the heart of the current criminal case.