Suffolk official fired after mob trial testimony

A Suffolk deputy labor commissioner was fired Wednesday after he testified in a federal corruption trial that he made illegal payoffs to union officials and met in a graveyard with a secret business partner to tip him off to a federal probe.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy fired Lawrence Cooley, 69, of Greenlawn, an hour after Newsday made an inquiry about his appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan at the trial of Joseph Olivieri, 55, formerly of the The Association of Wall-Ceiling and Carpentery Industries and a reputed Genovese crime family soldier.

"While it does not appear that any of these actions were related to Mr. Cooley's county position, the course of events referenced in the testimony are serious enough to warrant termination from county employment," Levy spokesman Mark Smith said in a prepared statement. He added that Levy and his aides only became aware of Cooley's testimony in the "last few days."

Cooley did not return calls for comment. The Suffolk County Department of Labor operates employment and training programs, and handles mediation and arbitration issues.

Testifying with immunity, Cooley admitted making "cash payoffs" to officers of the carpenters union to "make jobs run smoothly" at his drywall company that he started in 1981, and in exchange used as much as 90 percent nonunion labor to "make a larger profit".

It is not clear when Cooley made the payoffs.

Among those Cooley testified that he paid off was Michael Forde, head of the District Council of Carpenters, who was one of eight mob-connected contractors and corrupt union leaders who have already pleaded guilty.

Olivieri, who is also trustee of the carpenters union benefit fund, is charged with lying in testimony about having no relationship with Genovese capo Louis Muscatiello and James Murray, owner of On Par Contracting. Witnesses say Olivieri met with Muscatiello and delivered Muscatiello's orders to union bosses.

Cooley, the $116,000-a-year deputy, testified that Olivieri set up and took part in a meeting between Cooley and Murray at an IHOP restaurant in Hicksville in late 2004 where Murray offered to take over Cooley's failing drywall company. Cooley said Murray's company was having "audits and problems" and "needed another vehicle" to take over millions of dollars in work.

Under the arrangement, Cooley testified he got $85,000 to pay off debts, $2,000 a week and a leased car, but gave control of his firm to Murray and remained as "a figurehead." The deal lasted about 1 1/2 years, from late 2004 to 2006, Cooley said.

Levy officials said Wednesday that a police background check was done on Cooley when he was first hired in March 2004 and officials found "no past activities to be concerned about."

After the FBI questioned him in 2005, Cooley also said he met Murray in a graveyard to alert him. "I was concerned. . . . they were probably watching him and I wanted someplace where I could see everything that was going on in front of me," he said.

Cooley sought the meeting, he said, because "I had a sense that the FBI was closing in on him [Murray] a little tighter than he was aware of, so I wanted to make him aware."

Cooley said Murray, who fled to Ireland but later returned and has pleaded guilty in the case, lent him $50,000 for legal costs at the conclusion of their graveyard meeting. "I actually never saw him after that," he said.